Medium Entertainment

The name game...

2012-01-27T07:53:00.001-06:00

There is a strong rumor going around that come E3, Nintendo's next system, the Wii U, will have a new name. Why? Well mainly because of the 3DS. Not surprisingly, part of the issue with the less than projected sales of Nintendo's newest handheld is the perception that it's merely yet another iteration of the DS only with a flashy new gimmick rather than it being an actual new system. And really, who can blame the general public? There are no less than 3 types of DS systems out right now, if I go into a store without prior knowledge, it'd be hard for me to tell the difference just looking at boxes. And though it would have more to do with the presentation, there is still a pretty big amount of confusion as to what Wii U is exactly. And again the average consumer just looking at boxes (especially at big box stores where associates tend to be either unavailable or poorly informed themselves) might have a hard time differentiating two consoles with only a letter between them.

So should Nintendo rename the Wii U? I think it's not a terrible idea, it could be as simple as naming it something that truly identifies as the next step like Wii 2. It admittedly might be important to identify it as still being a Wii so the casual consumer that gobbled it up last time can just look at it and know that's the continuation. A completely different name can obviously work as well but it would have to be marketed properly, probably with a stronger emphasis that it's from Nintendo, the makers of the Wii rather than the system itself depending on what audience they are striving to reach. Clearly Nintendo is making a lot of steps to draw in more core gamers with finally implementing a seemingly coherent online network, HD gaming and a controller that while unique, also has more traditional features like dual analog, so to emphasize that an entirely different name may be a better idea.

In all honesty, I doubt there's a whole ton of truth to this rumor. When "The Revolution" was officially unveiled as "Wii" pretty much everyone scoffed and thought no one would possibly want to buy anything with that name and yet it's the dominant console this generation. The Wii U with a good marketing strategy and strong launch will do the same regardless of how ridiculous some think the name is.

That's it for today, I should hopefully get another post up tomorrow or Sunday. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Congress Chainsaw

Is Rocksteady about to dine on Turtle Soup?

2012-01-25T10:13:00.002-06:00

This is completely awesome rumor: Supposedly, the pizza-loving reptilian foursome known as the Ninja Turtles are the next target to get an Arkham City-esque makeover from Rocksteady. It would probably not be as dark as Arkham City, probably more of a balance between the Turtles' dark comic origins and their more goofy and family friendly TV shows but if you remember when I did a list of the top properties Rocksteady should do next this was my #1 choice so of course I'm very hopeful this is reality. The main thing that makes me doubt it is the original source is a blog no one has ever heard of, so it might easily be complete bull. Let's all hope come E3 we'll be seeing the first videos of this though.

Apparently Gamestop is offering classic pre-owned games to power-up reward members. But the are going about it in a very ass-backwards way. Ok, it's a nice perk for the card owners, but we can't just outright buy them? We have to accumulate points? And the point totals are incredibly high, you'd probably have to trade-in several recent current gen games just to get enough points for one old-school title. Plus, most old school games worth anything are much easier to get be it through digital means or going to stores like Slackers where you can just pay actual money and nowhere near what you'd need to spend to get them through Gamestop. It's a nice idea guys, but it needs some serious re-tooling.

It seems like Final Fantasy may have a competitor for most overexposed game franchise this year. Aside from yet another shitty movie that seems to even ignore it's own continuity, there are no less than 3 Resident Evil games hitting various systems this year, with the one officially titled "6" just being announced even though not counting re-makes and re-releases this is more like 20. This one almost seems like a far cry from what made RE 4 far and away the best game in the series, as frankly it looks like a Gears of War clone with zombies thrown in, which I'm not at all in favor of. Hopefully as we see more it will show that it is not the case.

Finally, on top of the awesome news not that long ago that we will be getting Lego DC universe game (which for some reason is called Lego Batman 2 even though it stars pretty much all the major Justice Leaguers) comes this supposedly real promo pic of LORD OF THE RINGS LEGOS

Why is this important? Well aside from LOTR legos themselves being pretty awesome, this virtually guarantees a LOTR Lego video game somewhere down the line.

Ok that's all I have for today, I should get another post up by Friday, Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Jeff. Who Lives at Home

Nintendo will be dragged into the digital age kicking and screaming....

2012-01-21T08:57:00.001-06:00

Ah Nintendo. A rare company that seems to be forward-thinking in a lot of ways, except when it comes to the ever encroaching digital space. They brought the industry back from the brink with the NES, they pioneered things liked connectivity. The DS, which everybody thought of as gimmicky and yet it's the second-best selling system of all time. And of course there is the Wii, which ushered in (for better or worse) an era of casual and motion-based gaming.

Yet when it comes to online, Nintendo almost seems downright draconian in their approach. Wiiware has pretty much been an afterthought, and their whole "Friend Code" system is just bizarre and nonsensical. They are finally making a couple of steps though. The 3DS at least uses a simplified Friend Code (one per system instead of one for every single game), but online support is still pretty weak at this point, with many games having multi-player, but not online multi-player.

At least they are finally trying to catch up in one area: Demos. Demos are something you can regularly access on either the 360 or the PS3. For some reason, Nintendo, while perfectly willing to do in-store demos for some of their biggest titles, has barely dipped their toes in as far as providing anything to try at home. But in hopefully what will be an ongoing-thing a slew of them are set to arrive on the 3DS starting with the first big title of the year, Resident Evil : Revelations, which is out now. Hopefully this is a sign Nintendo is really ready. A nicer sign would be demos of all their Wiiware titles but at least this is a step and also a hopeful indicator for the online future of the Wii U which Nintendo has claimed will have a much more robust online system.

That's it for today, hopefully I'll be able to get in another post tomorrow, until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Casa de mi Padre

Kingdoms of completely generic fantasy....

2012-01-17T11:58:00.002-06:00

So two more big demos hit today, for The Darkness II and February's big rpg Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

First I'll talk about Darkness II. Anybody who knows me or reads this blog regularly knows that I'm not a huge fan of FPS games, but I'm certainly willing to give one with an interesting twist and the rare focus on a solid single-player story and the even more rare FPS that doesn't take place either in a historical war or futuristic one. I admittedly found the first game kind of blah and controlling the demon arms was kind of pain. This one makes controlling the arms very easy and the new twist of being able to wield both arms and dual weapons is interesting, but may get just a little too complex trying to juggle it all at once. But this is a lot of maybes. AAs someone who isn't really an FPS fan, It's not interesting enough to get me to buy it, but it looks like a solid alternative for anybody looking for something different from the Call of Duties and their various knockoffs.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, started out life as an MMO. And boy does it show, while the action is faster, this essentially looks like a gigantic WOW rip-off in style. Even most of the fantasy races and the world itself look like it, as does the skill tree system. This is sort of disappointing considered the likes of R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane were involved. The combat is much faster and it's easy to manage switching up between your primary weapon, bows, and magic, but this is a game that offers nothing original in any aspect. It's not bad, it could probably be good filler, but it's certainly not something I would get over any other hotly anticipated title, and considering FFXIII-2 comes out just a week before and Mass Effect 3 not long after, this is one I'll probably pass on.

That's it for today, should get another post up before the weekend, until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: ABOBO'S BIG ADVENTURE

The14 worst Final Fantasy Characters...

2012-01-15T18:06:00.000-06:00

Yeah there have been lots of "worst FF character lists" but hey I haven't done one, and being someone who has played FF since the NES days, I can certainly say I have enough experience to make a list. And while many characters who make other "worst" lists commit the mere crime of being boring, these run the gamut from whiny emo bitch to offensive stereotype to just completely useless on all fronts.

#14: Sephiroth (FFVII): The only reason he's not lower on the list is because he's not a party member, so you don't constantly have to deal with his whiny bullshit. He is laughably feminine, looking like something Twilight fans would go nuts over, he's laughable easy throughout the game, especially at the end. But really, most FF villains are forgettable enough douches just trying to take over the world. Sepiroth is a pure momma's boy at heart, even though really, he doesn't even have one.

#13. Barret (Final Fantasy VII): Final Fantasy doesn't have a lot of notable black characters, so it's pretty bad that their most notable is basically famous for swearing. A lot. He's a pretty good party member overall, just extremely poorly written. Saying "shit" every other sentence is not a good defining character trait and something clearly desperately thrown in at the time to try and show video games were getting more mature.

#12. Lulu (FFX): Pretty much the poster girl for over-sexualized females here. It's to such an extent that she comes off more silly than anything else. She is a pretty powerful party member but that just barely balances the fact that she was clearly made as nerdboy drool material.

#11: Squall (FFVIII): The only main FF game I was unable to finish. And not just because it had a fairly broken system. Hell I made it to the end of the third disc, I had invested plenty of time with this game. And I had come to truly despise the whiniest whiner there had ever been in Squall Leonhart. Whereas Cloud was just the right amount of sullen, Squall took it to an extreme with no rhyme or reason. And while the entire cast of FFVIII was pretty terrible, Squall was the terrible, terrible lead.

#10: Hope (FFXIII): Hope gets off little easy because like many of the above people. he's an extremely useful party member, arguably the most versatile member of your crew if developed correctly. But in a series filled with annoying teens, Hope easily tops the list. Indecisive and whiny as hell, he just keeps grating on you for the 10s of hours anybody who managed to finish FFXIII put in and that is quite the endurance test.

#9: Payne (FFX-2): Granted, FFX-2 was a whole girl power game gone horribly, horribly wrong, but the epitome of this wrongness was probably Paine. Almost seemingly brought in to be the extreme (once again to a hilarious degree) opposite to Lulu, this ridiculously butch character was a walking joke in a game mostly considered a joke itself.

#8: Tellah (FFIV): Yes yes, everybody loves "You spoony bard!". But bad translations aside, Tellah was at some point a powerful mage, but really he's filled with knowledge of powerful spells he's never really powerful enough to use. His stats actually decrease as he levels! And when he finally does one? He dies in an extremely futile attempt to wipe out his enemy, which seems like something a guy who made it to his age wouldn't be stupid enough to do.

#7: Gau (FFVI): Seriously, who came up with this idiot? A character who can learn enemy attacks isn't a bad idea, but to behave like that enemy with no control over their actions is ridiculous. Basically it's a roll of the dice if he's any use at all, and he's really annoying with his caveman like speak where really he can only say his own name most of the time.

#6: Eiko (FFIX): My beloved FFIX doesn't escape from this list. While I love most of the characters, Eiko is like a useless weak version of Garnet, as they are both summoners, but she fills the whiny brat role along with mostly being a liability for your party.

#5: Relm (FFVI): Yep, another whiny useless brat. You see, she can "sketch things" and use their own attacks against them. The problem is that you have no control over what attacks they use and not surprisingly, most enemies are highly resistant or just plain immune to their own attacks. She also has pretty pathetic stats, making her a complete liability.

#4: Edward (FFIV): Ah yes, the spoony bard himself. You know when a guy's most useful skill is literally hiding (which he will actually do automatically if he gets damaged enough) he's going to to be a complete waste of your time. And he's a major whiner on top of that. Easily one of the most pathetic characters on FF history.

#3. Setzer (FFVI): Setzer would probably be at the top of this list, but personality-wise, he's actually pretty cool. But, as a party member, his "Slots" skill ranges all the way from completely useless (which is what happens most of time) to outright KILLING YOUR ENTIRE PARTY. That's right, he can randomly lose the entire battle for you. No other character on this list can claim that ridiculousness.

#2: Quina (FFIX): Blue Mages are generally considered the most useless class in all of FF, because while they can learn powerful attacks, they often get killed trying to do so. And in the history of this class, no character is worse than Quina. An absurdly bad attempt at comic relief, Quina spoke in complete nonsense and was just completely pointless and arguably the most useless character in recent FF history.

#1: Cat Sith (FFVII): The poster boy of completely useless WTF characters. What the hell is he? What does he do? And much like Setzer, his special abilities are completely random chance. This is the not just the worst FF character ever, it's one of the worst characters in video game history.

And that's the list. I should be back Tuesday or Wednesday with impressions on the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo that should be out on the 17th. Until then, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

Goku's Wrath....

2012-01-11T06:36:00.002-06:00

So 2 big demos were released yesterday, one for the first big rpg of the year, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and one for Asura's Wrath, which is one of the first big action titles of the year, due out next month.

FFXIII-2 has a lot of baggage behind it as FFXIII was one of the more divisive entries in the series, so making a direct sequel seems like an odd choice, but at least from the demo it does seem like a lot of the problems have been addressed. Random encounters are back and its easier to fight or flee than any previous game. Sidequests and more open exploration re much better implemented, and the battle system has been tweaked just a bit to feel more interactive, though those who didn't like the system in the first place won't find enough changed to give it a shot. I do think they picked a wise time to release as the only other rpg coming out in the next couple months is Mass Effect 3 and it seems like a solid pickup. It will not be release day buy for me though unless I actually get through the games I',m currently working through-namely Skyward Sword and Disgaea 4 (I'm more or less done with Skyrim for awhile after tackling the main quest).

Asura's Wrath may seem like a God of War wannabe and in a some ways it's pretty similar (seemingly invincible hero takes revenge on gods or at least godlike beings), but it goes even more crazy over the top to make it seem more in the vein of something like the Dragonball series. This would all be well and good, but the demo I played was about 95% slightly interactive cut scenes which just felt silly and annoying after awhile. I was kind of hoping this'd be something worth checking out, but it's pretty disappointing frankly.

That;s all for today, I should hopefully get in another post this weekend, until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Zombies in Your Backyard

The year of Final Fantasy?

2012-01-09T08:06:00.002-06:00

Final Fantasy is somewhat like Square Enix's equivalent of Mario, they can slap the name on pretty much anything and it will sell even if it had little to do with the main franchise. This year especially seems to be FF heavy however, as we potentially have no less than 4 Final Fantasy games that should be out by year's end, covering every platform except the Wii.

The only one with a solid a fast-approaching release date is Final Fantasy XIII-2, due out at the very end of this month. It's probably a pretty solid time to release it, as the next big rpg, Mass Effect 3 isn't even due out til March and rpg gamers could probably really use something to fill that gap. It's already fairly divisive though, as a direct sequel to arguably the most hated entry yet in FF history. To their credit, Square Enix has said they have really listened to the fans' complaints and this sequel really addresses them. In a really rare move, they are offering up a free demo of the game coming out this week that will hopefully put any fears about it to rest.Which of course I will be sure to download and give impressions when I can.

Final Fantasy Type 0 for the PSP has already been released in Japan to pretty solid reviews, but given the focus is on the Vita already and the PSP was never much of a hit in the states, it may take a little bit of a miracle to get it out here. It would be a good final great release in the waning days of the PSP, maybe a digital launch on the Vita wouldn't be a terrible idea either.

Very little is really known about the seemingly forever in development Final Fantasy versus XIII. It takes place in the same universe as XIII, but has a completely different setting and characters, so it should being interesting to see if there is any references or crossover. Hopefully we will see something at E3.

Finally we actually have heard more bout the bizarre little spin-off title for the 3DS that was recently revealed, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Probably because as expected, the raging fanboys were up in arms over the "ridiculousness" of the title. But how ridiculous is it? The FF series is well known for its completely amazing music, as long as the gameplay is fairly compelling, I greatly anticipate it as a really fun 3DS title.

So as you can see, if you're a Final Fantasy nut or just an rpg nut, Square has got you pretty well covered all by themselves this year. Hopefully it'll be something of a renaissance for FF rather than a big degradation of a once great franchise.

That;s it for today, but I should definitely be back Wednesday or Thursday with my impressions of the FFXIII demo. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Thin Ice

U R NOT RED E

2012-01-06T08:17:00.001-06:00

Remember this? I sure as hell do, ads claiming that we were not ready for the awesome leap in technology that was the original Playstation. And yes, it was a humongous leap as that was the first time for many switching to cds from bulky cartridges, 16-bit sprites to polygons, 2D to 3D. It was a truly stunning thing.

Now we are entering the time in the current generation where people are starting to talk about the next step, and I'm not sure we as gamers are all that ready for it, or that it is ready to be the leap it needs. Nintendo has already announced it's next big thing, the Wii U, and it could represent a big change in gaming just like the Wii did, but it's not very clear at this point what it'll do. It does represent Nintendo's much needed move into HD gaming, but Sony and Microsoft are already there, have been for years. The next generation needs to be a big leap in order for people to open their ever-tightening wallets, and more shiny won't really cut it. Besides, I have trouble seeing anything in the near future being a significant leap over stuff as graphically stunning as games like Uncharted 3 or Skyrim. The current generation is still going pretty strong and I'm not feeling any urge to leap into the next one unless it offers something I really can't already get. Hopefully Sony & Microsoft realize this before they show off a new system that ultimately impresses no one.

That's it for today, hopefully I will squeeze in one more post this weekend. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Outpost: Haven

What a difference a few months makes...

2012-01-04T08:50:00.000-06:00

Well as usual, Nintendo has proved the doomsayers wrong once again. Not that it didn't take some drastic action and a lot of hard work, but basically in the course of a few months they've managed to sell over 4 million 3DS units both here and in Japan. To compare that's actually more than the Wii sold in its first blockbuster year, though a key difference may have been 3DS supplies being plentiful whereas Wiis were scarce for like the first 2 years. Hopefully Nintendo really keeps us this momentum with lots of key first and third party releases. And as I've said before, only top AAA titles should be at the $40 mark, keeping most other titles in the $20-$30 range would certainly help attachment rate for games that don't have "Mario" in the title.

The Wii actually sold half a million over that for the year as well, proving though everyone seems to be writing the system off in the pending release of the Wii U, there's still an audience if somebody actually wants to make games for the thing. Though frankly as long as Last Story gets a US release, that would be enough for me.

Speaking of the Wii U, let's hope they realize that it will not sell on concept alone. They tried that with the 3DS and quickly had to go back to the drawing board. To really succeed the Wii U will need to convince people it's something worth investing in so it will need an attractive price point (probably no more than $250 frankly) and compelling software that shows off the different capabilities right out the gate. And yes, clearly slapping "Mario" on at least one of those titles would be a safe move.

That's all for today, I should get another post up tomorrow or Friday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Innkeepers

A man out of time...

2011-12-26T21:40:00.002-06:00

I hope everybody had a great Christmas, I finally got (in addition to few other things) the killer apps for the 3DS, Super Mario Land 3D and Mario Kart 7. They are great games to be sure, classic examples of a near perfect formula Nintendo has been relying on for decades, but it also is a fairly blunt reminder that they haven't really tried anything truly new for awhile. Mario Land 3D is classic hop-n-bop play, but aside from some nifty 3D effects, it isn't any huge leap forward. Mario hasn't really had a huge leap forward since Super Mario 64. Galaxy was a refinement of that, and 2 was even more of that. Great games, but nothing truly new. This one actually takes a step further back by re-introducing a time limit on levels that actively discourages really playing around in the areas and exploring. Granted the areas aren't that big, but it's still annoying.

But Mario Kart 7 commits far bigger crime. Again it's a good game, a very fun game, but it's also an incredibly lazy game. The cast of racers is pretty small, the long overdue customization options fairly limited and the new tricks like gliding and going underwater don't do anything. I got Mario Kart DS 6 years ago and still play it to this day, it is arguably the best iteration of the series. Now it's always hard to top the high point, but this one doesn't even try. When Nintendo with "7" for this title, most people's reactions amounted to, "it's only the 7th game?" meaning fatigue was setting in and this title has done nothing to even really try and stop it.

Now these aren't bad games, far from it, but they are really showing Nintendo's reluctance to actually try new ideas. If they can't learn to do this, people will stop buying the same game with a new cover at some point, and they won't have any clue how to fix that...

That's all for today, I should have another post up in the next couple of days. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Prometheus

Vita=epic fail?

2011-12-21T11:23:00.000-06:00

So the PS Vita launched in Japan. While the PSP wasn't a success worldwide, in Japan it was right up there with the DS, an essential thing for people to own. Now while it's turned things around with a solid library and a massive price cut, the 3DS was kind of a bust after the initial hot sales. Well, the PS Vita certainly avoided those issues right?

Well, not according to the initial launch figures. It actually did significantly worse than the 3DS performed, and considering it did have a solid launch lineup and came out during the crucial Christmas season (which if you aren't aware is just as big in Japan as it is here) that implies far worse trouble down the road. What was the problem? Well it pretty much boils down to price. At minimum buying a Vita, a game and a memory card would run you over $400! Did Sony learn absolutely nothing from the horribly botched PS3 launch? The ridiculous expense was cited as a major factor for no one buying it at first, and here we go again. Maybe they'll be able to pull a major u-turn much like the 3DS has been able to do. But, considering Sony as a company has been hemorrhaging money for several years and they have repeatedly shown a rather bull-headed approach to... well, everything; it's unlikely they'll get the message that in a world of a pretty savage economy and cheap mobile games, that a portable system costing more than a big screen TV isn't going fly.

That's it for today, I will try and get another post in before Christmas, but no promises. In the mean time, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Hobbit

The Top Ten 2012 games I'm looking forward to.

2011-12-18T08:55:00.001-06:00

Christmas is nearly upon us and most of us gamers will hopefully have a heaping pile of games to play with, but that's no reason to not already be thinking about all the awesome games we already know are due out next year. While there will certainly be some surprises coming, here's 10 that I'm really looking forward to checking out:

#10. Final Fantasy XIII-2: A lot of people were divided over FFXIII with it's very linear structure and the fact that about 90% of the game felt like a tutorial. I still enjoyed the story and battle system so this is something I'm really looking forward too. And seeing that it's coming out at the end of January it should be a good rpg fix to hold me over right until Mass Effect 3 hits in March.

#9: A Game of Thrones: I haven't watched the TV show yet, but I've spent the last couple months completely engrossed in the absolutely amazing fantasy series by George R.R. Martin, so I'm very potentially excited about an RPG based on it. Granted the margin for error is high, but hopefully the importance of the license will make the developers actually give a rat's ass. After all, this isn't something you can market to a wide audience to begin with given the subject matter.

#8: Xenoblade Chronicles: Aka a reason to turn on your Wii in 2012. In what will certainly be it's twilight year, with the Wii U on the horizon and releases slowing to a crawl, the Wii may still have one of it's best years for core gamers with a few rare gems coming out and Xenoblade Chronicles being one of them as it's one of the best reviewed Japanese rpgs of the last few years.

#7: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time : As much as Ratchet & Clank are the definitive Sony platforming series, Sly Cooper had a series of completely awesome games and then seemed to be sadly forgotten. But then we got the Sly Cooper collection and the announcement of a new game for the PS3! It should easily be one of the most awesome platformers to come out this year.

#6: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch: Level 5 hasn't had the greatest track record as of late but they made some of my favorite PS2 rpgs and this collaboration with the legendary Studio Ghibli looks absolutely gorgeous and promises to be a worthy and magical experience like most of their films.

#5: Luigi's Mansion 2: Luigi's Mansion on the Gamecube didn't really get a fair shake, but then again it was a good quirky title not a showcase title or killer app that sells a ssystem. It was a really fun game, and so I'm happy to see a much-expanded sequel happening, plus I've always been very partial to Luigi over Mario, so seeing him get some spotlight again is awesome.

#4: Bioshock Infinite: After the second Bioshock, I think most people thought the steam had run out and were wary of yet another adventure in the underwater utopia gone astray. Infinite went pretty much the opposite way. taking things to the sky, adding an actual protagonist and a skyline you can ride to boot. All the previews have looked incredibly stunning and this looks to be GOTY material already, I don't know who wouldn't be excited about it.

#3: Paper Mario 3DS: Aside from a brief showing at E3, we don't know a whole lot about this newest Paper Mario game, but given all the previous ones have been completely excellent, the mere existence should be enough to excite any 3DS owner. The Paper Mario games always deliver compelling gameplay and humor, this one should be no different.

#2: Kid Icarus: Uprising: AKA the game that the 3DS should've launched with. I mean seriously, this is the game that got everybody excited, and they've been fine tuning it for goddamn ever. So it better be awesome. Luckily all the evidence points to it making another strong case that while the 3DS did have a rough first year, it's really turning things around in 2012.

#1. Mass Effect 3: Yeah it's an obvious choice, but that doesn't make it wrong. The epic final chapter of arguably the greatest franchise of this generation of consoles, can it possibly live up to the massive hype? My money is actually on yes and I can't wait to save the galaxy with Mordin, Garrus and the rest of the crew of the Normandy.

That's all for today. I should get another post up Tuesday. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Santa Rockstar 4

SONIC BOOM

2011-12-15T07:48:00.001-06:00

It's a well established fact that everyone's favorite speedy blue hedgehog has had a rough go overall this generation, his best game being a rather half-hearted attempt to mix the glory of his past with the shame of his present. In fact anyone who started with this generation might justifiably wonder why anybody ever held Sonic in high regard to begin with. If you want to show or see why, check out this week's XBLA release of Sonic CD. Few even played this as it was released on the very terrible Sega CD, but it was not only one of the few great games for that system, it is also generally regarded as the best Sonic game made so at a measly $5 it is well worth your time to download this classic, maybe as a gift to yourself or possibly even your kids who have only seen the terrible modern Sonic games.

And with the year almost out, we finally have a full list of the free GBA games for those of us who were early 3DS adopters. It isn't officially confirmed for the US, but it seems pretty likely we'll be able to download them tomorrow with everyone else in the world. I'm sure there will be some bitching, there always is, but I haven't gotten to play a lot of these games and they are all highly regarded so I'm pretty stoked, especially about Mario Kart Super Circuit (only Mario Kart game I've never owned) and Minish Cap. I know it was off to a pretty rocky start and the slide pad still seems awful and unnecessary but it's got some solid titles now with more on the way and is selling incredibly well so as usual the prophets of Nintendo's doom are way off.

That;s all for today, I will try to get another post up for tomorrow, until then here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: G.I. Joe: Retaliation

The week of half-assed updates

2011-12-08T08:06:00.001-06:00

So if you own either a 3DS or a 360 there was a big update this week. That didn't seem fully fleshed out. The 3DS added a couple of nifty things like 3D video recording and a much evolved Find Mii sequel so that's cool, but how about some other games or more ways to collect coins to use in them? Nintendo Zone seems like an potentially interesting idea, but if it's a guessing game of us taking our 3DS' to various locales just hoping for content that's kind of lame. And where the hell are the last 10 free games? Nintendo has been swearing us early adopters should be getting them by the end of the year, and that's fast approaching with no set date.

But Nintendo's update wasn't a big deal to begin with so maybe we shouldn't expect so much. Microsoft's yearly update is considered a big del however and it has stumbled right out of the gate. Not even offering half of the promised content such as Youtube or HBO Go(which is now just coming at some point next year), bricking some 360s and maybe I'll get used to it, but the new "metro" design seems clumsy as hell. Pretty much the only good improvement I see is the Bing search feature which does make it easier to look for stuff. But it seems like Microsoft really dropped the ball here.

That's it for today, I'll hopefully get in another post this weekend. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Mario Mini Golf

A little rainfall...

2011-12-06T07:04:00.001-06:00

You can find petitions and causes for just about anything these days on the internet. Most of the time it's pretty pointless and nothing gets accomplished but once in a rare while the internet shows it does indeed have some pull. Firefly would not have gotten a feature film without the internet. Futurama would probably not have gotten a second life without the internet. And the future of the brilliant and criminally underwatched Community may hinge on the internet since that's the reason it's on the cover of TV guide this week.

There are many game petitions as well and with good reason since a lot of quality games never see the light of day over here. Of course 99% amount to nothing, but the folks over at Project Rainfall may have actually accomplished this rare feat, as one of the major games they are campaigning for, Xenoblade Chronicles, is now due for a stateside release next year, thus giving Wii owners an actual reason to turn on their Wiis next year. Sales of Xenoblade Chronicles may lead to the release of the other 2 titles Operation Rainfall is petitioning for, Pandora's Tower and The Last Story (which I have been salivating over and hoping for myself). I certainly plan to purchase Xenoblade Chronicles in April, and I hope the core Wii gamer speaks up for once and gets it too. It may prove there's a bit more life left in the system after all.

That's all for today. Here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Cabin in the Woods

The Top 10 actors who should be considered for the Doctor Who movie...

2011-12-01T21:36:00.001-06:00

A Doctor Who movie is coming, no use whining about it. The fact that David Yates is the one directing gives me some faith because he managed to do a pretty awesome job with the last few Harry Potter films and could turn Doctor Who into the worldwide phenomenon it deserves to be if it's done correctly. Of course key will be casting someone who pull off the many facets of personality the make The Doctor. Someone who can be in turns funny and serious, goofy and terrifying, and above all insanely brilliant. Very few actors can fit that role nicely, but I've compiled a list of 10 I think could give it a very good go. I have stayed away from obvious top nerd picks like Nathan Fillion (He can't be in everything people!) and Simon Pegg (he could do goofy sure enough, but I would never think of him as a serious threat), but I think most nerds would be pretty pleased with this casting as well.

#10: Stephen Fry: Not a chance in hell, but British comedic legend Stephen Fry would absolutely kill in a off-kilter casting decision. Maybe as a more worn-down tired of saving humanity's ass time and time again and needs to find a reason to keep going. Fry has the ability to show the real brilliance that shines through in the best Doctor Who moments, and the acerbic with and lack of tolerance for idiocy the Doctor has when he's at his wit's end as well. Unfortunately I'm pretty sure Michael Bay has a better chance of winning best director than of Fry's name even being suggested.

#9: Eddie Izzard: Slightly more likely than Fry but not by much. Bitingly and savagely brilliant though, which would make him an unusual casting choice but a great fit with the right script. And he can do good serious drama as he's shown in a few roles over the years. I think if this was strictly a British affair he might at least get a serious audition if he was interested, but they are understandably going for a bigger worldwide audience.

#8: James Marsters: Already a huge sci-fi icon, and an actual Whoverse alum, playing Captain John Hart in the spin-off series Torchwood. He's shown huge range, namely in his longest running and most well known role as Spike the vampire in the Buffy and Angel shows. He went from terrifying killer to hero and being an occasional goofball in-between effortlessly. Also in keeping with the fact that the Doctor seems more ageless with each incarnation, he's nearly 50 and looks like he's in his late 20s. A bit of a dark horse because obviously he hasn't landed that huge breakthrough role, but this could be and should be it.

#7: Helen Mirren: The Doctor doesn't have to be a man, but has always been played as one. Mirren is easily at the top of the list of a few women who could bring every great nuance needed to the role of an ancient yet timeless soul. The best thing about Mirren and what makes her perfect for the role is that she is absolutely fearless and seems to get more so every year, which any real top choice for playing the Doctor should be a per-requisite. If they are going to go for the first female Doctor, Mirren should really be the only one they are even looking at.

#6: Robert Carlyle: As great as most of the previously named actors are at playing some of the more well-known facets of the Doctor, one thing any actor playing the Timelord needs to be able to do is show just how haunted he is. This is a man who makes difficult, universe-altering decisions on regular basis, and not everything gets wrapped in a tidy bow, Friends have gotten hurt or killed, innocents get murdered, entire races are destroyed and never to the Doctor's enjoyment. He doesn't like destroying his enemies, and it weighs on him a lot. Few actors can do haunted like Robert Carlyle. So if you want to do something of a more serious time-traveler who has been weighed down by all the decisions he had to make over the centuries, Carlyle should be right at the top of the list.

#5: Chiwetel Ejiofor: Much like there has never been a woman Doctor, there has yet to be a Black Doctor, and there are few Black actors out there who would be able to pull off and not overshadow the role, because while Ejiofor is certainly a known face and respected actor he isn't a Denzel or a Smith. It could be the overdue breakout role for him (assuming he is not cast as Black Panther, which would be awesome).

#4: Gary Oldman : Whether it's as the one good cop in a corrupt city, or crazy villain in league with a sentient evil force, Gary Oldman is one of the most awesome actors living today, and a complex role like the Doctor is pretty much his bread and butter. He's got enough talent to do the role justice and enough star power that he might actually be considered, so let's hope he's at least in the running.

#3. Alan Rickman: But if there's someone more awesome than Oldman, it's Alan Rickman. And to date, he's never really played a big damn hero role, really Severus Snape is the closest thing, and that was obviously a tragic hero. This could be his long overdue chance. He can play to the Doctor's comedic, dramatic and brilliant sides with great ease. He;s probably almost too perfect for the role, so we probably won't get that lucky.

#2: Hugh Laurie: Though he's become famous for his role as brilliant jackass Dr, House, Laurie's roots are in comedy, and the fact that he can cover both so flawlessly and is a huge international star makes him an easy top contender. He'd probably play it closer to Christopher Eccleston's take and be a bit harder and jaded than most, but he'd do it well. He also recently stated that after House ends, he's pretty much done with TV, so this would be a great next project for him.

#1: James McAvoy: Ok, this being Hollywood, they will want a franchise, arguably with some hot up and comer. You want someone who will do the role justice and yet meet those criteria? I give you James McAvoy. He already has played roles he's nerdy and a little goofy or a bit of prick yet serious threat, and of course he's hot of practically re-inventing Professor X from the surprisingly excellent X-Men: First Class film. Arguably if you want someone Hollywood suits can get behind without ruining the Doctor Who name, James McAvoy should be at the top of everyone's list.

That's it for today, I should have another post up this weekend, until then here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Fall Damage

Sony Smash Bros?

2011-11-28T06:59:00.001-06:00

So the latest crazy, yet seemingly likely rumor is that Sony is developing a fighting game featuring its stable of characters, much like Nintendo's Smash Bros series. Some may scoff at the sheer insanity of pitting Nathan Drake against Cole MacGrath or Sweet Tooth against Captain Qwark, but it's no crazier than Solid Snake mixing it up with Nintendo's stable of characters. I'm willing to take the cautiously optimistic approach here, it could be fantastic if done right, and hopefully it will.

In incredibly stupid ideas, rumors have started flying about the next systems from Sony & Microsoft, and sadly the most seemingly concrete one is that for the next Xbox, Microsoft is again going the multiple sku route of one completely bare bones model and one aimed at the hardcore gamer that actually has a hard drive and probably a few other bells and whistles as well. While from some financial perspective this probably makes sense, it's still a really bad idea for developers, because they more or less have to work on the assumption that the audience doesn't have a hard drive less they cut off a potential section of the audience. This obviously also cuts people off from being able to access the growing digital space that Microsoft pretty much has always touted as their strongest weapon in the console war. This means a significant portion of developers won't be able to readily rely on it and that's handicapping them right out of the gate.

That's all for today, I honestly didn't mean to not update for a week, but the holiday was busy and exhausting, I should be back to regular posting this week. Until next time, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

The Legacy of Zelda...

2011-11-20T08:07:00.001-06:00

Today is the day Wii owners and Nintendo loyalists have been waiting for as Skyward Sword finally releases, being the shining example that the Wii can do amazing core games that truly incorporate motion without being in a wagglefest. I've pretty much already touched on the fact that there is really no excuse for this, we should have been getting a regular stream of games like this from years, but frankly we didn't either from Nintendo or their biggest supporters. This is why the Wii is basically done and the 360 and PS3 both still have a lot of life left in them.

Lately this seems to be the Legacy of Zelda. If you look at the N64, the Gamecube, and now the Wii, Mario probably (deservedly) got the spotlight, but Zelda has always been a core showcase, a lengthy challenging fun adventure that really shows off what the system is capable of. And often it's too little too late. Maybe it's just the trap of the long developmental cycle to make games this good, but that's one team in one company. Hopefully they really have learned their lesson and strive for longevity with the Wii U, because a cash-in fad won't work a second time.

That's it for today, I should have another post up Monday or Tuesday. Til then, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

To buy or not to buy at launch....

2011-11-18T08:17:00.001-06:00

Gaming has always been a expensive hobby, but with more and more quality titles coming out virtually every year around the same time with fancy collector's editions (and bugs to boot), it does beg the question, why do we all buy games at launch? If we wait, we can get the bugs fixed, the price dropped and hell eventually usually some game of the year edition with most if not all of the bugs fixed and all the dlc included for probably half the price it was when it originally came out. So why? Well it may be irrational, but me personally, if I don't get a game right when it's launched, I usually don't end up getting it. Wait a few months and there's something else vying for and usually worthy of my attention over some game that clearly wasn't important enough for me to buy when it came out so it can wait longer, probably forever. Also, even with a wife and a job I'm a pretty regular gamer so my backlog usually isn't very big so usually I don't have a ton of different games to play at any given time. Also, I rarely pay full price for a game, usually I'm trading something in and trade-in values can decrease rapidly.

But also a game is treated very much like an opening weekend for a movie or a premiere night for a TV show. If it doesn't hit right out of the gate, it's pretty much considered a failure. Now there are games that build a steady audience over time and succeed that way, but that is the exception, not the rule. So if you want the games you like to continue to appear on shelves, you should probably buy them as soon as you re financially able.

This really isn't a pro-buying games at launch argument, times are tight and gaming is a luxury some of us are lucky to be able to afford at all. Just keep in mind if everyone waited til games were bargain bin prices, bargain bin games might be all we get.

That's all I have for today, I hopefully should get another post up this weekend. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Hunger Games

That old familiar feeling...

2011-11-14T07:20:00.001-06:00

Arguably the biggest complaint you can have against Skyrim is that's it's not any kind of massive improvement from Oblivion despite the 4-year gap between games. Combat is intense but clunky and while the character models look better, they still are awkward. That being said, the little touches that they have made make the difference. Combat is more varied and visceral with the ability to dual wield just about anything. There's a ton more stuff to do and all of it as easy as having the right items whether it be smithing, cooking or alchemy. Lock-picking, which seemed nearly impossible to do manually in previous titles, is easy to understand. And waypoints are much clearer. I've gotten about 12 hours in already, more than enough to beat your standard action game, and I've barely scratched the surface. So this should keep me busy through the rest of the year and possibly beyond quite easily. There's a growing sentiment that games are giving you less and less bang for your initial buck especially when it comes to single player. Skyrim is a big strike against that argument.

So the demos for 2 other big games dropped this last week and I did get some time in with those before Skyrim. That being Lego Harry Potter years 5-7 which came out Friday and Rayman: Origins, which comes out this week. The newest Lego Harry Potter suffers from pretty much the same issue many of the latest Lego games have been suffering from, it's all too familiar. I think they really need to go somewhere fresh and possibly unexpected for their next game if they want to keep at least somewhat entertaining. Granted maybe the young kids who play this won't care, but the Lego games initially were true family entertainment and with so little of that in gaming it'd be sad to lose it.

Rayman: Origins is absolutely beautiful game. That is also a complete rip-off of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I mean, c'mon you can even "bubble up" in it (anyone who has played Mario Bros. Wii knows exactly what I'm talking about). That being said, if you don't own a Wii it's a great way too experience that insanely fun game without buying a Wii. But this is another game that seems like it shouldn't be released in a huge holiday season because it will be virtually ignored. Too bad, because supposedly if it does well that bodes well for Beyond Good & Evil 2. But given that the wonderful critically acclaimed original Beyond Good & Evil also released during a huge holiday season and was virtually ignored you'd think Ubisoft & Mr. Ancel would've learned their lesson.

That's it for today, with a little luck I should've have another post up tomorrow. In the meantime here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Kit & The Octopod

Too little, too late?

2011-11-11T07:33:00.001-06:00

So yes, Skyrim is out today. I plan to talk all about it in my next post, because it's 7:30 am right now and my Gamestop doesn't open til 10. So let's talk about two other huge games that aren't even out yet, but the reviews are coming in, most extremely positive, showing examples of what the unique hardware can do. Those titles are Super Mario 3D Land and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Mario finally provides an original game for the 3DS that actually makes the 3D more than a nifty gimmick, and Skyward Sword may just be the best Zelda game to date, making great use of the motion + and proving the Wii hardware is capable of more than just gimmicky minigame collections.

So, for both the 3DS and the Wii, but especially the Wii, the question arises, why are these experiences so few and far between? It's like console business 101. You can start off a little rough but a continuous flow of quality software is pretty much necessary to keep the system going. This is the real reason why this far into this generation of consoles the 360 & PS3 are still gaining steam while the Wii is pretty much done. It really might not have been had a stream of steady, quality releases been a constant. There are a number of quality titles on the system to be sure, but infinitesimal to the number you find on the competition. How excited am I supposed to be about a system that got maybe 4-5 top quality games a year? Sure that's good for my wallet, but not for the gamer in me.

Now obviously the 3DS has not even been out a year, so it's in a slightly different boat, but a lot of the signs are there. A gimmick over quality gameplay, unnecessary add-ons that are confusing and again a serious lack of quality software. Ok Mario is almost here. What else? Mario Kart in December and... yeah, that's what I thought. We have Kid Icarus sometime in future and that's really about it. Nintendo claims the quality games are coming, but we seem to be having a similar issue here to the Wii, where quality is a far distant second to cashing in on gimmickry. And if that's the path the 3DS follows, it's going to fall a lot quicker than the Wii did.

That's it for today, hopefully I will get one more post in this weekend with Skyrim impressions. Until then, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

An age of Dragons...

2011-11-09T08:20:00.001-06:00

We are a mere two days away from arguably the biggest release of the year and easily the biggest rpg in several. I am beyond excited as I easily spent a few hundred hours on Oblivion, its predecessor, and never even got anywhere near finishing the main quest. That is my big worry, actually, that if Skyrim is a little too similar to its predecessor. I tried to get back into Oblivion recently and was bored because I guess I spent too much time on it previously. It's why I couldn't really get into Fallout: New Vegas, frankly. It wasn't different enough from Fallout 3 and frankly the modern Fallout games share a lot in common with the Elder Scrolls games as well, so they feel pretty similar too. If all Bethesda is throwing in is fancier graphics and Dragons, I probably still enjoy it, but not on the multi-hundred hour length I enjoyed Oblivion. Either way, this is the last rpg release until well into next year, and it should actually have the content to keep most players busy that long.

That's pretty much it for today, but I should have another post up either Friday or Saturday with impressions of the Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 and Rayman Origins demos and thoughts on Super Mario Land 3D. And maybe some Skyrim impressions if I've gotten enough time in on it. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Xenosquad

Call of the Battlefield...

2011-11-07T08:10:00.001-06:00

Sorry for no other posts this past weekend, but it just seemed to get away from me with work, a relative in town, and my mother-in-law's birthday. I should be able to get in at least 3 posts this week pretty easy.

I have gotten through a solid chunk of Uncharted 3 and I can honestly say it ups the ante on set pieces to completely insane levels. Most of the time this is insanely fun. But occasionally its just insanely cheap and difficult, especially dealing with snipers, armored agents with sawed-off shotguns and guys with rocket-launchers all at the same time. As fun s the game is, stuff like this is almost enough to make me quit and it's been constant issue in the series. I hope they work on making them a little more balanced next time.

The other big shooter of the year comes out this week as Call of Duty 3: Modern Warfare finally comes out after all that controversy surrounding it. Is it better primary competitor Battlefield 3? Can the magic of 2 be recaptured after the defect of so many key members? I've repeatedly stated I'm not a huge shooter fan, In fact the last shooter I seriously got into was the original Modern Warfare. I think if this wasn't such a huge month game-wise I might be willing to give it a try but frankly Skyrim, out Friday, should be enough to scare just about any other game releasing anywhere close to it.

That's it for today. I should have another post up tomorrow hopefully. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Safe House

Playstation+: Still worth it...

2011-11-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

Yup, I just re-upped my Playstation plus membership. While I continue to question and seriously doubt the value of my Xbox live membership, I have no qualms about re-upping my Plus. I mean seriously, is a slicker interface truly worth $60? Because that is literally all they offer over the competition. Thanks to plus I've enjoyed betas, themes, discounts and most importantly, free games. And not shitty games no one cares about. Back to the Future, Sega classics, great indie gems. And just for re-upping I will get Telltale's Jurassic Park, which already nearly covers half the membership. This is one of the best things on PS3 and MS would be wise to take some lessons from.

I have not played War in the North or Sonic Generations nor do I really plan to. The reviews have been mixed at best and my schedule barely allows time to play the games I already have. I've really barely scratched the surface of Uncharted 3. It did get me thinking about a quote from Naughty Dog, the developers. Saying in essence that they have no intention of stopping at a trilogy and will keep making Uncharted games as long as fans want them. It makes me wonder how many will be interesting though. I mean they've done just about every place you can have a huge Indiana Jones-type adventure. You can't do another Jungle or Desert or Snow romp, it's been done. They might be able to do something with Atlantis or some lost underwater city, that's about all I can really think of.

Ok that is pretty much it for today, I should have another post up tomorrow though. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: 21 Jumpstreet

Dude Raider 3....

2011-10-30T12:04:00.001-05:00

It is kind of amazing to think that arguably the premier exclusive series on the PS3 was originally labeled as an obvious Tomb Raider knockoff. This is arguably the main reason I even own a PS3 as other exclusive series haven't really been of enough interest on their own. This is a series that you can really point to just about anybody as a really good reason to own the system. The great characters and amazing graphics combined with some unique multi-player really make it something other games just haven't been able to replicate. I'd actually rank this as my favorite series of the current generation of consoles. It may lack the length & depth of some massive rpg like Skyrim, but in terms of a game being a pure blast from beginning to end, it's incredibly hard to match, and I sure as hell don't think it's been topped. All early reviews point to the latest entry impossibly being even better than the second one so I'll be extremely excited to grab it this week. I am going to do my darndest to get it Tuesday but admittedly this is a hugely busy week so that may not happen.

As I mentioned yesterday Uncharted 3 may be the biggest release of this week but it brings with it a whole flood of games that may have been better off waiting til the slower months of the year. Key among them Sonic Generations & LOTR: War in the North. Generations already seems like the best Sonic game since the Genesis era with it's back-to-basics approach but who's going to give it chance when we've been burned so many, many times before and there's all this other stuff to play? LOTR is always a popular license, but it's not at any kind of high-awareness right now, and the last few games haven't been very impressive. All this and not a whole lot of hype for the game either and it seems like something destined to be completely buried in the wake of fantasy action/rpg goliath Skyrim which is out in just under 2 weeks. I do plan on at least renting one if not both of these titles so if I can I'll give my impressions on all 3 this week. Until then, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

The month of too many games...

2011-10-29T10:30:00.000-05:00


I think I can live with one less kidney, right?

You know pretty much every year for the past decade or so, consumers have been advocating a more balanced release schedule. The average gamer is now grown up with a job and family, so they don't really have the time or money to buy every game they want to right when it comes out.

Yet it seems like every year, more and more games come out during the holiday rush, and this might be the biggest ones to date. I mean off the top of my head this month you have Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, Rayman Origins, Super Mario 3D Land, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Sonic Generations, Assassin's Creed & Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Granted, Having only one system can make it slightly less daunting, but many households have multiple consoles these days so some tough choices will be made. I'm a huge Zelda fan but frankly Uncharted 3 & Skyrim have really caught my interest so that's probably all I'm getting this month and possibly for the rest of the year. Since my 3DS hasn't gotten a lot of play there's a decent chance I'll grab Super Mario 3D Land if I can, though.

But those of course are just the really big titles, there's a large number of smaller titles that probably won't be given much of a chance, namely games like Rayman: Origins, which looks absolutely gorgeous and promises insanely fun 4-player action. I certainly don't think I'll have time to play the new Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 which is a shame because I've found most of the Lego titles absolutely delightful.

So maybe it's in futility but again I beg game developers to stretch out their releases more reasonably across the year. Many of these could be released in the much slower months like January-March or June through August and get a much better chance to get attention. Instead, at least half of these titles will probably end up ignored and in the bargain bin.

That's all for today, I certainly plan to post tomorrow about some of the massive amount of games releasing on Tuesday, most notably Uncharted 3. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Kit and the Octopod

You almost had me Sony...

2011-10-28T06:08:00.001-05:00

Really you did. I was slowly becoming convinced that the Vita might actually shown that you've learned not only from your mistakes but also Nintendo's. The $250 price point (because I don't see a lot of people paying $300 plus a monthly data plan to be screwed by AT&T every month) seemed pretty fair even with the 3DS' massive price cut because you were offering a second dual-analog stick already included in the design, gorgeous-looking games and a competent online component. And your launch actually has a real killer app in Uncharted: Golden Abyss along with several unique titles that could be awesome in their own right like Little Deviants.

But as usual Sony has to be Sony and have at least one glaring, possibly fatal flaw, and that's their obsession with proprietary media. And this is what might potentially kill the Vita. Because it doesn't have a hard drive, and it doesn't use that most ubiquitous of memory storage, the SD card, so common and cheap you can get it virtually anywhere. No, it uses an expensive memory stick. And not even the pro duo sticks that are already in existence, so it's not like someone could use one from their Sony Camera or PSP. While Sony claims the sticks aren't "required", that's like saying the Xbox 360 doesn't require a hard drive. This is an extremely bone-headed move. There is virtually no reason Sony couldn't throw in some bare minimum 2-4gb stick if it's pretty much necessary to save most files or download any content. If someone wants to pay out the ass for a bigger one, that's their call. But when someone buys a system it should come with everything that is necessary right off the bat, considering that key games like Golden Abyss won't even boot up without one in the system, I'd say that makes it pretty necessary. So in summary, Sony just lost a Vita sale, and I'm sure it's not the only one.

Ok that's the post for today. I was admittedly having a little trouble actually sitting down and writing this week, hence why no post till now, but I should have at least one more post this weekend and I'll certainly try for two. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Secret World of Arrietty

Ratchet & Clank: The Arcade game

2011-10-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

So assuming you could even find one these days, Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One is pretty much what you would expect had you walked into an arcade and found a game cabinet baring its likeness. Whether or not this is a good thing is up for some debate. All 4 One delivers plenty of the trademark humor, huge fantastic boss battles and colorful fun worlds the series is known for, yet strips away a lot of what fans love. There is no exploration and minimal upgrading to your weapons, which is done by buying them through bolts acquired rather than through continued use. While the 4 characters have a unique special attack, for all intents and purposes they play the exact same. And the game removes a lot of incentive for co-op play in the first place, since only the host retains any bolts or skill points gained in play. I should say that while this may make it sound like a game I'm completely bashing, I still find it a fun and enjoyable title, but it doesn't have a lot of what makes a Ratchet & Clank game, and things that could've kept the multi-player interesting and long-lasting weren't implemented well or at all. Would I happily pop in a dollar and play this on occasion with buddies at an arcade? Absolutely. Is it something that would be constant presence in my PS3? Not a chance. It's fun but pretty much instantly forgettable with no real hook to bring you back once you've gone through it. Hopefully the next R & C game will be a return to form.

Nintendo is clearly pulling out all the stops in order to really convince people that it's worth buying a 3DS. In addition to Reggie's plug here, they had yet another big conference this past Friday, announcing things like a sequel to Find Mii (yes!) And bonuses for people who buy games and join club Nintendo such as chance to win a Mario-themed 3DS. Will all this pay off with big holiday numbers? And if it does, will they buy the ugly-ass slide pad add-on? We'll just have to see. I would certainly take a lot of convincing to buy a $20 add-on controller that requires an extra battery frankly.

That is all for today, I should have another post up Tuesday or Wednesday. Until then, here's you BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

Top Ten Heroes that deserve the Rocksteady treatment...

2011-10-18T17:49:00.000-05:00

I really didn't see much of a point in posting impressions on Arkham City, it seems blindingly obvious to everyone that this is one of the greatest games ever and you can see that within minutes and I pretty much agree. Rocksteady has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Asylum was no fluke. If anything it was a warm-up. The real question is what's next? While a third Batman game is almost a certainty, I would love to see a Rocksteady-esque take on other superheroes. Here are the top ten I'd really love to see Rocksteady get their hands on:

#10: Superman-Might as well get this one out of the way, because it's so goddamned obvious. Superman has yet to be in a good game, and is in fact responsible for one of the worst titles ever. Sure, he's nearly invincible, which presents a challenge in keeping true to the character and yet making the game interesting. But I think Rocksteady would see this as a challenge, not a problem. He's also got a large gallery of friends and villains that haven't been well-represented either. I think you could make one based in Metroplis, focusing mostly on his Earthly enemies such as Luthor and Toyman, and if that works well maybe expand to his more otherworldly foes like Darkseid and Mongol in a sequel. This might be the hardest one to get right, but it seems like it's an almost necessary next step.

#9: Green Arrow: A huge criticism of Green Arrow is that he's basically a Batman clone with arrows. Both rich billionaires who regularly employ teen sidekicks, it's easy to see why. What better way to establish differences than have Rocksteady take a crack at him saying, sure he's got a lot of similarities to Batman, but how do we highlight the differences? The most obvious way would be to really focus in on distance fighting and stealth. Arrow is no Batman in hand to hand combat, so he'd have to be a little more creative, but creatively using his arrows could be a lot of fun.

#8: Green Lantern: Arguably as hard if not harder to get right than Superman, but oh what a game this could be if done right. Although something based on Earth could work, a space-based adventure would be far more fitting, and something completely different for Rocksteady to tackle.

#7: The Question: I think the Question would actually be quite easy to make a game for with the L.A. Noire template. Just throw in a little stealth and action, but focus on the investigation and interrogation side of things and you've got a game that fits Q downpat. He wouldn't even need a decent rogue's gallery, you could throw in some major but normal DC mob boss like Zucco or Falcone as the primary villain. Throw in some crazy conspiracy mystery and you'd pretty much have the essential Question game.

#6: The Punisher: Much like the Green Arrow, the Punisher draws a lot of comparisons to Batman. Family was murdered by criminals, becomes a vigilante, yadda yadda yadda. Some would argue he's basically Batman with guns, and they wouldn't be horribly far off. An easy thing that would work is take the basic Batman template and throw in guns, but I would expect Rocksteaady to be more creative with that, really ramp up the action and make it run and gun gameplay, maybe something a little like Uncharted.

#5: Dr. Strange: Aside from a few supporting roles, the Sorcerer Supreme hasn't had much of a role in games, and it's a shame, because while his powers are a little vague and hard to define, he's got an interesting enough rogue's gallery and universe to make a more compelling game than most more famous heroes. You could go a lot of different ways with this but an action-rpg where you can upgrade abilities and learn new spells as you go would be extremely awesome.

#4: Daredevil: This one's almost too goddamn easy. Daredevil pretty much is Marvel's Batman in terms of the fact that he deals with mostly with regular mobsters and crooks in a crime-ridden slum and his style of fighting is pretty identical as well. You could probably just copy Arkham City filling it with established Daredevil enemies like Kingpin and Bullseye instead. And I'd be more than ok with that frankly.

#3 Aquaman: Yes Aquaman, even with your sliced off hand, you are still not a badass. You are still the joke of the DC universe no matter how many times they try to re-invent you. You know what could easily fix that? A kickass game from Rocksteady. This could easily big the biggest challenge for any team because it could be goofy, but put his biggest villains in a Bioshock-like sunken city with some solid combat and I think you'd have a winner in your hands.

#2: Deadpool: Rocksteady might not be able to top a game as awesome as Arkham City, so why try? How about instead make a game that pokes fun mercilessly at it? Deadpool is huge right now and a game that features him spoofing good and bad superhero games alike could be very cool. It could be like the Serious Sam of superhero games.

#1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: To someone who has only seen the cartoons or movies, this may seem like an odd choice. But anybody who has read the original graphic novel knows there is a much more serious side to the green dudes who are mainly known for their love of pizza and goofy antics. You could have some seriously awesome ninja stealth and combat, loaded with fanservice, but keeping to more normal enemies like Baxter Stockman and the Rat King with of course Shredder as the main villain. Co-op play would be a good idea, but not a necessity. This is easily the title I would most like to see Rocksteady or really any solid developer tackle and give it a serious run.

Ok that's the list. I should be back Thursday or Friday with an All-4-One review and possibly other stuff. Til then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: The Binding of Isaac

Character packs are the new horse armor...

2011-10-16T08:42:00.000-05:00

Arkham City, arguably the biggest game of the year comes out Tuesday, already crammed with fanservice. In an unusual move of confidence, most reviews are out already so clearly there was no embargo but as expected the reviews are stellar so it's not like they had anything to worry about. The worrying thing is what's being offered in terms of DLC. You've already got Catwoman requiring either a brand new copy or $10 extra, then there's Robin & Nightwing, costing $7 a piece. Granted, none of this stuff is necessary, and of course perceived value is relative, but that seems a lot for one character not too mention it seems like milking the game bone dry already. I can't wait for the Blue Beetle & Booster Gold packs myself. I'll probably have a lot more on Arhkam City itself in my next post, which will most likely be sometime Tuesday after I've had a little time with the game.

Another huge game that's coming out Tuesday, but probably shouldn't have is Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. Because Ratchet & Clank is a truly great series that has been a reliable staple for Sony, but it's never been a mega-hit on the level of God of War or Halo, and to stand out in the shadow of Arkham City it would need to be that. Surely, it offers a solid alternative with its humor and co-op play, but if it had merely been released say in September which was overall a weak month, it would have gotten plenty of attention. I certainly am getting it along with Arkham City because I love the series and it offers a different kind of multi-player from the usual fragfests most mp offers.

Ok, that;s pretty much all for today, I might post again before picking up Arkham City & All 4 One, but if not my next post will definitely be impressions of those 2 titles. In the meantime, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

It's Felicia Day!

2011-10-11T08:53:00.002-05:00

In case you aren't aware of the incredibly talented (and downright adorable) Felicia Day, today brings you several ways to get yourself acquainted. First up, the 5th season finale of her incredible web series, The Guild is up on Xbox live today. It's easily the best web series out there, far funnier than most network sitcoms, managing to dole out more laughs in 5 minutes than they do all season, and it's free to watch so if you haven't seen it yet it's easy to catch up which since the episodes are so short you can probably do in a day (seriously, each season runs at most a couple of hours).
Then she's pulling double duty for the Dragon Age franchise, starring in a new web series based on it called Redemption, which you can watch the first episode of below:

And she's also a character in the latest Dragon Age II dlc, Mark of the Assassin, which seems to be a good way to keep yourself busy until Arkham City hits next week. In other words, it's an awesome day to be a Felicia Day fan, And frankly if you aren't there's something horribly wrong with you...

That's it for today, but I think I'll be able to post once more this week (most likely the weekend). Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Dragon Age Legends Remix

WATCHA GONNA DO WHEN HULKAMANIA RUNS OVER KINECT!!!

2011-10-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

I know there are a couple of surprisingly good core titles for Kinect such as Child of Eden and The Gunstringer, but releases like this starring a guy who is clearly desperately clinging to his last minute of fame are much more representative of the overall catalog and keep Kinect pretty much at an expensive niche at best (do you really want to pay that much just to say voice commands in Mass Effect 3?) and just a silly Wii wannabe knockoff at worst.

Speaking of Mass Effect 3, multi-player has pretty much been confirmed, but with not a whole lot of details on how it will play out so far. I think this is a terrible, terrible idea. The gameplay in this series does not lend itself well to multi-player at all. This really seems like a desperate attempt to shoe-horn this in so it can have a wider appeal. But I can't imagine anyone who had no interest in the series before picking up the latest chapter simply because it has multi-player. I would support an MP-focused game set in the ME universe, that would make perfect sense. But it would require a pretty drastic change to how Bioware games play in general so I'm willing to be this will be a spectacular failure. But frankly as long as the single-player doesn't suffer, I could care less.

And that's really all I have for today. I have a pretty packed week, but I should be able to get at least one more post in, most likely Wednesday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Raven

PS2 games on the PS3? What a novel idea...

2011-10-04T08:41:00.001-05:00

It's not as big a deal as it used to be, but there was a pretty big stir when Sony decided to no longer make PS3's backwards compatible, especially since the Wii offers complete backwards compatibility & most original Xbox titles work on the 360. Now granted, this was a lot more important when quality PS3 titles were few and far between in the early days of the system, but it's still something Xbox and Wii owners can lord over PS3 owners. I know I was pretty pissed when my backwards compatible 40 gig died and my options were to either spend a ridiculous amount on ebay for another or buy a new one that lacked the feature for far cheaper.

Well now Sony has decided to sporadically release "rare" PS2 titles as downloadable titles for the PS3. These will be straight and dirty ports with no enhancements, so if you already own the games, not a whole lot of incentive. The good news is the rumored price point is $10 for these games. This is good news when most good PS2 games easily run $20 or more used, and can be ridiculously high brand new (i.e. Godhand, which is in the first batch, is a weird little cult game but goes for $70 brand new on Amazon). So this may end up being a good move, depending on what gets released. I personally would love to see Persona 4 show up for $10, it still runs around $40 most places. What would really make this a sweet plan is to see some imports that never made it stateside, but that might be hoping for too much.

That is all for today, I should have another post up by Saturday. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: The Last Stand

Batman's still > than Spider-Man..

2011-10-04T00:31:00.000-05:00

Ok seriously, what has happened since that supposed watershed moment in 2009 when Arkham City was released? This was supposed to bring in a huge renaissance of awesome super-hero based video games. We have had plenty of super-hero games in the last 2 years, and nothing has really changed, has it? Still one craptacular licensed game after another with no real sign of improvement. The one that stood out from the crowd was Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. It actually got rave reviews. I am a huge Spider-Man fan, I would love for there to be a great Spidey game. Shattered Dimensions was far from it. The camera was awful, the dialogue a pale imitation of any of the Spider-Men in it and the controls were pretty sub-par. Especially the incredibly terrible, nearly unplayable "Noir" levels which were a pale imitation of Asylum's whole stealth motif.

So I'm not horribly excited about the same developer releasing another Spider-Man game, which comes out tomorrow. That being said, they certainly trimmed the fat here, only focusing on regular Spider-Man and the 2099 version, which seems to form a more cohesive story. I guess if they actually improved the camera and combat it might be worth a look. I might rent it if I have time and opportunity, if so I'll post a review.

The other big release this week is RAGE from shooter gods id Software. But a lot has changed since the glory days of Doom & Quake. The FPS landscape is ruled by the likes of Halo & Modern Warfare & Battlefield. Rage will have to be something really special to stand out in what is an incredibly crowded field. My hunch is it won't, and as I only play shooters once in blue moon as is, I doubt I'll get around to it anytime soon.

-That's pretty much it for today, I should almost certainly have another post up tomorrow, but til then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Grey

My Top Ten RPGs of all time! For now...

2011-10-01T08:55:00.001-05:00

Yup here it is, my totally flexible, ever-changing current favorite rpg list. I look at a lot of all time bests list and they seem so rigid, especially the ones seemingly completely stuck on previous eras as the only "golden age" of gaming. Also while I am a huge rpg nerd, I certainly have not played every game currently out there, so this is just a best of list of the ones I've played so far, which over the years is a fairly large amount.

#10. Kingdom Hearts: The second game might have been a lot more polished, but it's hard to top the original in terms of the wonder and wow factor that came along with the seemingly impossible but completely awesome merging of two universes like Disney & Square. Interacting with legendary characters from both never loses its appeal. I have gone through the game many many times and what it manages to really capture better than most is a pure sense of fun and imagination, Now if they'd just finally getting around to making another one for home consoles instead of releasing portable spin-offs...

#9. Lunar: The Silver Star: Now most probably played the very good re-release on the PS one but that was just a little extra polish to what was already a fantastic game and one of the few reasons to own a Sega CD. The battles were admittedly a tad simplistic and didn't require a whole lot of strategy overall, but what really makes the game stand out is the fantastic music and extremely fun and funny characters along with some of the funniest npc dialogue you'll ever run into.

#8. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: Mario in a rpg? Surely you must be joking! It's amazing to see that what probably started off as a novel experiment has become one of the great rpg franchises. I have played and loved every Mario rpg since the first, but the series wouldn't have gotten anywhere if the original hadn't been completely fantastic which it was with a great fun story and the really novel idea of actually teaming with Bowser to stop a common foe along with the introduction of a turn-based yet interactive battle system that was really innovative at the time and still implemented a lot to this day. I'd really love to see a full-on sequel incorporating favorites from this and the Paper Mario series someday, but that's probably too much awesome to hope for.

#7. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion : I have actually never beaten Oblivion. I probably could have done it quite easily, the main quest is very direct and not all that.... oooohhhh what is that fortress/cave/temple over there?!? As most who have played it can tell you, there's just so much to do in Oblivion that it could take you years to actually get around to doing the main quest. Who has time to stop invading demons from another dimension? I'm busy becoming the head of all the guilds! I seriously do not think there is another game I have poured so much time into, it easily clocked in at a couple hundred hours by the time I finally stopped playing. If Skyrim is actually better, I may never need another game ever again...

#6: Rogue Galaxy: The PS2 was host to a ton of fantastic rpgs, and IMHO Rogue Galaxy was the best of the lot. It had a fantastic and fun story about SPACE PIRATES! Which needs to be a theme more often. The battle system was just a lot of fun and you could lose tons of hours doing side stuff such as synthesizing equipment or hunting down bounties or even competing in insect tournaments. All balanced by a fun and memorable cast.

#5: Shining Force II: I love me a good turn-based strategy rpg. And while there have been plenty of great ones since the 16-bit days, none has really held me in it's thrall quite like SF II. The huge cast, tons of classes and unlike most games in this genre, you could bring a huge party into battle (where as most limit you to a small party no matter how many characters you have) making it really feel like you had an army at your hands.

#4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The year was 2003. George Lucas had just tried his hardest to destroy any love for Star Wars with the absolutely terrible Episodes I & II. Star Wars was pretty much beginning to lose traction, something previously unthinkable. Then KOTOR happened. The history of Star Wars games is not great to say the least, but Bioware is pretty much like the Pixar of the gaming industry, and this was their Toy Story. Throwing out a lot of what fans were familiar with and placing it back in a time when Jedi were plentiful worked pretty brilliantly. A great story with a fantastic twist few saw coming. This was also the first game to really go into the whole morality system that has anchored most Bioware games since, which really allowed for the feeling that you were truly driving the story rather than just along for the ride. Add in a cast that stands right up there with the best Star Wars characters and you've got an epic classic that's hard to top.

#3. Final Fantasy IX: No list of best rpgs is complete without a Final Fantasy in there. I've enjoyed nearly the entire series, but IX is my favorite, mainly because it does an excellent job of blending what the FF series was in the 16-bit days to what it was moving towards in the future at the time. I won't argue whether the FF games have gotten worse or better, but this was a fantastic mix of the old and the new, along with a really fun story and battle system, along with my favorite FF character, Vivi. Also one of the best endings I've ever seen in a game, period.

#2: Secret of Mana: Magical. There's really no other word to describe how playing Secret of Mana feels. To be fair it lacks the fantastic story and truly memorable characters of a lot of other great rpgs, but it manages to create a wondrous journey backed by a beautiful soundtrack and managed to do right a lot of things modern games still don't do like have multi-player in an rpg! Not to mention mostly competent A.I. partners that didn't get themselves knocked out every couple of minutes (I'm looking at you, Donald Duck, though that can apply to characters in KOTOR and Rogue Galaxy as well). A great weapon upgrading system and a battle system that never got boring. You can easily still see this game's influences to this day, even if it's not really given credit for it.

#1. Chrono Trigger: This shouldn't really be a surprise, but then it's hard to be surprised by pure perfection such as Chrono Trigger. The combo-attack system was revolutionary then and I haven't really seen anything that comes close. The huge number of possible endings was a first and is still rarely topped. The easter eggs added tons of extra hours to a game that was already pretty lengthy. It also manages to tell a touching story filled with all the comedy, action, drama and romance you could pretty much ask for. This is the perfect rpg, and while I remain open to the idea that something better may eventually come out, I seriously doubt it.

Ok that's the list, but it's not a statement of fact. Better games may and in fact will probably come along, so if I need to do a big update to this list at some point I will. I should mention I excluded games where you might actually argue that they aren't rpgs, such as Legend of Zelda & Mass Effect, otherwise those would definitely be near the top. I might have another post tomorrow, but most likely it'll be Monday. Until then, if there's a game on this list you haven't played, you really owe it to yourself to check it out however you can.

Too Mutant...

2011-09-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

I rented X-Men: Destiny and played it for a few hours this morning, it's extremely reminiscent of Silicon Knights last effort, Too Human, which overall isn't a good thing. It's got some big positives, any X-Men will be thrilled at interacting with many minor and major characters from the comic series, and the customization that is allowed is fun and interesting, if a little simplistic. But the game just feels sloppy and unfinished in a lot of ways. The whole game looks like an original Xbox title with a slight HD upgrade. The combat is pretty sluggish, which makes you less effective at fighting than you really should be, and there's just not much variety to the combat. Admittedly I had fun with what I did play, but I was several hours in and nearly every other review clocks a playthrough at roughly 5 or 6 hours. This would be fine for a downloadable title, and frankly, if this were say a $20 downloadable title, I'd actually probably recommend it overall as it would be a fun romp for a few mindless hours, but as a full retail release this is pretty unacceptable. Maybe hardcore X-men nuts caan justify it, but everyone else should probably give it a pass and just wait a few weeks til a far superior super-hero game is due out (that'd be Arkham City).

That's really all I got for today, but I should have another post up either tomorrow or Friday. In the meantime, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

Terra Nova needs TUROK!!!

2011-09-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

Ok not really, but I'm watching the much-hyped Dino series Terra Nova, about people from the future going back to a time when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and it seems given all the giant reptiles that want to make a tasty snack out of humans, someone like Turok could've been very useful. What do I actually think of the show? The pilot works as a fun mindless action romp, but I'm not really sure it has any legs. It was entertaining enough for me to give it a chance, and it seems like Fox will give this at least a full season unlike many promising sci-fi shows.

The biggest video game release (at least that's a new game and not a re-release) this week is X-Men: Destiny. It seems on the surface to have some of the ingredients for Arkham Asylum, such as no movie or TV series tie-in and has a fairly original concept of having an original hero and choosing between either the X-Men or the Brotherhood. That being said, developer Silicon Knights doesn't have the greatest track record as of late, the 3 choices of characters seem like lame stereotypes instead of custom character most games would let you make, and frankly it doesn't look very good graphically. I will probably still rent it and give opinions tomorrow, but until then, we'll probably chuck it up to another disappointing licensed game that probably could've been great.

That's pretty much it for today, should have another post up tomorrow or Thursday. Until then here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: The King's League

What the hell has happened to Level 5?

2011-09-26T08:09:00.001-05:00

Gah, sorry about only posting once last week, I've been working a ton and it's kind of left my creative batteries drained. I should be able to post 3 times this week, I'll see if I can do more to pick up the slack. Anyways, this is something I've been thinking about for a little while now, but Level 5 seems to be yet another great company that thrived in the PS2 era and inexplicably has pretty much lost it's magic in the PS3 era. I mean seriously, in the PS2 era, they were rpg superstars, they made several of my favorite rpgs on that system-Dark Cloud 2 (the original was decent enough, but 2 was a massive improvement), Dragon Quest VII (my favorite in the whole series) and Rogue Galaxy, which is one of my my favorite rpgs of all time (I should probably do that list sometime, maybe later this week if I can). Not to mention a little puzzle series on the DS called Professor Layton which is generally considered one of its best franchises.

So it was no wonder when the PS3 was about to launch, one of the most hotly anticipated titles was White Knight Chronicles from Level 5. It looked epic, with you being able to turn into a giant knight in order to fight giant demons. Of course, aside from the fact that it took freaking forever to actually come out (you were seeing footage of this game before the PS3 actually launched, it finally came out in North America just last year), it was pretty mediocre. Ok, no huge deal, Dark Cloud was fairly mediocre IMHO, but 2 was a massive improvement and remains a favorite to this day, they should have no issue making a decent sequel right? Well no as it turns out. White Knight Chronicles II was released earlier this month and the reviews are just as bad if not worse than for the first one. I've said several times this year that we seem to have a serious lack of solid console rpgs so for a great rpg company like this to be making big missteps is worrying. Granted, maybe all they need to do is realize that the whole concept isn't working, just drop it and move on to the next thing. Hopefully they have not lost their touch, because their next game due out here is a collaboration between themselves and the legendary Studio Ghibli.

No obviously the game looks incredible, and is already getting praise like "the most beautiful game I've ever played" thrown at it. So hopefully this is Level 5 getting their act together, because I don't think I will take it very well if a collaboration between these two awesome studios doesn't turn out well.

-Ok that's it for today, I should definitely be posting again tomorrow with thoughts on X-Men: Destiny (probably not a review, but Wednesday is a possibility for that). Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Man on a Ledge

The Top Ten Videogame Villains that deserve their own game...

2011-09-20T15:18:00.001-05:00

Video games used to be pretty simple. You were the hero, there was bad guy, and you beat him and saved the day/princess/planet/whatever. It's taken awhile, but we are starting to just now really get games that to least allow you to choose to be the bad guy or at least morally ambivalent. But truly interesting villains should get their time in the spotlight s well, so here's 10 that are most deserving:

10. The Purple Tentacle: From the awesome Day of The Tentacle, Purple has all the makings of classic villain. Created by toxic sludge, he's arrogant and a super-genius, and wants to enslave the world. With adventure games making a comeback, one starring Purple with the trademark Maniac Mansion humor involving executing such a world-conquering plot would be pretty awesome.

9. Psy-crow: Earthworm Jim's arch-enemy and most competent antagonist could do very well in a hardcore yet humorous action title that would be essentially the same as classic EWJ game play. It wouldn't even be that hard to make a concept for, just have him constantly thwarting Jim and his buddies.

8. Lechuck: The main villain of the Monkey Island series seems like he has a lot of potential for a great pirate-themed title, be it an adventure game or something along the lines of Pirates! or Age of Booty. Something that showed his rise from nobody to legendary pirate would be pretty interesting.

7. Dr. Robotnik: While Sonic has been damaged more or less beyond repair at this point, Robotnik getting his own title might stand a decent chance. He always has a wide variety of vehicles which could be very fun and interesting to actually use. The structure could be easily done as well-progress through levels scooping up adorable furry critters for your robot army and each stage boss is a lame friend of Sonic's you get to ultimately destroy which would be very cathartic for long-suffering fans.

6. Captain Qwark/Dr. Nefarious: Granted Qwark has evolved from egotistical villain to ego-driven sidekick but Dr. Nefarious is still full out villain and either would be great in their own game. For Qwark, something that allows you play as the hero Qwark actually thinks he is would be awesome. As for Nefarious, pretty much anything involving a scheme of conquering the universe will do.

5. Magus: The initial (though not true) villain of the best rpg of all time (FACT), Chrono Trigger, Magus is probably the only one on this list who would work in game where he isn't necessarily the villain. The quest to redeem himself after the events of Chrono Trigger would certainly be interesting but just as good would be his rise to power. We know he started off a spoiled brat in a technologically advanced society, his journey from the doom of that culture to the most powerful wizard of the Middle Ages would be something to see.

4. Frank Fontaine: The main villain of Bioshock, but also the leader of huge class struggle between himself and Andrew Ryan, the founder of Rapture. It would be extremely interesting to see this class war erupt at Rapture's high and then see the volatile downfall, with you being Fontaine, causing it ll to come crashing down around you.

3. Saren: This one is so easy it pretty much writes itself. It's the tale of Saren's corruption, from heroic Spectre to agent of the Reapers. Was he always someone who played way outside the lines to get things done, like a renegade Shephard, or was he more of a paragon that was slowly turned by Sovereign? I think we deserve at least one game starring him to find out.

2. Bowser: It's actually really surprising Bowser doesn't have his own game by now. Sure he kidnaps the Princess eleventy-billion times, but former Mario adversaries Wario & DK have theirown series of awesome titles, and the Koopa King has been playable in some form in numerous off-shoot titles. A platformer or rpg actually starring Bowser is long overdue.

1. Ganon: Nintendo's equivalent to Darth Vader would be a great inspiration for a game. We pretty much always see Ganon as a fully developed warrior to be reckoned with, but we know from OOT he started off as a petty thief. A God of War or even Prince of Persia-esque game about his quest to aqcuire the Triforce of power seems like such a no-brainer. Maybe it's to keep some of the mystery, but Ganon easily seems like the villain most worthy of a game to me.

Ok that's it for today, I should have another post up later in the week, in the meantime here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: J. Edgar

The Ten worst gaming peripherials/add-ons OF ALL TIME!!!

2011-09-18T19:23:00.000-05:00

The 3DS thumbstick add-on looks terrible, and it will probably be terrible until it's actually incorporated into the next iteration of the hard ware. But frankly, it's hardly the worst thing companies have come out with. Here are 10 far worse ideas that probably shouldn't have gone past the pitch phase....

#10. The Sega CD: Some may argue that this is actually a system, but I'd argue otherwise, since it you cannot play it without the Genesis. Expensive, not heavily supported and a seemingly half-assed attempt to beat Nintendo out the gate before their CD add-on that never really materialized was supposed to launch. Filled with craptacular ports and terrible FMV games (not there's ever really been such a thing as a good FMV game) the only redeeming thing about this was that there were several genuine classics on the system such as Sonic CD, the Lunar series and the definitive version of Eternal Champions.

#9. The 32x: Much like the ill-fated cd, the 32x was Sega's half-assed attempt to offer gamers 32-bit gaming without actually being 32-bit. It required the Genesis to use so again not a full console, was a bitch to setup and was really lacking in anything that would constitute a solid library, with tons of terrible ports and nothing that really seemed to true 32-bit.

#8. The PS2 Eyetoy: This just may have been technology that was ahead of it's time, what with Wii, Kinect and Move all doing to a greater extent. Doesn't mean it doesn't suck though. Support again was pretty much nil, and really not one of the titles was memorable. The only reason the PS3 version isn't a complete failure because they just integrated it into Move.

#7. The GBA E-reader: This bulky piece of junk was how you played overpriced old Nintendo games on the go. It was a stupid unnecessary format, But even worse was the add-on content, where it actually required another GBA and a link cable in order to download things like additional levels.

#6: Wii Wheel: It's a couple cents worth of plastic that does absolutely nothing, yet many casual gamers were convinced it was necessary, so tons were sold. Nearly any plastic add-on for the Wii would belong on the list. but the Wii Wheel was the most successful, so it pretty much represents the whole range.

#5: R. O. B.: ROB has sort of a cool retro appeal these days thanks to his surprising appearances in the occasional video game, but those old enough to have actually owned one remember it was basically a highly-hyped POS with only 2 incredibly craptacular games ever even released for it. Some people claim it was part of a "trojan horse" strategy by Nintendo so people would think the NES wasn't just another video game console, but I don't remember one kid who enjoyed ROB and many skipped the practically useless robot altogether.

#4: Sega Activator: In concept, this might have sounded kind of cool, fighting games were all the rage at the time, and actually being able to kick and punch your opponents seemed like a great idea. The execution was where this truly failed, as everything was needlessly complicated and worked terribly, with things like high ceiling or a chandelier causing massive interference.

#3: The Super Scope: The NES zapper was pretty awesome, it worked surprisingly well and had a decent amount of solid games. The Super Scope by comparison only had a handful of games, none of which were very good, and also had issues even working properly. It also was constantly expensive, requiring a whopping SIX AA batteries to operate.

#2: The Power Glove: "I love the Power Glove" it's so bad. Truer words were never spoken. This might be the absolute worst controller ever made. Only 2 games were ever released for it specifically, and they were terrible. It was compatible with other titles, but good luck getting it to work even if you could figure out the controls.

#1: The Gameboy Camera/Printer: Most of these previous ideas listed at least have some logic behind the idea. The Gameboy Camera has none whatsoever. Sure it might have been one of the most portable "cameras" at the time it came out, but who the hell wanted monochrome low res pictures that you couldn't even tell what the pictures are of? This is absolutely the worst idea for a peripheral/add-on ever, no contest.

Ok that's it for today, with a little luck I should have another post up by Tuesday, until then, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

Well it's not like Sony has their act together either...

2011-09-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

So the 3DS lately seems doomed to fail, right? Poor sales, gimmicky atrocious add-ons, and a constant promise of of a killer library that has yet to materialize. Surely Sony has seen these mistakes, not to mention learned from their previous ones and will completely destroy Nintendo's stranglehold on the handheld market with Vita right? Clearly you have not been pay attention to Sony.

One of the biggest complaints about the PSP was it's shitty battery life. You were lucky if you got more than a few hours out of the damn thing. People have had similar complaints about the 3DS' battery life, since it's considerably shorter than the DS'. So surely Sony would fix that issue this time, right? Nope. The Vita has at best the same battery life as the 3DS. Sony of course is offering "optional" extended batteries.

The other big issue links to Sony's bone-headed insistence on proprietary media. Virtually everything these days uses an SD card, including the 3DS (hell it comes with a 2 gb that seems like it'll cover most of your needs). And it's a relatively cheap storage medium. The Vita has no internal storage and has no memory included. While Sony has stated you'll be able to save games on their own cards, virtually any additional content such as movies, music or dlc will pretty much require it. And of course it only works with their cards, which are more than double the cost of comparative SD card.

So throw in the shitty battery life, seemingly necessary extended battery and ridiculously overpriced memory cards the Vita just seems like the clusterfuck that was the PSP all over again, just with slightly improved graphics and front and back touch pads. Yay. Maybe I should just give in and start saving for an Iphone/Android....

Ok that's all for today, hopefully I should have another post up Sunday. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Crystal Story

Just when you think it can't get worse...

2011-09-15T10:27:00.002-05:00

So Nintendo's big conference was mostly a lot of nothing. They announced a new Monster Hunter title, a Pink 3DS and that Kid Icarus, which probably should've been a launch title, was delayed yet again to next year. That wasn't enough to impress investors, as the stock dropped 5%. They didn't talk about the controller extension at the presentation, quite tellingly, they just revealed it on the show floor, and it's not just a second circular pad, it actually adds several buttons, which seems at least on the surface to add too much functionality to offer games that are merely compatible, which is worrying if for no other reason I doubt a lot of current owners have much intention of buying it. I mean seriously, maybe $20 for the add-on itself is mildly justifiable, but it also requires a separate battery, with no word on how long that lasts. Really? Another battery to deal with? Why is the 3DS so half-assed? Honestly if this becomes a forced add-on that all games require, I don't really see myself keeping my 3DS, but I don't see how anybody buys this thing separately in any significant amount unless it becomes mandatory or Nintendo offers it in a way that nearly everyone will end up owning it (i.e. packing it in free with a major title that uses it or possibly even several major titles). I really think Nintendo is in a no-win situation here, they may just have to admit they fucked up and dump the whole thing.

Ok that's it for today, sorry it's a little later than planned, but I've been a little under the weather the last couple of days, should have another post up either tomorrow or Saturday. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: We Bought a Zoo

State of the Mushroom Kingdom address...

2011-09-11T23:08:00.001-05:00

Ok before I get to talking about the Big N's pending press conference I did promise I'd say some stuff about Disgaea 4. I'm several hours in so far and enjoying it quite a bit. Everything seems a lot tighter and more refined than the somewhat lazy third entry and the new features like the cam-pain HQ make sure there's always something to do to take a break from the overall grind. And sure there's plenty of grinding, but the battles are lots of fun and very dynamic. I highly recommend it to any rpg gamer, especially with the severe lack of rpgs out for home consoles this year.

Now tomorrow is a big Nintendo conference specifically about the 3DS. They will most likely be showing off the holiday releases that will make this system a must-own such as Mario Kart, Super Mario 3D, Kid Icarus, etc. along with hopefully a look at some future titles (such as Monster Hunter G). They might officially announce the second circular pad, and frankly they better come up with something to offer the current install base. At the very least if the circular pad is real, it should be offered free to any current owners. But frankly given how bulky and ungainly the thing looks, current owners should probably be given a free voucher for the new design. This isn't like the original DS compared to any later iteration-nothing added in those designs drastically changed gameplay options or cut off a significant portion of owners from enjoying the games because they had an earlier design. I think Nintendo knows it really has to blow the doors off the the hinges tomorrow, so hopefully that's exactly what they will do. Otherwise they may soon find themselves relegated to the inconsequential 3rd place they were in the last couple of generations...

That is all for today, I should most definitely have a post up by Tuesday specifically about Nintendo's big press conference. Until then, here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

Yes, because creating a huge divide will save the system...

2011-09-09T09:02:00.001-05:00

Nintendo seems to be in desperation mode with the 3DS still. I'm not completely sure why, the system hasn't even gone through it's first holiday season. But they've massively slashed the price and are now supposedly adding a rather drastic re-design that adds on another analog stick. Fair enough, dual analog sticks have been the norm for long time now in controller schemes and should help immensely with control issues (also might be a big step towards porting Gamecube games, which has been rumored and would be awesome).

But what about those of us who already bought the system? Well like most things Nintendo brings out that add functionality, we can get one for our current system. Because that worked so well with the Motion+ add on and the small handful of games that even bothered to support it. Much like the Motion + the second analog is being touted s a good idea that should've been in the original design to begin with, but it instantly creates a significant portion of the audience who won't have this thing and won't buy it for a number of reasons, the main one probably the feeling of being screwed over just for buying the system early. And then you have developers, which Nintendo has a history or more or less leaving to their own devices when making games for the system, who certainly won't want to cut that portion off. If Nintendo wants this to work they will most likely have to mandate that all games actually use this second analog stick. But given Nintendo's history with third parties I don't really see that happening, plus it would absolutely look like a huge fuck you to anybody who bought the system prior. It's really starting to look like Nintendo is a rudderless ship here, and for their sake I hope they fix it at lest by the time the Wii U launches.

That's it for today I should be posting again tomorrow with thoughts on Disgaea 4 and maybe a couple other things. In the meantime here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Super Type

MMO'S Square, you're doing it wrong...

2011-09-06T23:32:00.000-05:00

Dragon Quest is one of the biggest series in video game history, even if its not a gigantic hit here, in Japan, the nation practically shuts down when one is released, so it's a huge coup for Nintendo to be the one getting all the DQ games lately. And hey, the series has never relied on graphics to impress(IX could've been done on a SNES), so it's not really something that'd even necessarily benefit from being on the PS3 or 360 normally. Dragon Quest X is one of the few reasons to actually hold on to your Wii beyond this holiday season really. But possibly not anymore. Dragonquest X is indeed coming, but in a drastic series departure, will be an online MMO. An online MMO on the Wii? Surely you must be joking? Apparently not.

Though hey, Monster Hunter Tri did at least decent numbers despite the Wii's lack of anything resembling a coherent system. And it is slated for Wii U at some point so maybe this can almost be seen as a test run. Get the kinks worked out before the Wii U version hits and maybe it'll be something that helps differentiate Nintendo's online from something else. The big issue is that they plan charging a subscription fee in order to get online. Now of course this is not completely unusual for an MMO, but it seems to be a really poor idea with the trend for MMOs these days not only being free to play, but that Nintendo's online reputation is a joke at this point, and they'll need to come up with something really impressive to get anybody to really go online with their system. The Wii is already long a lost cause in this area. We've been promised whatever Nintendo has planned for the Wii U will be better, but without any real evidence of such so far. DQX could be a huge way to get Nintendo fans online and a jumping point for a strong online portfolio, but having a subscription fee for an unproven online iteration on a system who's online functionality is already suspect long before its out is the wrong move. Hopefully Square will fix this either before the release or not long after it's out, or I think they'll have missed out on a huge opportunity.

That's it for today, I should be back tomorrow or Thursday with another post. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Blackthorne

Let the game avalanche begin!

2011-09-04T22:41:00.001-05:00

Now that we are pretty much at the end of Summer, it's time for gamers' wallets to get very, very afraid. Even with many big titles such as Mass Effect 3 & Twisted Metal pushed back to sometime next year, we still have a gigantic deluge of titles coming in the next few months, especially for those owning multiple consoles, and it begins here.One of the most exciting zombie games in a long while, Dead Island comes out, and we'll see if it lives up to the amazing trailer. I'm not a huge fan of zombie titles, but it certainly looks compelling and IGN describing it as "Fallout with zombies", sounds promising. The 3DS gets another N64 classic this Friday with the release of Star Fox 64, which much like the 3DS iteration of Ocarina of Time, is shaping up to be the definitive version, making the number of must-own titles for the system double to a whopping 2 (though that should increase shortly with several big titles due out by Christmas).

But as an rpg nut who has been dealing with a real lack of rpgs lately, I'm by far most interested in Disgaea 4 for the PS3. Sadly aside from Skyrim rpg gamers don't have a whole lot to look forward to. While I absolutely love most Nippon Ichi titles and really enjoyed the first two Disgaea titles, the third seemed like just a little too much of the same. This latest entry however looks to solve most of those issues with a whole ton of stuff to do along with online integration in ways you wouldn't see in any other series. Throw in the series trademark over the top insanity and humor and you might have the sleeper rpg of the year on your hands. Too bad it might get buried under all the bigger releases.

Ok that's all for today, I should have another post up by Tuesday. In the meantime here's your BIG BANG OF THE WEEK:

No Sony, you can't go Home again...

2011-09-02T22:45:00.000-05:00

It's generally agreed that Sony's Home program, designed to be a virtual space for gamers is a interestingly muddled experiment at the best of times. It's cumbersome, pointless, filled with annoying ads, and no one really uses it. Yet Sony seems determined to try and turn it into something gamers actually give a shit about. Their latest "genius" revamp? Turning it into some kind of MMO theme park. Really, a virtual theme park? Who the hell cares? This just seems like they are desperate to please at this point. It just seems ridiculously complicated like Home has always been. XBox live works because it keeps things streamlined and simple. It's virtually effortless to find people to play with on your level or any level you want. Now I have to go to some vaguely described section of a "theme park"? Why would I want to do that? And you plan on making it something else to play? If I wanted to be in a social MMO I would be in one, there's tons out there, all free to play, and better organized than anything Sony will come up with. Home is a lost cause, Sony should just dump it altogether and probably just try and ape Xbox live as best they can. People pay for that service because it's by far the best, Sony is free because no one in their right mind would pay for it, and shit like Home continues to re-enforce that fact.

That's all for today, I have a fairly packed weekend, but with a little luck I should have a post up Sunday. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Infestor

Welcome Back Kevin Butler....

2011-08-31T08:15:00.001-05:00

Yeah I wasn't completely aware he "left" either, but apparently he's back. Come to think of it though, Butler's been MIA since the whole hacking fiasco so it's good to see him back in action, because he's easily the most awesome thing Sony has ever come up with in terms of advertising.

Were you an early 3DS adopter? Well the sting of missing out on the sudden and massive price drop should be relieved a bit by the 10 Free NES games you get starting tomorrow. The full list has finally been revealed and as should be expected, it's bit of mixed bag, but with some genuine classics in there so nobody should really be complaining. Now if we could get a real date on the GBA titles not to mention be told what the last 5 are that'd be nice too.

Can Mass Effect continue without Commander Shepard? I guess we will find out, as Bioware has stated that while there will most likely be more titles set in the Mass Effect Universe, the third chapter wraps up Shepard's story and any new games would have a new protagonist. I'm sort of torn on this. It's good to not wear out a character, but on the other hand it's sort of like replacing any iconic character of a franchise, it feels weird. Plus it might be more personal for most, since each Shepard is unique to each person's decisions throughout the series, so it's someone that's grown with the player. But admittedly, assuming you beat Mass Effect 3 you just saved the whole goddamn universe, there's really nowhere to go but down with that character (although that could be something to explore as well). I guess we'll see if this decision pays off whenever the 4th Mass Effect title comes out.

That's really it for today, I should be back to a regular posting schedule so look for another post in the next day or two. In the meantime here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Hunger Games

Short Hiatus time again...

2011-08-19T08:34:00.000-05:00

Things have been going crazy this week with a new job opportunity (while still working my current job so I still have money to do basic things like buy food. I've been running ragged the whole week and it might not stop until I officially start at the new job so this blog is going dark til then. Hopefully shouldn't be more than a couple weeks, no more than a month tops.

Games are too expensive. Except of course our games...

2011-08-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

The price debate on games has pretty much been going on since the advent of cds. People thought hey, cds cost mere pennies to manufacture, surely games won't be nearly as expensive now, right? And while we didn't see the occasional $80-100 game like we had during the cartridge era, the average price of games stayed fairly steady, and for the most part actually climbed to the $60 price point most major console games are now.

Developers & publishers have for years told the very plausible line of rising development and marketing costs. Big games can cost as much as a small budget movie to make these days, and obviously to make that money back they have to sell lots of copies. However with console cycles lasting much longer and digital distribution becoming a bigger piece of the pie shouldn't prices be going down? Surprisingly several developers have actually come out and said $60 is too much for game. Is their answer to lower prices? Of course not, their answer is too make sure that you get your $60 worth out of game. And sure, there are some titles that can probably easily make their case.

Take Skyrim, the latest Elder Scrolls title hitting in a few months. The Elder Scrolls titles literally have hundreds of hours of gameplay to offer, so that's a no-brainer to argue for the price point. What about games that don't offer nearly that many hours? Most games offer high enough production values of course, but the average length is far shorter, taking 10-15 hours. How do those justify a similar price tag? Some tack on pointless multi-player, but many who buy those games buy them for one or the other, not really both. Why should we pay for both? I'm pretty excited about Uncharted 3, but I have no interest in the multi-player content. If I was offered the single-player mode by itself for cheaper, I would snatch that up in a heartbeat. Everybody seems to be sharing these kind of sentiments-that games should in general be cheaper, possibly offering different options. But nobody seems to be willing to actually take that step. Hopefully someone will break that price barrier soon, as I believe it would benefit everybody.

That's all for today, I should have my next post up in the the next couple of days. In the meantime, here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

10 awesomely nerdy music videos

2011-08-12T00:11:00.000-05:00

This is most definitely not some kind of list of best nerdy music videos, because there's so many out there I'm bound to not even really know half of them. But when extreme Nerdery and music combine, often it's a beautiful, beautiful thing, so here are 10 I just really like either for the song itself or something to do with the video:

#10: Bruno Mars-The Lazy Song

Bruno Mars is decidedly not nerdy in the least, but Leonard Nimoy is of course one of the great geek icons and is doing brilliant send up of himself. If it was just any old guy in video it wouldn't be anything special of course, but Spock flipping people off, buying porn mags and practicing the Vulcan greeting in the mirror are just things only us nerds & geeks would find so ridiculously entertaining.

#9: Goldfish-We Come Together

I really shouldn't even have to explain why this video is so awesome and amazing when one viewing will say it all for me. The great animation paying homage to the 8 & 16-bit glory days combined with nods to so many classic characters and memes that you see something you missed every new viewing makes this a mandatory viewing for any geek.

#8-Jonathon Coulton-Re: Your Brains

Zombies have been all the rage lately but Jonathon Coulton had an anthem ready for the living impaired long before they were popping up in everything from hit cable shows to Jane Austen. Long a geek favorite, it actually didn't really have a music video til recently, but what an awesome video it is.

#7-Midichlorian Rhapsody

A parody of nerdy music favorite Bohemian Rhapsody, and a completely brilliant one at that. The prequels are a disgrace of of course, but when it can result in stuff like this, it becomes a little harder to hate (as long as I don't have to actually watch them again at any rate).

#6-The Guild-Game On

I only wanted to put one Guild video up, and admittedly it was a little hard to choose between this and "Do You Want to Date My Avatar", but the homage/mocking of Bollywood-style musicals gives Game On a slight edge in my nerdy opinion. Also the fact that it's basically all bout getting someone pumped to play a video game is a level of nerdiness few songs could hope to achieve.

#5-College Humor-Run this Raid

There are plenty of WoW videos out there, but this one is probably the best and funniest without being insulting or just plain lame since it accurately describes both what's awesome about the world's biggest MMO and what is really frustrating about it as well.

#4-Tonight I'm Frakking You

The capper of this celebration of many things nerd is that Raj from Big Bang Theory is in it. I'm also told the girl in the Leia bikini is from Caprica but since that was a terrible show I have no idea. It is also a pretty solid parody of the rather douchey Enrique Iglesias song.

#3-Broken Record Films: Roll a D6

No list like this would be complete without a D & D tribute and this is definitely one of the better ones out there. I haven't even played old school D & D in over a decade and this song makes me want to gather a crew in my basement and roll some dice.

#2-Sam Hart: Mario Kart Love Song

This is easily my personal fave because it's so original, simple and beautiful while managing to be touchingly funny as well. Sam Hart is simply incredibly talented (seriously check out his other songs) and really deserves to be much more than the youtube celebrity he is at the moment.

#1-Weird Al: White and Nerdy

You know this list isn't complete without at least one Weird Al video, and "White & Nerdy" is considered by many to be the closest thing to a nerd anthem. Yankovic is of course giant nerd himself and revels in it, but what really sells this video for me personally is Donny Osmond completely spazzing out, which I could watch for days on end.

Ok that's it for today but I should have another post up this weekend. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Lee-Lee's Quest

How much should you be paying for a 3DS game?

2011-08-10T07:50:00.000-05:00

One of the major flaws that has been brought up as a big reason for the 3DS not selling so hot is the seemingly high price of $40 across the board for all titles. With most mobile devices offering games for pennies many feel the $40 price tag is absolutely ridiculous, claiming 3DS games should run much lower, like in the $20-25 range/ Would this solve the issue? It might help, but I think it really needs a two-pronged approach. Premium AAA titles such as Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart, etc. Probably can justify the $40 price tag. Their production values are top notch and they offers tons of hours of playtime. But smaller or under the radar titles should be cheaper. There is no reason for me to be paying $40 for Pac-Man/Galaga Dimensions, especially when I can get those titles on my home console for half the price. As much as I enjoyed Ghost Recon, the production values on that game were terrible, it screamed budget title, yet still runs $40 brand new. The DS has a wide range of titles varying in price anywhere from $20-35, and many of the lower priced titles are of consistently good quality. There's really little reason 3DS games couldn't have similar pricing. It would give smaller profile titles a much better chance, and make the 3DS catalog a little more appealing overall. Of course at the end of the day having a wide range of quality titles will be one of the most important factors regardless of the price. Currently the 3DS has nothing close to that, and it has to change soon.

That's it for today, should have another post up tomorrow or Friday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: In Time

We need an actual network for gamers....

2011-08-08T06:51:00.000-05:00

Anybody who has actually watched G4 over the last several years know it has de-volved into a Spike/MTV wannabe with a slight nerd edge, getting rid of the majority of their personalities and programming about gaming and just replacing them with pretty models and Dane Cook wannabes. Cops 2.0 and extreme lameness like Code Monkeys & Spaceballs the animated series (which looks like it costs about $5 an episode and is written by guys not good enough to get on Mad TV). Now the argument may be that gamers don't want to watch TV about gaming when they could be playing games, but given that the recent EVO tournament had over 2 million streams (which would be a decent number of watchers for most cable shows) and the fact that each console has wide range of programming it does to promote it's product shows that their is audience for this sort of thing.

Programming wouldn't be that difficult, just transplant most of the shows already on consoles like Quore and Major's minute, throw in some classically cheesy gamer TV like Nick Arcade and Captain N, current stuff people actually watch like The Guild and Mega 64. Then throw in some obvious original programming like a review show, news show and a competition show or two and you're pretty much set.

This is actually not that different from how G4 was at the beginning, arguably it's only real weakness was lack of variety which could've easily been fixed if it had actually been given a few years to grow into its own real network rather than the awkward merger with Tech TV then quickly turning into the abomination it is today.

Ok that's all for now, this was meant to be my weekend post but I worked a lot and didn't quite have the energy to finish. There may be another post later today but Tuesday is more likely. Until then, here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Nintendo is ignoring its biggest weapon on the 3DS...

2011-08-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

So Nintendo has more or less admitted that the 3DS is in critical condition, but to their credit they are taking fairly drastic steps to turn it around, namely with a huge price drop and an emphasis on what looks to be a pretty strong holiday lineup with the trio of Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart and Kid Icarus Uprising.

That's a pretty good start, but I really think that Nintendo is ignoring a major aspect of its system that they have barely mentioned even though the potential applications are huge. Much like the Wii, the 3DS has a Mii system, where you can make little simple avatars or you, your friends and family or even famous faces and characters. The new hitch to this is Mii Plaza combined with the 3DS' street pass feature. Essentially you carry your 3DS with you wherever you go and odds your 3DS will contact someone else's 3DS and you'll swap Mii's to be used in the simple but surprisingly addictive Find Mii RPG. It's a fun but limited application of what this feature could really be. With the right steps this could be a huge social media tool, right up there with facebook or twitter. Add in new games to play, incentives to meet people (you already can get hats for your Mii through playing Find Mii, getting more exclusive items for your Mii through playing new games or simply meeting enough Miis would add a lot of variety to this feature). The 3DS has internet capability as well, so integrating this into something like Facebook or Twitter could make it all the more appealing.

Social Media and networking is a huge thing. We know this. Nintendo has something that can really take advantage of that fact and they are virtually ignoring it. Don't get me wrong I'll prefer a slate of really solid software over social media bullshit any day but it doesn't change the fact that tons of people do similar stuff on facebook already and if Nintendo really pushed and marketed this right it could be one of the defining selling points of the system that really helps it stand out from all the portable competition. But odds are that won't happen because if there's one thing Nintendo's really known for, it's introducing a really cool new idea and then barely even bothering to support it...

That's all for today, I should theoretically have another post up this weekend. Until then, here's your free game of the week: Penguin Overlords

Will your new games start requiring a subscription?

2011-08-02T22:58:00.000-05:00

So we already have Xbox live, Playstation +, and other various services where basically you pay a company money to use services that should arguably be free or mostly get stuff for free you never would've payed for anyways (as much as I enjoy and tout the value of PS+, at least half the games I've downloaded for free get little to no playtime, but it's still worth it IMHO). And now EA is really getting into the whole subscription game with their EA Sports Season Ticket, which essentially allows early access to games, dlc discounts and vague "premium content", whatever that means (you know, like the tip videos & cheats EA charged you for previously that should've been free to begin with). Now, there is definitely arguable value here. DLC can cost as much or more than the initial purchase, so for somebody who wants to get all or most of it that might be worth it alone (especially since it covers all of EA Sports, not just one game).

However, I think the realistic and likely worry is this will cause a have/have not situation that may worsen if more companies go in on it. There may be only a handful of mega-publishers these days, but everyone's trying to make that cash flow for as long as possible, that's already why DLC exists, getting you to pay more for a product you've already bought. Sometimes it's great stuff to help extend and add value but almost as often it's something that seems like a cheap cash grab or something that should've been in the game in the first place. Right now its perks like early access and discounts, which if somebody wants to pay a premium for, more power to them, it's really hard to argue how that's going to affect the guy brown bagging it to work so he can keep feeding his gaming habit and can't really afford to subscribe to all these premium services. But at some point it might become more than that. Stat boosts? Extra powerful in-game items? Online access and multi-player? The ending? Sure it's a slippery slope but we already have certain games that require constant online access to work even if they don't include online play, is other seemingly mandatory content next? I'm honestly not sure. It seems unlikely, but then You'd think no one would pay money just for the ability to go online with their system when the competitors allow you to do that for free....

That's all for today, sorry for no post over the weekend, I just honestly had a pretty bad case of writer's block. I should have another post up tomorrow or Thursday. In the meantime here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Tower Heist

Is the 3DS the new Virtual Boy?

2011-07-29T00:23:00.000-05:00

Cancelled titles, flagging sales only 2 months in, a software lineup that even Atari Jaguar owners would laugh at. Is the 3DS doomed to be a quickly forgotten experiment? That's what some seem to be suggesting in the wake of not only the latest sales numbers, but Nintendo's big announcement this morning that they will be slashing the price of the 3DS a whopping $70 to a much more attractive $170. And just to be sure they don't piss off the early adopters, everybody who has or gets one before the price drop gets TWENTY free games. Sure they are downloadable old NES and GBA titles, but it's hard to be mad when I'm getting stuff like Ice Cimbers & Mario Kart: Super Circuit for free.

Does this move seem drastic and possibly desperate considering the PS Vita isn't even out yet? Maybe, but this is a very different time than when the DS launched. The economy was better and there weren't tons of portable phones and tablets and whatnot all vying for your time and your dollars. What this does IMHO is send a message that Nintendo is being extremely aggressive this time around and it'll most likely pay off come this holiday when the new low price is combined with the release of games like Mario Kart, Super Mario 3DS and Kid Icarus.

Now, in reference to the heading, many naysayers are claiming that the 3DS is already the next Virtual Boy, essentially a huge blunder best left forgotten. But there are quite a few differences here, namely that the Virtual Boy's biggest issues were all major design flaws (horrible red graphics, stupid helmet that was heavy and gave people headaches). You can turn off the 3D and you are still essentially left with something that's quite a visual step up from the DS which companies can make quality games for without having to shoehorn 3D into everything. Will the 3D remain a key component since the public seems kind of ambivalent at best about that technology? That's really up to Nintendo and 3rd party developers to decide. Making games that really use the 3D feature in new and innovative ways rather than just doing it because they can will make it a key feature and a differentiator from most competition, and it's really up to them to make that happen. I fully expect once solid titles really start rolling out (which they will in the coming months) sales will easily skyrocket with the new price point and a year from now everyone will wonder what the worry was about as they are playing Blast Corps in 3D (hopefully).

That's all for today, I should have another post up this weekend sometime. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Sushi Boy Thunder

A legacy worth mentioning?

2011-07-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

Admittedly as I've mentioned before, most DLC isn't even worth looking at and Bioware's is no exception as the large majority for previous titles has been overpriced short and uninteresting. Dragon Age II's Legacy is none of those things so far frankly. I'm a little over 90 minutes in (which is on average about as long as most previous Bioware DLC has been) and just seem to be getting into it. Granted, they could cut it short like they did with pretty much the third act, but I'm sensing there are at least a couple more hours here which certainly makes it well worth the $10. There's even some replay value there for not only new dialogue banter between party characters but also obviously depending where you are in the game, you may have a wider variety of characters to play through it with. The story is intriguing so far as well. Hopefully future DA II dlc will measure up to this very worthy first release.

Don't have DA II or looking for something new in the summer doldrums? Xbox's Summer of Arcade may have your answer yet again with the very original From Dust. I haven't downloaded the trial yet, but I should get a chance to play around with it this weekend. The early reviews are very positive. It'd be nice if XBLA releases could be regularly this kind of quality instead of being so inconsistent, especially with the prices on average going up.

That's really all I have for today, but I should have another post up tomorrow or Friday (if it's Friday I might have a Cowboys and Aliens review as I am planning on seeing it this weekend), until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Knights of Badassdom

A man out of time....

2011-07-24T08:39:00.000-05:00

Well actually I did happen to be able to go catch Captain America on Friday night and I really enjoyed it overall. Evans was damn good in the role and the action was spectacular. It does almost seem like a film that was lifted straight out of the early days of film making in its style and dialogue. It has that same serial vibe going for it that Lucas infused the Indiana Jones movies with. It doesn't take a lot of risks or try and be edgy, but it doesn't really need to be. My one minor complaint would be that both Peggy Carter and Cap's squadron of Howling Commandos don't get much screen time and since it seems like only the first movie will take place in WWII, there's a bit of missed opportunity there. I think the Howling Commandos could certainly make for a good film, but odds are they're a little too far down on the Marvel food chain for that to happen.

So the WiiU won't be compatible with Gamecube games but that doesn't necessarily mean we won't have any opportunity to play them as it's been suggested that they will probably be released on Wiiware once the WiiU is actually out. Depending on pricing this could be a pretty awesome prospect, though considering the huge leap in size of the games, it does make one wonder how we would store given Nintendo's rather half-assed storage measures to date. Hopefully they'll have something close to on par with the storage space the PS3 & 360 have now and it won't be an issue.

Finally in potentially awesome news, Lego has recently required the rights to make Marvel & DC Lego characters and sets. This is obviously awesome for any Lego fan, and while I haven't bought any Legos in years, the real exciting potential would be for a Marvel or DC-based lego videogame. Of course, Marvel & DC together in a Lego game would arguably be the biggest Nerdgasm of all time, but odds are that's not going to happen, so I'd just be pretty stoked to have something with the Avengers or the Justice League.

That's all for today, I should have another post up Monday or Tuesday. Until then, here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Chris Evans can't be Captain America, he's already the Human Torch!!!

2011-07-22T09:38:00.000-05:00

Admittedly there's been some joking of this sort since Evans was cast as Marvel's iconic all-American soldier. But, possibly because the Fantastic 4 movies are considered some of the worst comic book films of the last couple years, the usual fans don't really seem bothered by it. It'd be different if say Hugh Jackman was cast in the role, not only would he probably be really wrong for it, the guy is so ingrained in fans' minds as Wolverine I think some people's heads would explode trying to comprehend that. There was also some doubt on Evans ability but aside from the really solid reviews, I've always found Evans a really solid and fun actor to watch from things like Sunshine & Push to more just fun stuff like Scott Pilgrim. Hopefully Captain America and the Avengers next year will push him into bigger stardom because he's actually been doing really solid work for a few years now and deserves it frankly. I'm excited to see the film, but my weekend's pretty packed already so I might not be seeing it til I have a day off next week. I'll be sure to post my thoughts then.

Ok Xbox's Summer of Arcade has started! Are you pumped? Why not? Could it be because nearly every year "SoA" seems like an apology for the fact that 3 months go by without any cool titles and even for the lowered expectations of digital titles these usually seem underwhelming? Well, obviously I can't speak for the rest of the SoA titles (except Fruit Ninja Kinect, just fuck you Microsoft on that one) because they haven't come out yet but the first one is actually pretty awesome. Bastion, best described as an isometric dungeon-crawler is just oozing style, creativity and coolness. The action is solid but fairly boiler-plater shooting and hitting the hell out of anything that moves with a decent array of weaponry,What really makes it fun is the clever narrator that tells you story, and not in a canned fashion, he actually adjusts on the fly. I don't own it yet as I'm saving my $$$ for the Dragon Age II: Legacy DLC set to hit next week but I pan to purchase it not long after and you should as well if you want to support good original downloadable titles.

So the new Spider-Man trailer is out, and everyone's biggest complaint seems to be "not another origin story!". Which given that the Sam Raimi films weren't all that long ago, seems like a somewhat valid complaint, but they've recast everybody, put Peter in High School and even given him back his old-school web shooters. While comic book fans and internet nerds might be able to just accept that, the general movie going-public will just be confused and think they are at the wrong movie. Besides, the last time they tried rebooting a series without an origin story, we got Superman Returns. Granted, maybe Sony should've waited a few more years so the last 3 films weren't so fresh in everyone's mind, but given that there's money to be made that just wasn't a realistic expectation. I for one am excited all over again.

Ok that's it for today I should have another post up tomorrow or Sunday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: War Horse

Could games get even shorter?

2011-07-19T23:08:00.000-05:00

Now appropriate game length has always been a debatable issue, but the general consensus is that of you tell a compelling story and have well-paced gameplay, your game can be as long as you like. But there also seems to be a waning trend in particularly lengthy games. 25 hours used to be short for an rpg, now its pretty much the standard. Action titles and especially FPS games often run short of 10 or sometimes even 5 hours. Now in some cases, this is a good thing. Lord knows there are plenty of solid titles with what feels like completely boring filler. But I'm pretty sure anyone who paid $60 for a game and didn't even get 10 hours out of it feels pretty ripped off.

And now developers are coming out and saying that games these days are too long and gamers don't enjoy 10+ hour titles. Which I believe is a huge fucking crock. There are tons of games that provide top-notch story telling and lots of gameplay that sell incredibly well. It's all about delivering a truly compelling experience. If gamers don't bother to finish because it's just "too long," well that's their loss. If developers start making games even shorter than they already are, that just smacks of lazyness and most certainly putting the almighty dollar ahead of any creativity. Would you want a Mass Effect title that takes maybe 15 hours to beat? The next Uncharted game to only take 5? If that's where games are heading, maybe I should start buying more books....

That's it for today, but I should have another post up tomorrow. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Murloc RPG:SF

The XStaton 720?

2011-07-18T08:04:00.000-05:00

So a seemingly ludicrous, though if you really take a minute to think about it not that ludicrous rumor has popped up that Microsoft and Sony may actually team up in order to make one mega-powerful all-encompassing console, combining Sony's knack for great software with Microsoft's online expertise. It really isn't that far fetched really. It's sometimes hard to remember, especially with the legions of fanboys Sony & Microsoft both have, that they are at the end of the of the day major corporations out to make money, and if it makes really good business sense for this sort of partnership to happen, suddenly it doesn't seem like such an out there possibility. Between the mounting pressures of competing against not only the juggernaut that is Nintendo, but the casual gaming space as well, it might make perfect sense to unify in order to offer one high-end experience rather than continually make consumers choose, especially in an economy like we have now.

What do I personally think? Obviously it would be great not to have to try to afford separate consoles just so I can experience all the games, and one major high-end platform would mean no waiting on ports and also no inferior ports. Of course, this also means less choice for both gamers and developers. It may also mean no real price wars to take advantage of. Also you are looking at two very divergent philosophies that just may not mesh very well.

At the end of the day, I think the possibility of an MS/Sony team-up is possible, but very slim. Of course I could be proven completely wrong by such a thing being unveiled at E3 in the next year or two. It would be nice to hear a lot less fanboy bitching, that's for sure.

That's all for now, since this was what I meant to post Sunday (I was a little too tired after work and just crashed) I may have another post tonight, but most likely I'll do another one Tuesday. In the meantime, here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Now I can watch Star Trek at McDonalds....

2011-07-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

Ok so firstly I did see Deathly Hallows Part 2 last night. It's always very hard to deliver on a finale, expectations run extremely high and you need to tie up any loose ends and still deliver a finale that's thrilling and compelling. I think they managed to do that with this movie. It was a huge action-packed finale with lots of fun epic moments. Admittedly certain scenes might not have the same impact for those who have only seen the movies and not read the books but I can't imagine any fan being truly disapointed.

The other big Potter-related news is of the Dark Knight Rises trailer that premiered. While it's good to know the movie has a definitive release date, the trailer was pretty much a waste, with footage mostly culled together from the last 2 films and Gary Oldman barely understandable talking from a hospital bed. My guess is that rather than breaking Batman's back like he did in the comics he puts Gordon in the hospital. Which for the purposes of the movie would probably be way better, we don't want a Batman movie where he's probably out of action for at least half of it healing up his spine.

And yes, Netflix is now on the 3DS, though I sort of question why. I mean sure you can use it at hotspots, but frankly the smallish screen size and completely shitty battery power means you'd probably be lucky to get a 2-hour movie in, much less be able to watch a marathon of the recently acquired Star Trek shows.

That's it for today, but I should have another post up tomorrow or Sunday. In the meantime here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Hugo

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Spoiler: Potter kills Voldemort...

2011-07-12T19:11:00.000-05:00

And even if you didn't read the books, you should've been able to guess that the grand finale will consist of Harry's victory over He who shall not be named. But of course that's not the real question. The real question after Deathly Hallows part 2 is, what's next? Is there another big franchise Warner Bros can bank on? They've said their next big money-maker is DC superheroes but really, we all know a Green Arrow film or the 40th Superman reboot is not going to bring in the numbers the Potter Franchise has. Another set of kids books? They've been trying to do that since the opening weekend of Philosopher's Stone with various series and met with middling success at best, but that doesn't mean that something won't come along. And of course will there be any more Potter books, movies, or video games? I think something actually starring The chosen one is long shot at best, but there's a whole universe here that is worthy of exploration. Something covering either Voldemort's original rise to power or the years after his defeat could be a great possibility for movies, books or games. I think not only the huge dollar potential but the fact that there is still plenty left to explore means that this will hardly be the last we see of the world of Harry Potter.

Catherine is a weird little game out of Japan that might normally not get much notice, but it's mature content and fact that it's published by Atlus, which usually makes fairly awesome games come stateside (the Persona series, Dark Souls, etc.) has gotten it a fair amount of coverage. Now it's finally due out later this month, and a demo was released today for the 360 & PS3. I tried out the demo and felt like I was playing a twisted game of Q*Bert with awful controls, as I would constantly pull the wrong block or pull it the wrong direction or even overshoot and be left hanging with nothing to do but fall to my death. Add in choppy animation and bad even by cheesy anime standards acting and you've got something that will probably only appeal to those who will buy this just because it's a quirky indie title rather than it actually being good.

No, I haven't been able to catch the premiere of Torchwood: Miracle Day yet, but I was able to watch the latest Superhero drama, Alphas, thanks to it being free on Xbox live. It certainly cribs quite a bit from X-men(which makes sense since it's from two of the writers on X-men), but it's got a mostly solid cast (I could see the slightly autistic kid getting really annoying after a few episodes) and well done action & plot while already hinting at bigger threads for the run of the season if not the whole show. It could be another stinker along the lines of No Ordinary family but first impressions are we could have the first good superhero show in a long, long while.

Ok that's all for today. I might have another post up tomorrow but more likely Friday with a review of Deathly Hallows part 2 along with a few other things. Until then, here is your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Dinosaur Zookeeper

Could the Wii U's online system actually be worse than the Wii's?

2011-07-10T23:19:00.000-05:00

We are all pumped for Nintendo to move into the current times, having an HD-capable system and finally a decent online system! That's are what they are having, right, a decent online system. After all, Reggie promised us the end of friend codes! But wait, did he or anyone else at Nintendo even say anything else definitive about what the system would be like and how it would work? There's actually a very telling and potentially disturbing quote from Reggie himself here:

"...instead of a situation where a publisher has their own network and wants that to be the predominant platform, and having arguments with platform holders, we’re going to welcome that. We’re going to welcome that from the best and the brightest of the third party publishers".

Now, to me that sounds like they are just going to let developers and publishers try and set up their own network rather than have one standard universal setup like the 360 & PS3 have. Just think about that for a second. At a bare minimum you might need a username & password & friends list for nearly every major publisher out there, not a promising prospect at all. It also sounds like they might half-ass it at best with their own titles that could greatly benefit online. Nintendo has a ton of unique franchises that could provide experiences you couldn't get anywhere else in an online setting. Smash Bros. is the most obvious, but New Super Mario Bros, Wii Sports, Metroid, Pikmin and even Zelda (think 4 swords online) all have strong possibilities that could make Nintendo's online network the one to beat, and all it would really need is a competent setup. Easy to find and make friends, leaderboards, etc. Instead it sounds like we might very well be getting something that is actually far worse than friend codes ever were, and that's if publishers even bother. After all, setting up and maintaining servers ain't cheap, and I can't think of anybody who would go through this trouble just to play a few games...

That is all for today, I should have another post up by Tuesday. Until then, here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

An important PSA from Nathan Fillion....

2011-07-08T16:43:00.000-05:00

Swamp ass, it's a serious problem. But together, we can beat it!

It seems like we've been waiting for awhile for even an announcement about any significant Dragon Age II DLC. Well it's finally been announced and it's not even that for off, coming out in a little under 3weeks! I am pumped, but cautiously so. IMHO the only worthwhile expansion released for Dragon Age was Awakenings (and nearly all Mass Effect DLC has been fairly worthless) which was a fairly meaty addition but was also $40. $10 will probably buy us a couple hours, tops. I'm not fond of DLC in can finish off in an afternoon. I'd gladly pay $10 for a sidequest that also brought a new party member to the mix as Sebastian was a fairly interesting addition that I really enjoyed.

Fnally, the long-awaited premiere of the Torchwood: Miracle Day is tonight. It's going to be extremely tough to match the insanely epic Children of Earth (seriously, if you haven't watched that DO IT NOW before the new season airs) but getting a bigger budget, a new setting and and potential exposure to a much wider audience should help. Sadly I don't have cable, so that leaves out watching it tonight, but there's a decent catch it'll turn up on Netflix or I can just stream it online in a day or so in which case I'll try and post my thoughts next time I post.

That's it for today, I should have another post up tomorrow or Sunday. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Shop Empire

Parappa the Rapper: Final Fantasy Edition....

2011-07-06T23:14:00.000-05:00

Yay! A new Final Fantasy game is on the way! Is it the next main number? A spin-off action title? A Dress Up Game? Sadly, no. Instead it's one of their inane little experiments and they are just shoving the Final Fantasy name & characters on there in a desperate attempt to boost sales because the Final Fantasy faithful are like many other fanbases in that they will buy virtually anything with the name attached. But really, a rhythm game? Yes Final Fantasy has some extremely memorable and awesome music, I have a fair amount of it in my itunes library.

And hey, nothing is wrong with music-based or rhythm-based games, there have been some truly classic titles such as Parappa, Rez and Elite Beat Agents. But these are not two great tastes that taste great together. Not too mention Square's track record trying to shove Final Fantasy into games that are decidedly not rpgs is appallingly bad, not too mention something that really betrays the characters. It's not the same when somebody like Mario appears in a different type game, he's not a particularly deep and developed character. Characters who deal with deep emotional trauma while saving the world don't really belong in party titles or casual titles. What's next? A Metal Gear Solid game Mario Party style? Actually, Hideo Kajima is just crazy enough to try something like that frankly, but let's hope he never does.

Ok that is it for today, but I should have another post up sometime tomorrow. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

We may be one step closer to a Guy Gardner film...

2011-07-04T01:37:00.000-05:00

Well, depending on who you talk to, fast track sequel may or may not be happening to this summer's biggest box office bust so far, Green Lantern. I'll reiterate what I said before-I think it was a perfectly enjoyable flick, and I really, really don't get the hate. If Michael Bay can get 3 movies to ruin Transformers over and over again, I'm pretty sure we should get at least one more shot at a great Green Lantern film. It's a solid character with a diverse and just cool universe.

Do we need another one with Ryan Reynolds though? While I'd be perfectly fine with it, there have been several human Lanterns throughout the decades, so a continuation that wasn't necessarily a total reboot (after all, we don't need another movie where they hint at Sinestro's eventual turn to villany, he could just be the next villain) would certainly be other options. As awesome as it would be, a movie with Gardner is probably not going to happen because audiences don't like following a complete asshole for a whole movie. Kyle Rayner is just about as bland as it gets(though the studios could right a terrible wrong by making one with him and casting Nathan Fillion in the role). Realistically, Jon Stewart seems like the most reasonable choice, he's one of the more popular versions, and let's face it, there's a pretty severe lack of Black superheroes on the big screen, and that would certainly be a consideration. I also think there are several actors who could play him convincingly, Will Smith being near the top of the list if they wanted to try for the biggest star they could possibly land. Whatever they decide to do with the franchise, I seriously hope this one movie isn't the end of it, and that we never, ever EEEEVVVEEEERRRR see Jack Black sporting a Lantern Ring.

Ok, that's really all for today, with a little luck I should have another post up Tuesday at the latest. In the meantime, here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Get the hint,DC Universe.....

2011-07-02T00:04:00.000-05:00

Ok seriously, I know MMOs on consoles are still pretty much in their infancy, and maybe they have to go through some of the same growing pains PC ones did, but with everything from City of Heroes to Conan to LOTR to even WOW (in some limited capacity) being free to play and it being an extremely beneficial manuever every single time so far, the only one not even giving a hint of budging is DCU. DCU has opened a bare bones microtransaction store instead. Whoopee. Now, I have enjoyed DC Universe, but frankly it doesn't have any real long term appeal at the moment. It's fun for like a month, then you take a few months off, then come back for another month. But who wants to keep paying for that? I don't know about you but I have better things to spend my money on, And if the King of MMOs is starting to lean towards free2play, the new kid on the block that doesn't have nearly the same appeal. It would actually be great if DCU went this route before The Old Republic hits,because frankly it'd make make EA & Bioware look rather foolish to try wrangling $15 or so a month out of gamers when pretty much everybody else has jumped on the free2play bandwagon. Sure, throw in some kind of premium level, but it's pretty clear at this point that the free model with little things you can buy that may not even be all that useful in-game is much better for both the consumer and the developer/publisher.

Ok, that's really all I have for today, I should have another post up Saturday or Sunday. Until then, here is your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Snailiad

Yes, you can now sell murder simulators to impressionable youth....

2011-06-28T22:13:00.000-05:00

At least that's probably how some idiot like Jack Thompson would interpret the Supreme Court Justice's historic ruling that Video Games are in fact protected speech and therefore criminalizing them is a no-no. Now, I do not think restricting minors' access to M-rated titles is a bad idea, they are for adults and anyone under 18 who can't get their parents to buy it for them just has to deal with it. Criminalizing it however is another matter altogether and not something that should be attached to a valid form of art (which video games are regardless of what some deluded movie critic thinks) that does enjoy first amendment protection.

Need another reason to buy Playstation plus? Today's update should give you 2 perfectly valid reasons (on top of all the other awesome reasons so far): Free download of Streets of Rage 2, arguably the finest side-scrolling fighter actually made and guaranteed access to the increasingly awesome-sounding Uncharted 3 multi-player beta.I try and avoid most mp these days as it's nearly all inferior attempts at aping stuff like Modern Warfare or Battlefield but Uncharted 3's mp sounds so vastly different it actually warrants attention. I may have mocked the idea of this pay for stuff you may not want plan at first but frankly in terms of perks it pretty much beats out Gold in every single measure, though IMHO (and most opinions) has a far superior set-up for online (i.e. not having to download and then install and not really being able to do much during).

Ok that's really all I have for today, but I should have another post up tomorrow or Thursday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Brave

Blast from the Past...

2011-06-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

To say the years since the 16-bit heyday of the Genesis have not been kind to former Mario rival Sonic would be a massive understatement, as Sega has chipped away any goodwill they built up from his prime with terrible after terrible release. There was the rare bright spot, namely a majority of the portable titles and Sonic 4: Epsiode I was a decent attempt to return for form, but it's becoming harder and harder for longtime Sonic fans to give a damn anymore.

And yet, Sonic Generations shows us a glimmer of hope. Not a big glimmer, mind you, but the demo that popped on Xbox live a few days ago showed us just a glimpse of what Sonic could be, letting us play the Green Hill Zone in glorious hi-def. It was a brief experience but it was a magical one. Now, I'm not about to get fooled again, Sega has spent way too much time burying their once beloved mascot and pissing on the grave to get me truly truly excited again, but they do have me holding out just a little hope that Generations will bring back at least a little bit of the 16-bit glory.

I also saw Green Lantern yesterday. Maybe it's because my expectations were just a tad lowered because of the really bad reviews it has gotten, but I'm not understanding the hate at all. At least one review said it was worse than Jonah Hex. I can tell you it's far better than that laughably awful movie. It's certainly not up there with the greats like Dark Knight and I might rank it below say X-Men First Class or Thor but it's still a really solid flick with good performances and fun action sequences. People complained about too much CGI as well, but it's a movie about an intergalactic police force, what did you expect? I get this sense that people were either just suffering from too many comic movies or just expecting something way different and didn't get it and a perfectly good film suffered for it. Unfortunately this may quash the planned trilogy, which would be a shame because I would definitely be up for another one.

Ok that's really all I have for today but I should have another post up tomorrow or Tuesday. Until then here's your BIG BANG CLIP OF THE WEEK:

The Top 8 Nintendo classics that should be remade for the 3DS

2011-06-25T11:48:00.000-05:00

You know what arguably the best part of Ocarina of Time 3D is? It actually looks like what I remember it like in my mind, because let's face it as much as it was an awesome title, it really hasn't aged well. Now it looks on par with a high-end Gamecube title, which is a huge upgrade, along with the improved z-targeting and 3D capabilities has made it the definitive version of a highly regarded classic, which is not an easy thing to do. And after playing it for awhile I can honestly say if all the 3DS ends up being good for is portable remakes of classics (i.e. Starfox 64 will hit in a few months and Tales of the Abyss should be released sometime this year) I'd be pretty happy as long as they are of the caliber of OOT. With that in mind, here's 8 Nintendo classics that could use a 3D upgrade:

Blast Corps: One of the most original and fun N64 titles, Blast Corps, from Rare's glory days, always gets mentioned whenever someone puts up a list of best Nintendo or especially best N64 titles. Deservedly so, and it hasn't really made any sort of resurgence in the nearly 15 years since it originally came out. A fully realized re-release with some graphical upgrades and 3D capabilities added would make this classic even better.

Super Mario 64: The above picture should be proof enough of why we need a definitive version of this on the 3DS. One of the greatest games of all time and arguably still the greatest Mario game to date, much like OOT, the classic gameplay hasn't aged a bit, but the at the time stunning graphics sure as hell have not. This classic really deserves the same treatment that OOT got, and sadly we may miss out because of a quick and dirty port to the DS when the system launched that added virtually nothing to the game and it may be considered digging into the well once to often.

Banjo-Kazooie: Man, I forgot how many good games Rare made before Microsoft bought them (seriously, what the hell happened there?), and nearly all of them on the Nintendo 64. This being another prime example, one of the best-selling titles on the systems, easily stood toe-to-toe with any platformer at the time, only bested by Mario 64. And sure, it's gotten a solid digital release for 360 owners, but a portable version to bolster the 3DS' platformer library would be quite a welcome announcement.

Donkey Kong 64: Another classic Rare title (I know they got paid a lot of $. but Rare seriously lost something when they left Nintendo), and another awesome platformer. A lot of N64 owners actually missed out on this because it was one of the few games that required the expansion pack, yet another Nintendo add-on that offered tons of potential, but was rarely used. A re-release with online for the extremely fun multi-player modes is very warranted.

DK Jungle Beat: Granted, mini-bongos would be awesome, but realistically the touchscreen is a perfect fit for this rather brilliant but virtually ignored title. It obviously wouldn't benefit too much from the implementation of 3D, but honestly just the thought of playing it on the go with a touch screen gives me very happy thoughts.

Super Metroid: Other M left a pretty bad taste in most people's mouths, so it's time to remind people exactly how awesome a 2D Metroid can be, and what better way then with a proper re-release of one of the greatest games ever made? I would keep it side-scrolling with a huge graphical upgrade, and use the 3D for things like map layouts, which would be a pretty awesome effect.

Wave Race: Just an incredibly fun racing game that seemed to sort of get ignored once Mario Kart 64 hit, it would do really well on the 3DS, taking advantage of not only the graphical boost and 3D effects, but the tilt controls could also be used incredibly well, like many other titles it could easily be the definitive version of a classic.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron: I think it's been long enough that most of us would enjoy another Hoth level, especially in 3D. The 3DS seems custom built for this title, and the somewhat similar Star Fox 64 will probably be a perfect example of this. Done correctly this could pretty much be a killer app for the 3DS, and although probably unlikely at this point due to either licensing issues or Lucas just having his head up his ass for so long, it is easily the remake I would like to see most on this system.

Ok that's all for today, with a little luck I'll be able to get a post in tomorrow. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Robinson Crusoe: The Game

Will you follow Suda 51 to Hell and back?

2011-06-22T17:39:00.000-05:00

Ok unfortunately there will be no Ocarina of Time impressions as of yet as I wasn't able to get my hands on the game until this afternoon so I won't really get any quality time with it until tonight and hopefully I can give impressions sometime between tomorrow and Saturday. In the meantime there are several big games out this week worth discussing, the most interesting probably being the latest from Suda 51, who brought us awesomely weird games such as Killer 7 and the No More Heroes games, Shadows of the Damned, featuring a gun named Johnson. Yeah, it's not afraid to go for the easy jokes, but then No More Heroes was all about some ultimate nerd rage fantasy so it seems very keeping with the style you've come to know and sometimes love from Suda. I've previously mentioned I pretty much see him as the Quentin Tarantino of video games, which can be a polarizing factor, but for the most part I really enjoy his work and hopefully this wacky trip to Hell will be no different.

Dungeon Siege III also is out but judging from the demo and the reviews this strictly falls under the "buy if you've gotten everything else interesting" category. Shame too, as we could use a console-focused dungeon crawler that didn't really dumb itself down.

Finally there's F3ear. And no that's not a typo, it's the 3rd game in the desperately trying to be scary Fear series, but instead of simply going with Fear 3 they went with the absurdly stupid F3ear. This could be the best game ever and I probably won't ever get it just on principle. But since it's your standard shooter just mixed with horror elements I doubt it's much special to begin with.

Ok, that's all for today with a little luck I'll get a couple of posts in by Saturday. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: The Muppets

Robin Williams and the Legend of his Beard...

2011-06-18T15:58:00.000-05:00

Seriously, just look that damn thing. Sorry about no post yesterday but I've been fairly sick the last couple days, praying I'm mostly better tomorrow so I can actually go pick this up. Granted there is always a chance that a re-release, especially with a makeover like this will suddenly remind us of things that we somehow glossed over in our fond memories of a classic, but this is indisputably one of the finest games ever made. You normally don't mess with such a nearly flawless formula. Yet all the reviews point to this as being the definitive version of this highly revered title. It also finally is a title that really justifies owning a 3DS(because as far asI can tell the only worthwhile title before now was . Yes it would be bad if the primary reason to own this was 3D remakes of old classics, but this is a good title to really push the system early in it's life and hopefully this is mainly something to appease us early adopters til later this year when the system really starts getting some quality original titles.

Ok that's really all I've got energy for today, I should have a post up Wednesday at the latest with my impressions and with thoughts of other things. In the meantime, here's your BIG BANG THEORY CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Is the future of rpgs in the portable market?

2011-06-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

Admittedly this was sort of touched on in a recent issue of Game Informer, but I mean to expand on it quite a bit more here. Truthfully if you take a good look at the libraries of the consoles and their portable counterparts these days, if you are looking for something besides the hugely budgeted, barely recognized as an rpg anymore efforts from the likes of Bioware and Square Enix, increasingly you are finding it in the portable market. There are smaller cultish titles, titles rich in and proud of their JRPG roots, beautifully remade classics, and occasionally the newest entry of a long-running series.

And maybe this is the way it should be. Games seem to ballooning in budget, which leaves little to no room on consoles for niche titles. If you want to do an rpg on there, it almost automatically suffers from it's niche market to begin with. Hell Mass Effect 3 was officially delayed to make it appeal to a wider audience. Now I love the ME games, but what started out as a futuristic rpg with slight shooter trimmings has become pretty much the inverse of that, becoming less and less what drew in rpg fans in the first place. It's happened with Dragon Age as well. The original was a harsh old school rpg while the sequel was much more casual. Now I enjoyed both these titles, but if everybody follows in their footsteps we are left with what we've got now which is a huge gap in worthwhile rpgs for the home audiences. Turn to portables and that is nowhere near the case, as between retail and downloadable releases you seem to on average having a couple every month. Admittedly I may get an PSP Vita just so I can play all the PSP rpgs I'm currently missing out on. And you are seeing series that previously were only on console migrate to the portables such as Dragon Quest and Paper Mario.

Now some of this makes sense fiscally, these titles are cheaper to develop on portables and much less of a risk. But despite the original idea of portables only being good for bite-sized gaming, this just seems like an increasingly good and natural fit for this genre, as it's just overall a great landscape to be more experimental and being something where it's easier to fnd your niche audience. I believe portables are pretty much the future of rpgs (at least rpgs as we've traditionally defined them) and that future is actually looking increasingly bright.

Well that's it for the main crux of today's post, but of course a new post for the week means a new bit of Zelda goodness: JOHN HUGHES THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

And of course your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK (and I should be back Friday with a new post): Level Up

Do Not Hail to the King.....

2011-06-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

There was a short period where I actually enjoyed Duke Nukem titles. Way back when it was a series of 2D shareware games along with forgotten classics like Commander Keen. But then the FPS explosion happened and someone decided that Duke should suddenly take on all the worst extreme aspects of the 90s. Stealing catchphrases from much cooler characters, so much machismo that it would make Andrew Dice Clay say enough already and of course lots of nudity and swearing because that's "edgy". All this was put first and gameplay second, as it was pretty boilerplate shootemup action, but it sold extremely well anyways.

Now he's back and suddenly people are realizing what they should've realized 20 goddamn years ago. Duke Nukem sucks. They claim he is so iconic of the 90s, but in reality he is iconic of the worst of the 90s stuff that was truly great in the 90s is still either fondly remembered or still around as great as it always was.

Moving on, Zelda is 25, and along with Nintendo commemorating it for the rest of the year, I plan to commemorate it every post this week until the long-awaited release of LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE OCARINA OF TIME 3D. You could argue every game Zelda title since then was pretty much a take on OOT in some form or another and that's because it's simply of of the greatest games ever made. So to start things off, here's a great vid of possibly the only person who could ever explain the Zelda timeline: DOC BROWN!

That's really all for today, but I should have another post up tomorrow. Until then here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: 50/50

The E3 game I'm currently most excited about...

2011-06-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

Is Luigi's Mansion 2 for the 3DS. Why do I even care about a sequel to a quickly forgotten Gamecube launch title that nearly everyone (including myself being completely honest) considers a poor choice when Nintendo had much more bankable stars? Well for one, I've always liked Luigi more than Mario. He's more human, has more personality, the he's the Donald to Mario's Mickey. Mario is almost lacking a personality at this point because they've been so concerned on making him the family friendly face of Nintendo that he cannot possibly be flawed and have any edge or flaws and therefore he is pretty bland. It's Luigi who gets to not be perfect and cowardly and actually overcomes his fears in most games he's in, so getting him another chance to step out from his brother's shadow is a great thing. Also, while a poor choice to launch the Gamecube with, the original was a really solid game that was a lot of fun, it was just short, like 6 hours max. This one promises to be much longer with several mansions to traverse and a whole ton of new tricks at your disposal to use. While not an original IP it is a pleasant surprise to see Nintendo giving one of their best secondary characters some long overdue love. It just sucks that I have to wait til next year to play it.

Ok that's really it for today's post. I should hopefully have another post up this weekend, but no gaurauntees as it's pretty packed at the moment. In the meantime I leave you with your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo

Post-mid E3 thoughts....

2011-06-08T22:35:00.000-05:00

E3 isn't quite over yet, but the big 3 had their press conferences, which are usually the thing people care about most each year, so let's break those down:

Microsoft: Awful, just awful. People complained about Nintendo abandoning the hardcore, but that was on full display here as it looked like the 360 was just becoming Kinect with a couple of trivial titles thrown at the core crowd to keep them satiated. Admittedly it wasn't as mind-boggling painful as last year But the only midly interesting thing in the entirely laughable 90 minutes was the live TV service which may not be much of anything depending on what they offer at what price.

Sony: Arguably Sony's biggest mistake this year was no big blockbuster announcements. There was nothing really surprising for the core players. The Move had nothing but really boring titles. The Vita looks perfectly serviceable but I didn't see one title that makes it a must buy. Honestly after the PSN network debacle I expected them to blow the doors off because frankly they needed to and they didn't. Pretty much the only positive is that a new Sly Cooper game was coming.

Nintendo: Ok yes, Nintendo. You sold me on the 3DS because while it started off soft, there are a ton of games in the near future that will be awesome. So I picked one up after the conference and so far I'm really enjoying it. But where's the new IP? There doesn't seem to be any. Wii support? None aside from Zelda which apparently is the last Wii game ever. Ok but what about the new console, the Wii U? Hell if I know. A bunch of major 3rd party titles were announced, but it was nearly all titles that would be out long before the system itself is. You want me to wait to play Arkham City? You're fucking nuts. And really, the main thing they seemed to focus on-that you can continue playing your game when somebody else wants to use the TV, doesn't seem like much of a feature. I mean I love the idea of playing Zelda in 1080p on my 42-inch flatscreen but not extremely thrilled about say my wife wanting to watch something and me really having no valid excuse to say no since I can transfer it to my much much smaller screen. And honestly the controller looks fucking huge and clumsy. I'll hold off judgement until I get to handle it and given that they've already announced Smash Bros. is at least in development I'll get one at some point but this is far from a day one buy to me right now.

Ok that's it. I should be back tomorrow with more E3 thoughts. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Goin Up

My 9 most anticipated E3 games....

2011-06-04T22:08:00.000-05:00

Ok so Kung Fu Panda 2 review may not be coming, it was frankly too damn hot out today and after running a couple errands I was in no mood to brave the heat again. I'm sure your all crushed. Unfortunately due to my schedule, I probably won't have time to watch and post about the 3 big E3 conferences until Wednesday (I'm considering cutting myself off from most of it until then and just watching the conferences in one solid block). But like everybody else I've got games I'm absolutely salivating over to read about and see new videos posted. So here are the top 9 I'm most excited to check out (and you should probably be too)

#9: Fable: The Journey-Fable has a really divisive history. I think most would agree the closest the series has come to actually attaining the lofty goals set by Peter Molyneux was II, with III being a huge step backwards. But I'm willing to give the 360's flagship rpg series another shot. Of course, they most driving thing is aside from a title, we really know nothing. Is it a Kinect spin-off? Major expansion/DLC? A collection of craptacular minigames? Either way as of right know I'm extremely interested to find out.

#8 X-Men : Destiny-Now granted, X-men games haven't been extremely exciting as of late, but this wholly original game not tied to any movies or TV shows that has you starring as a new member who gets to fight alongside the X-men just screams awesome potential. Of course, there's plenty of potential for it to go the other way, but over the last few years when we have gotten a licensed game that isn't tied into any movie or TV show we've actually gotten pretty solid results so hopefully this'll be true of this game as well.

#7 Uncharted: Golden Abyss-Sony's NGP/Vita/whatever has to make one hell of a showing considering how poorly the PSP did in order to convince people it's not going to be the same thing. Golden Abyss may be the exact title to do that. The Uncharted games are arguably the best reason to own a PS3 and could be a very. very compelling reason to buy Sony's new portable if they really do it right.

#6 Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One-Ratchet and Clank games always deliver compelling fun gameplay, and this should be no exception. Adding in co-op online play is a daring new step, but one that seems badly needed with all the "me-too" online shooters these days. It would be a well overdue breath of fresh air to have a title like this that is probably the closest thing we may ever get to New Super Mario Bros. Online.

#5 Super Mario 3DS-Admittedly the 3DS lineup has been majorly lacking in solid games. Hopefully at E3 this will change, spearheaded by an orginal Mario game that while we don't know a lot about at this point, has been promised to be a combination of Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy which just sounds like the best game ever.

#4 Zelda: Skyward Sword-Possibly the Wii's swan song, also possibly a launch title for Project Cafe? Nintendo has done it before. Either way, Zelda games are always amazing and usually great at showing what Nintendo consoles really are capable of and Skyward Sword will be no different, at this point I just want to know it'll actually be out within a year.

#3 Skyrim: It has been way too long since we have seen an Elder Scrolls game and I don't think I've spent more time on any one game, pouring a couple hundred hours into Oblivion. I'm very prepared to do it all over again. This will be a timesink like no other, and we will welcome it gladly.

#2 Arkham City-The sequel to the best superhero game ever aims even bigger and actually looks to outdo its predecessor with more villains, more gadgets and even a little help from Catwoman. I'm still amazed at how good Arkham Asylum is because according to all logic a licensed game just can't be that awesome and yet Arkham City seems primed to somehow top it.

#1 Mass Effect 3: The epic conclusion of the greatest video game trilogy of this generation (possibly ever) is finally here. And It'll be different for everybody. Who's still alive? Who's pissed at you? What seemingly minor decision did you make way back in the first game that has probably doomed the galaxy to extinction? It all comes to a head here in what promises to be one hell of a finale. And you know it will want to make you go through the series time and time again just to see all the possible outcomes.

All right that's the list. Most likely the next time I post will be Wednesday, but I may post sooner if possible. Until then, here's your BIG BANG THEORY CLIP OF THE WEEK:

PENNY ARCADE... THE MOVIE?!?

2011-06-03T12:23:00.000-05:00

Well sort of. If you don't regularly keep up with Penny Arcade, in addition to their pretty brilliant constant commentary on games and pop culture, does a lot of inspired one-off ideas that really seem like they could be developed a lot further into full blown comics, TV shows, Movies, etc. Nothing ever really seems to come of it, but hopefully this will be a huge launching pad for PA properties because really, we need to see a real version Automata as soon as possible...

Moving on to movies of the here and now, the X-Men reboot First Class opens today. Admittedly with X-Men's last outing being rather abysmal and the rights still being owned by Fox we shouldn't have too high expectations, especially of something that just screams quick dirty reboot. But you give Matthew Vaughn source material and he makes it work, as evidenced by the really high praise it's already getting. I unfortunately don't have time to see it this weekend, but I fully intend to check it out next week so look for a review sometime after all the E3 madness most likely.

The PSN network is back up, yay! No freebies as of yet but I did download the demo for Infamous 2, which hits next week. My thoughts? Maybe it was just the limits of the demo but for missions in an open landscape it seemed very arbitrarily limited. For example I come to a big park where a huge fight is going on between soldiers and monsters. The lead monster is called Ravager. I led it away from the park and killed it on a roof top that wasn't far away, but somehow that was considered failing the mission and I had to start over. Makes absolutely no sense. Otherwise, I have the same issues I did with the first game, and that's ultimately that the controls feel iffy and way too loose, making anything that requires precision difficult (especially say launching cars at enemies, which while a cool idea, is nearly impossible to do with any accuracy).

Finally, file this under incredibly stupid ideas. Now, I'd love to see an awesome Star Trek game based on the new Star Trek movie. Obviously a Star Trek game would involve space exploration & combat, possibly with some shooter elements thrown in if you are boarded by Klingons or whatever. But a whole game based strictly around co-op shooting with Kirk & Spock? Excuse me for a moment....

Ok that's it for today, but I will hopefully have another post up tomorrow with my review of Kung Fu Panda 2 as well as a couple other things. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Dragon Age Legends Remix

Of Dungeons (and possibly Dragons)...

2011-05-31T22:46:00.000-05:00

Ok so I may have admittedly been a tad premature stating that there are no rpgs a little while ago, because suddenly I've realized that the first half of 2011 is pretty much the return of the dungeon crawler. Between Torchlight, Daggerdale, Hunted: The Demon's Forge, which just came out today and Dungeon Siege III which hits in a few weeks anyone who has a urge for hack n slash should be pretty satiated. Of course the real question is if you can't afford all of them, which ones are a good bet? Torchlight is already a pretty proven commodity, pretty much its only downfall is its lack of co-op. But its also been out for months so there's an incredibly decent chance you already own that. Daggerdale, despite bearing the Dungeons and Dragons pedigree has gotten at best so-so reviews for being a brainless, buggy hack-fest.

Now Dungeon Siege III is arguably has arguably the highest profile of these titles and a demo was released today. While it boasts solid graphics and varied hack-n-slash gameplay that is decently satisfying, it seemed to be lacking anything resembling restorative items. Now granted, this could be merely because it's a demo and they weren't included or you get them later, but relying strictly on energy orbs that randomly appear and/or save points is definitely a dealbreaker for me.

So that essentially leaves us with Hunted: The Demon's Forge. I guess the biggest issue with this is it's complete lack of profile. I had barely heard about the game until a few weeks ago, and the tagline about it being "a dungeon crawl for the Gears crowd" (referring to Gears of War) worries me some, as I'm not particularly fond of the Gears series. And then there is the lack of reviews. Granted, even for big critically acclaimed games review embargoes are not unusual, but the game is out, and there are still no reviews from any major gaming outlet of what is arguably the biggest title out this week. That really gives me more pause than anything.

This is fine for me, I've gotten back into the hidden PS3 gem Valkyria Chronicles, but for somebody desperately looking for a new rpg to play, this just seems like a huge pile of disappointment. Hopefully something will come along this summer to clear up the doldrums.

That's all for today, I will try to have another post up Thursday or Friday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

What the Big 3 Need to do at E3....

2011-05-27T11:06:00.001-05:00

We are fastly approaching this year's big video games show and it's easily poised to be one of the most exciting in a long, long time with a lot of big things to talk about from each company. Of course we have a rough idea of what the each company is going to talk about, but not every one of them is going to be addressing issues that are staring them right in the face, so here's things they should be talking about:

Microsoft: Microsoft's biggest failure nearly every year is that they always play it incredibly goddamn safe. I don't remember a single year where I was pleasantly surprised by anything or even really surprised at all for that matter. We need to know that Microsoft hasn't pulled a Nintendo-esque move and is solely focusing on Kinect and its new casual base. And while catering to that base with Kinect isn't a bad idea, how about some games to show that Kinect is not just the Wii in HD without a controller? Because so far we've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Sure there's a Star Wars game in development. Big whoop, Star Wars games hardly have a great track record and there's several on Wii that range from mediocre to completely terrible. Microsoft might even want to go as far as at least teasing their next console in order to show that they are not resting on their casual laurels. And show us what the hell you are doing with Halo now that Bungie is no longer involved with it. That could be a great new opportunity on a number of levels. Some new IP wouldn't be a terrible idea either frankly as I'm getting a little tired of the 360's biggest guns being Halo & Gears and virtually nothing else.

Sony: Whether or not Sony will mention the huge security breach is kind of a question mark. They have dealt with it for now and they may just want to move on. But I think they should at the very least address it and reiterate why it will never happen again. But far more important are both the Move controller and the NGP. Sony needs to make us care about these products. The NGP already has a pretty lukewarm reception before its even out and with the PSP being a platform for mostly emulation and ports of old games that's kind of expected. Move hasn't moved much,being poorly marketed and shoveled into games that don't work well with it or never needed it. We know the tech itself is good, let's get some games out that aggressively show off why someone should get this over the other options out there.

Nintendo: Lat year, I think Nintendo knew the Wii's days of huge profitability were pretty much done, hence why they decided to more or less push nearly every core franchise out the door in relatively short time. It was actually a pretty good time to be a Wii hardcore gamer last year (the atrocity that was Metroid: Other M notwithstanding). Now it's time for Nintendo to move on and I'm pretty sure they know that(though throwing us a couple awesome titles to send the Wii out with a bang would be nice. With the 3DS what I think they really need to do is show some software not coming next year but coming out by this holiday season that we must buy now because the library for the 3DS is looking extremely pathetic atm and there is virtually no reason to buy one. One thing I think they shouldn't do is announce a re-design already like they are prone to do with their portables, it would just stall sales while people wait.
Now the big question mark is of course "Project Cafe", with so many rumors floating around they can't possibly all be true. But regardless of what kind of tech and tricks the new console is sporting, it seems like Nintendo is aiming to get back into the more hardcore gamer market with this system (I have seen at least one article suggest that it would actually co-exist with the Wii and they would serve separate markets which seems plausible). In order to do that, we need some new, possibly mature IP along with the great franchises that made them the icon of the industry they are today. We also need the price point to not be something that makes us shake our heads, even $299 better offer us a helluva lot for our money considering what we can get from the competition these days. But regardless of what Project Cafe turns out to be, Nintendo really needs to make the case that this is the Next Generation of gaming or else people may just not care.

That's it for today, I'll hopefully have a new post up Monday or Tuesday (possibly with a review of Kung Fu Panda 2 depending on my schedule). Until then here's your BIG BANG THEORY CLIP OF THE WEEK:

Kung Fu Panda 2>Cars 2

2011-05-24T09:55:00.000-05:00

This may seem like a really bold statement, especially given that one of these movies is not only from legendary hitmaker Pixar but it isn't even out for a month. Now I should preface this with saying that while I do enjoy some Pixar movies, I have not enjoyed all of their work. I found Monsters Inc to just be irritating, Finding Nemo was fairly underwhelming and the original Cars sort of had to grow on me. And even though Pixar has a much better track record than Dreamworks, the concept of a Panda being a master of Kung Fu still feels fresh enough to tell another story, even if its roughly more of the same. I mean just compare trailers for the two here:

Sure it's more animated Kung Fu action, but the story seems to fit and being that the original was a pleasant surprised, I am pretty excited for the sequel, which I'll probably catch next week when I might have time for it.

Now this trailer seems to scream unimaginative cash-in in nearly every possible way. Cheap toilet humor, a plot that makes no sense throwing the characters into a plot more fitting a 007 film. And what happened to supposedly indispensable team of Radiator Springs locals? Gone except for Larry the Cable Guy's 'Mater", who was easily the most annoying character of the original for anyone over the age of 5, but clearly that's who they are catering to since they crammed a lot more of him in there.

Admittedly these are kids films and maybe I shouldn't care, but Pixar seems to be one the few people that understands that older audiences have to sit through this kiddy garbage too and actually bothered with the idea of making FAMILY films that most people of any age would enjoy. This seems like a step towards being just another studio that craps out kiddy fare that probably rots childrens' minds. It's a Pixar controlled by numbers (Cars to my knowledge is their most profitable property) and that takes the properties we love and buries our fond memories with terrible sequel after terrible sequel. This may be me being completely paranoid. After all, they for now have stopped the Toy Story movies at 3 (all of which were excellent) and have claimed there will be no more, but even if they leave that series alone there are plenty of others they could shamelessly mine for years if not decades.

That's all for today, I should hopefully have another post up Friday. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Battle for Wayland Keep

The Top 8 PSP games that should be remastered on the PS3

2011-05-23T11:46:00.000-05:00

Sony recently announced that they will be remastering certain games in HD for release on the PS3. I actually think this is a great idea, as while the system is/was kind of a disaster there were a pretty decent amount of solid games released for the system. There are a couple of pretty obvious options like the Metal Gear & God of War titles, in fact those are so obvious they aren't on this list. I'm really hoping we won't get ports of games that were already ports themselves, so here's 8 original PSP titles that should get a well-deserved HD upgrade:

#8: Lumines: This really solid Tetris knockoff may not be the most obvious choice. But it's a beautiful almost hypnotic experience that would probably be even moreso on a 1080p TV. And I think this would actually be a great title to incorporate Move into as it would add a whole new dimension to play.

#7: Daxter: One of the first great PSP games. Even more surprising considering it stars Jak's mostly annoying sidekick. This was one of the first few games that really showed off what the PSP was capable of with solid platforming and really good graphics practically on par with any PS2 title. A revival in HD would be welcome and also possibly a prelude to a long overdue proper Jak & Daxter title.

#6: Jeanne D'arc: The PSP is host to a large library of great rpgs, nearly all of which are ports of older titles. Jeanne D'arc is one of the few original titles developed directly for the PSP and by the great minds at Level 5 no less. It would be a great standout rpg on any system, and frankly the PS3 could use it as it is kind of lacking in really solid rpgs atm.

#5: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is one of the biggest rpgs of all time, and fans are always clamoring for more of it. Pretty much all they've gotten so far is this PSP spin-off title, but it's a damn good one with a great story and really solid rpg elements and also help bolster the PS3's rpg library.

#4: Locoroco: This completely oddball little title may seem like an odd choice, but think about it, this game is all about motion, flipping the levels to guide your blobs along the way. With Move controls incorporated, this could really be a showcase title for Move that might help it get past the Wii-wannabe stage it's in at the moment.

#3: Valkyria Chronicles II: The original Valkyria Chronicles tale is an all too common one of a brilliant game championed by reviewers and its small core of fans but largely ignored by the general public. Luckily it survived to go on to the PSP (with a 3rd title already released in Japan and hopefully on the way here soon) but I'm willing to bet the fans of the original who also own a PSP are far and few between and they certainly deserve a shot to own without having to blow the money on a PSP just to experience it.

#2: Patapon: Another title that would be a great showcase for Move, but this is also one of the best and most popular series for the PSP, with it's original and unique gameplay. This is pretty much a no-brainer, really.

#1: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters: Admittedly my love of the Ratchet & Clank games in general may make me a little biased, but this is just as good as any R & C game released on home consoles. And there is a another big reason. This excellent title did receive a PS2 port, but it was ugly & buggy. A properly done HD port on the PS3 is most certainly warranted and would also help the seemingly long time we are going to have to wait for a proper new Ratchet & Clank game (All 4-One notwithstanding, it isn't a traditional R & C game).

Ok that's the list. Hopefully this idea will prove pretty fruitfuland we will see lots of great ports instead of quick poorly done cash ins. I should be doing another post tomorrow, but until then here is your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: My Idiot Brother

Neverending Story...

2011-05-20T15:12:00.000-05:00

Ok so I don't know when I'll get to give impressions on L.A. Noire since my local Blockbuster didn't even get it in (and this is the latest in a series of high profile titles, so odds are they aren't going to be around much longer. It did lead me to reactive my gamefly account but since getting brand new stuff is basically a crapshoot it may be awhile before I really get my hands on it.

Alan Wake was a high-profile title that had been in development for many years. And like so many before it, it failed to live up to the ridiculously high expectations set upon it. It's a shame really, because take away those impossible standards and you've got a really solid and creative game that deserved a better fate than largely being ignored. Well apparently we are going to get more of it in at least downloadable fashion. It's not as good as a sequel, but hopefully if it does reasonably well we can get into the further adventures of Wake because they are some of the more original you'll find this generation.

FInally, more supposed news about Nintendo's new ultimate console that does everything even more than the PS3 does. Apparently the controller also has a camera. Now this might have some credence given Nintendo's new focus on augmented reality gaming that they introduced on the 3DS, but it doesn't really gel realistically with everything else we've heard so far. Hell at this point if have the stuff is true it'll have to cost $1,000 and be a hopelessly complicated mess no one will ever figure out. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised at this point if Nintendo is just leaking out all this info so whatever they do have at E3 will be completely different from anything we've heard and we'll all be blown away.

Ok that's it for today, I most likely won't be posting this weekend, but we'll see if I have time. So until next week, here's a NEW FEATURE that I will post whenever I have at least 3 posts in a week (which is what I will try and do): THE BIG BANG THEORY CLIP OF THE WEEK:

GRRR!!! SONY'S NOT GIVING ME ENOUGH FREE STUFF!!!

2011-05-17T10:31:00.000-05:00

Well after about a month the PSN network is finally back up and running, and to make amends for basically having their userbase not able to go online for that long and possibl having their data stolen, PS3 owners get lots of free stuff. Sure there are some free days with PS+ and other things, but what we mainly care about is FREE GAMES. Which Sony has promised to provide as soon as the PSN store is actually up and running. Of course, since all the titles or games that have been out for awhile and are poplar games, a lot of people already own them which has some PS3 owners crying foul. Sony's stance is basically that this is what they've decided, and if you aren't happy with it too bad.

Now of course you can't please everybody, and people are always going to find stuff to bitch about, but I find this offer oddly arbitrary. 2 games is more than adequate but why only from a very select list of 4? I get they are highly praised, but that just increases the odds you already own the games. Why not just let us pick any 2 greatest hits titles or PSN titles that were $30 or less? That would probably actually save Sony money in the long run since some people may pick cheaper titles. It just seems extremely odd that Sony is supposedly bending over backwards to please their base and when the base raises some valid concerns their response is to be stubborn and blunt and not even consider amending the offer. Now to be completely fair, Sony didn't have to really do anything and anyone who actually throws a tantrum/threatens to sue or boycott is a moron, But it's very hard to understand Sony's reasoning behind why the list so limited.

Ok that's all for today, with a little luck I'll have a post up tomorrow (most likely Thursday though) with my L.A. Noire impressions. In the meantime here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Dimension Diver

L.A. Noire looks amazing. Can't wait til somebody makes a game out of it...

2011-05-16T13:31:00.000-05:00

L.A. Noire is of course Rockstar's huge benchmark title that comes out tomorrow. It's already getting high marks from most of the major outlets. But I can already see the underlying problem, and it's a more common one than you'd think-All the reviews are talking about the compelling story, the amazing facial technology and the stunning recreation of 1940s era Los Angeles. But talking about how the game actually plays or whether there is really much gameplay beyond the bound to get repetitive interrogation sequences? Virtually non-existent. This has been an issue in games like Heavy Rain and Shenmue where way too much focus was on the story and somewhere along the line somebody forgot to program in exciting and compelling GAMEPLAY. I mean I love the dialogue stuff in games like Mass Effect and indeed pretty much all Bioware efforts. But if that's all there was to those titles, I sure as hell would not pay $60 to experience it. I'm sure that L.A. Noire represents a huge leap forwarding what games can be capable of doing, but so do a lot of tech demos, and this seems more like a really stretched out tech demo to me. I do plan on renting it this week so hopefully I can give a more informed opinion by Thursday or Friday.

Ok that's really it for my post today, but I am going to really try to post more often (try and really get back up to 3 posts a week like I used to), maybe more. So until next time, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Horrible Bosses

CONSOLES ARE TEH DOOMED!!!!

2011-05-15T22:20:00.000-05:00

According to Fox News anyways. Now, I really, really don't pay attention to politics much at all. I think all the news networks are ridiculous, but it's always funny when they try and be relevant to people under 60. I mean let's say this actually happens, games go truly digital. Are consoles going to be the thing of the past? Hell no. They'll just differentiate themselves much the way they do now-exclusives games and services. It's already like this-there are things you just can't get on one system. Let's talk about mobile gaming-it's all the same right? Then why doesn't everybody have the same mobile gaming device? And frankly like it was said in the article, there is a huge difference between gaming on the go and gaming in HD on a giant TV. And a huge component of games these days is things like multi-player and DLC. Mobile devices aren't really well-equipped for either. I do think casual mobile gaming is here to stay but it might very well experience a bubble bursting with the hugely overwhelming amount of shovelware that makes most of the crap on the Wii look like triple A titles.

Ok that's really all I got for today, I should have another post up by Wednesday, in the meantime here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: A Knight's Quest

Not a Pirates life for me....

2011-05-13T12:38:00.000-05:00

I was all excited to play the new Lego Pirates demo this week, but I found it woefully uninspiring. Now granted, part of it could be that between 2 Star Wars games, and Indiana Jones game, a Batman game and a Harry Potter game (and though I didn't play them there was also another Indy game and and yet a 3rd Star Wars game) that this Lego thing has just worn out its welcome. I mean how many times can you build and smash lego-fied things?

But thinking more on it. I thought the Lego thing had worn out it's welcome with the Indiana Jones games, but then really enjoyed both the Lego Harry Potter & Batman titles. Why is this? I think the key is memorable characters and locations being Lego-fied. As great a series of movies as Indiana Jones is, we really only care about Indiana Jones, nearly every other character is a complete forgettable throwaway. In Star Wars, Batman & Harry Potter , especially if you've read any of the literature based on those properties there are tons of well-established long running characters it is very fun to see a Lego version of. Pirates suffers from a pretty similar issue if you think about it. Aside from Jack Sparrow and maybe a couple of characters like Barbossa & Davy Jones who do we care about (hint if anyone cared about Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann they would be in the new movie)? So really I think what Traveller's Tales has to do for their next game is really find a franchise rich with lots of long-running well known characters. There are plenty still out there (I'd love to see something a little more out of the box like say a Stargate Lego game) so hopefully they will pick wisely rather than just choose a currently popular franchise without a lot of depth to it (i.e. please no Transformers Lego, at least not based on the terrible Michael Bay films).

Ok that's it for today, I am a little busy this weekend with going to the St. Louis Ren Faire (woot!) but I should be able to fit in another post Saturday or Sunday. Til then here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK:

7 Saturn games that deserve an HD release

2011-05-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

Ok before I get into today's post I did manage to cast Thor last night and I'd say it's one of the better comic book movies in recent years. Aside from a couple of really terrible lines of dialogue (and I really only mean a couple, like two or 3) it was great action and a lot of fun.

Ok now in case you haven't heard one of the greatest Sega Saturn games is coming to Xbox live this fall-GUARDIAN HEROES will be hitting the Xbox (and possibly the PS3) this fall. That is completely awesome news. However there are plenty of other great games from Sega's ill-fated system that deserve a chance to be discovered by today's gamers such as....

For the time, Clockwork Knight 2 (and its predecessor) had absolutely gorgeous visuals and really tight 2D gameplay, and it was a far better game that somewhat aped the idea of Toy Story than the horrible tie-in games that looked and played like utter garbage. An HD remake (possibly with online co-op play) would be a great idea for this great but mostly forgotten platformer.

Sadly this great and unique game came near the end of the system's life. I mean how many games take firefighting and turn it into a cool futuristic sci-fi game? This was a quirky title that would benefit greatly from a graphical upgrade and slightly tighter controls plus it would offer something really different from virtually every other digital release right now.

Granted the D & D Collection is a unabashed copy of Golden Axe with the skin of a D & D game, but it's a really solid copy so that's hardly a bad thing. A solid arcade beat em up with 4 player co-op would pretty much always be a welcome addition to any online library.

Nights has seen a life beyond the Saturn but frankly it hasn't been a good one, leaving many to wonder why people were so fond of the original. The original still holds up as a fantastic title that would greatly benefit from an HD release, possibly even with Kinect/Move compatibility (and adding in the limited relase of Christmas Nights would be awesome as well).

Arguably the biggest crime committed against US Saturn owners that for some unfathomable reason, we only got one chapter of this 3 chapter release. The Shining series may have devolved into mediocre action rpgs but this last great turn-based strategy entry deserves a re-release with an HD upgrade and all chapters included.

I normally don't dig RTS titles, just normally not my thing, but Dragon Force managed to make it extremely fun and not overly complicated. I wouldn't even care about upgrading to HD, just release this amazing fantastic game (possibly combined with its Japan-only sequel) for about $10-15 and I'm completely buying it.

Really any of the Saturn Panzer Dragoon games could've been on this list but the classic swan song for the Saturn probably deserves to have an HD port more than any other. It has a great story and manages to seamlessly combine great shooter action and rpg elements, this is easily the best Saturn game ever made and really deserves to be given a chance to find a wider audience.

Ok that's the list I should have another post up on Monday. In the meantime here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Thor: Bring the Thunder

Apparently the Reaper invasion will have to wait....

2011-05-04T18:18:00.000-05:00

Bah, posting has been screwy again, and I apologize, wife has new job that means a lot more money so all priorities have been helping her with that and leaving me a little too exhausted (and not much time) to write, but hopefully should be back to regular posting again. Now, as if waiting in a year where the RPG pickings are slim to begin with wasn't bad enough EA has decided that the game needs a little more fine-tuning, and as such, it's the first big 2011 game to be pushed into next year. It admittedly might have something to do with November already having several other huge games confirmed to be coming out before E3 has even happened (namely Uncharted 3 & Skyrim) so ME doesn't have to deal with a crowded field, but whatever the actual reason, if it means a more finely tuned end to one of the best rpg stories of this generation I'll gladly wait.

And even more rumors are flying about Nintendo's new console, namely that it will have an 8 gig flash drive for storage. Now while this is a huge upgrade from the measly 512 megs the Wii had, considering the supposed level of upgrade we are dealing with here it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm willing to bet 95% of what we've heard so far is people talking completely out of their asses because if half this is true it just sounds like a doomed to fail concept before it even gets out the gate. I'm not really believing anything at this point until we hear it from the E3 press conference in just about a month.

Ok that's it for today I'll hopefully have another post tomorrow but no promises. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Conan the Barbarian

Dammit now I might actually want Black Ops...

2011-04-27T18:07:00.000-05:00

It's something that sounds like it could only be a fan-made mod, but the newest Black Ops dlc, Escalation features a mode called "Call of the Dead", which features zombies. And yes, zombies are the new overbearing horror trend, I'm sure there will be an angsty teen drama featuring zombies any minute now. But what possibly makes this zombie kill-fest stand out is who you can play as. Buffy Summers, the most ass-kicking monster slayer of the last couple decades. Danny Trejo's cheesy action character Machete (and while I don't care much about Machete, Trejo himself is pretty damn awesome), horror icon Robert Englund and some dude from the Walking Dead (who I'm sure I will care about when I actually get around to watching the show). Pretty good fanboy dream material if you ask me. Now just add a few more legendary ass-kickers (say Bruce Campbell) and I'd be very sold on this whole idea, and considering the last FPS I actually bought was Halo 3, that's saying something.

Now last time I talked about how the rpg slate for 2011 seems pretty goddamn lacking this year. While that still may be true, there is one game I completely overlooked that might be one hell of a good timesink. That would be Dungeon Siege III, which is shaping up to be an awesome-looking dungeon crawl and it should be out in a just a little over a month. Hopefully there will be some awesome rpgs announced at E3 which is in June that will be out this year and this can keep us rpg nuts busy in the meantime.

Finally, while the virtual console on the Wii is a bit of a missed opportunity, with no upgrades whatsoever to the classic titles, the 3DS version will actually do something different, releasing many of its classics with a 3D mode, starting with Excitebike which owners will get for free. This seems like a pretty good idea, we'll see if that really pans out with other titles.

Ok that's it for today, should be another post up tomorrow or Friday. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Epic Monster War

Where are my rpgs at?

2011-04-24T22:04:00.000-05:00

Seriously, I finished Dragon Age II a couple weeks ago and there is pretty much nothing to look forward to for MONTHS. The only ones really set in stone are Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim, both not due out til NOVEMBER. I really thought we had gotten past the point of having to wait months and months between rpg fixes. Didn't this all change when Final Fantasy VII hit and basically brought the genre up to a whole new level of awareness? I'm not even talking big series, where are those quirky off-beat under the radar releases? Sure there are some on the horizon like Tales of Grace and Disgaea 4, but they just have a vague release date of sometime in 2011. Most likely, they'll come out around the same time, making me skip them so I can afford the bigger titles. 2010 was pretty much a banner year for rpgs, with tons to choose from on nearly every console out there (except for the Wii, but the last Nintendo home console with a decent rpg line-up was the Super NES, so anybody expecting a solid rpg experience on that was an idiot).

Sure, like any good rpg gamer I've got a few games I don't mind playing through again (actually having quite a bit of fun rediscovering Dark Cloud 2 at the moment), but I haven't really needed to do that for the last few years, there has always been something that I missed out on or at the very least something in the very near future. For some reason 2011 is the year of the starving rpg gamer, desperately hungry for our next fix. I guess if I get real desperate, there's always Pokemon Black/White...

What Nintendo needs to do with Project Cafe/Wii 2...

2011-04-20T22:33:00.000-05:00

Whatever the hell you want to call it, everybody's pretty much in agreement that in the next couple of months Nintendo will be unveiling their next system and that it will be out well before whatever Sony or Microsoft has planned next, probably in the next year. Sure the Wii was a resounding success, catering to that oh so hard to capture casual market in a level never before achieved. But any reasonable Nintendo/Wii fan will tell you that the Big N did plenty of things wrong with the Wii, and these are crucial critical things they need to fix if they want to stay ahead of the pack:

Make Some NEW IP: Hey we all love Mario, Link, Zelda, Kirby, etc. Nintendo has a very reliable stable of icons they can release for their systems and the faithful will buy it like there is no tomorrow. But how long have these characters been around? Nearly all of Nintendo's stable have been around since the SNES era or earlier, without much in the way of anything new. Now granted, nearly all studios that have been around awhile have venerable series they rely on, but new ideas need to be developed or else things get stale pretty damn fast. Just make sure the usual Nintendo magic is applied, and they'll be just as welcome as any of their current big stars.

Satiate the hardcore base: Now Nintendo's appeal to the masses worked very well, but it came at the cost of alienating a whole lot of people who had been loyal to them for years and with good reason. Oh sure, there has been a trickle of core titles throughout the Wii's existence, but it's some pretty long dry spells in-between. It's why sites (including this one) are basically constantly justifying owning a Wii, because it's this generation's fondue set. If Nintendo comes out with something gimmicky with no real depth, the public will probably just respond with "meh", and the hardcore, already being spurned once, won't be fooled again.

Figure out a cohesive online system: If there is one area where Nintendo has royally screwed up, it's in their online system. Potentially there's nothing wrong with it-Tons of unique channels, online play, and tons of classics along with original titles through Wii Ware and the Virtual Console. But the execution is horrid. The friend code setup is an insane joke that has no plausible justification. The Virtual Console and Wii ware are both half-assed efforts with little to no push behind them and many of the unique channels are gimmicky one-note ideas that never go anywhere.

Ok that's all I got for today, should hopefully have another post up between tomorrow and Sunday. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Pokemon Tower Defense

Stan Lee has lost his goddamn mind...

2011-04-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

Ok this is a day later than I expected, but I plan to make it up by posting at least 3 times this week, and as my schedule has become a tad less hectic lately, I might try to keep that up. Anyways, this isn't brand new news, and it's not even that surprising, but Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting back into entertainment after his political career. He plans to turn this whole "Governator" persona into a franchise. Comics, a cartoon, a videogame, probably even a movie. Now Arnold doing this is pretty easy to believe, it's a shallow marketing opportunity that smacks of the worst of Hollywood board meetings where they focus on how to make money rather than making a good product, and Arnold has never been concerned with making something for the Academy. The real insanity is that his partner in all this is Stan Lee. Let me say that again STAN THE FUCKING MAN LEE. The same dude who brought us pretty much all of Marvel's legendary heroes.

Now, some will say this is selling out, which seems like a decent enough theory, but why? He's already made his money and continues making money selling out with producer credits and cameos in nearly every Marvel movie. No a much more reasonable explanation is that he sees himself as a devoted fan would-That he can do no wrong, much like say everything George Lucas has done in the last decade or so. He's not just throwing his name in this, he's pushing it like it'll be the next big phenomenon. This is something that could actually damage his legacy. It's actually that bad. Schwarzenegger has no such risk here, his creative cred is absolutely zero. Really the best we can hope for here is that no company in their right mind will pick it up and it will be quickly forgotten. Stan Lee can just be that weird old guy who keeps popping up in Marvel movies and used to great comics rather than the man who brought about the goddamn entertainment apocalypse by being one of the creative forces behind "The Governator" franchise.

All right, that's it for today. Hopefully I should be back tomorrow or Wednesday with a post about Nintendo's new rumored system. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Abduction

A word about solo & co-op gaming...

2011-04-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

So recently many big follow-ups to epic series were "disappointingly" confirmed not to have co-op and be a single-player only experience. Arkham City (follow-up to the best super-hero game ever, Arkham Asylum) Mass Effect 3, & Elder Scrolls: Skyrim all have been confirmed to be single-player only. There seemed to by a lot of general disappointment in these games focusing on being solo experiences. Why? Why is that even an issue? These games are focused on strong experiences that are played solo. Why must co-op (or multi-player in general for that matter) be shoe-horned into every single game? This would seem to pretty much be the result of games by committee, shoving in everything to try and appeal to the widest audience possible, yet really not pleasing anyone.

Very few games that include both multi-player and single-player manage any sort of balancing act between the two. The Call of Duty games boast excellent multi-player, but extremely shallow and short single-player. Uncharted 2 boasts awesome single-player, but extremely underwhelming multi-player. It probably would've been a much better idea to scrap it altogether and make more single-player levels. Fable II's co-op mode is one of the most half-assed

Really in today's market there is really no reason to mesh these two clashing styles of gameplay experience together, there is a market for multi-player only games, and there is still a big market for a stand-alone solo experience, and not just rpgs. So hopefully companies will realize this too and actually think about whether something is a actually a good fit for a game rather than shoehorning something in there that detracts from the experience of having a more tightly developed core mode. And the best way we can ensure that is to actually buy games that reflect that.

Ok that's all for today, I should hoepfully have another post up tomorrow or Sunday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The Top 8 games I want to see on the 3DS...

2011-04-09T22:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry this is a bit later than expected, but I spent most of my free time this week finally finishing Dragon Age 2. It was a fun game and I plan to go through it again at some point (especially with this year seemingly incredibly light on rpgs) but probably not before I get through another playthrough of a few of my older games (i.e. I had just started up Dark Cloud 2 a little before DA2 hit, I plan to get back into that before I get into anything else). Anyways, the 3DS is out and a lot of exciting games are in the pipeline for it. Here are 8 I think would be a great fit for the system and its capabilities.

#8 Super Smash Bros.: Nintendo's premier fanboy dream come true really deserves a solid on the go edition. Being able to play online on the road would be extremely awesome. Street Fighter IV showed you could pull of an impressive 3D fighter on the system. 3D could also possibly ad a whole new dimension to the fight, or just be a really awesome way to see the game.

#7 Wario: Formerly a portable mainstay, Wario's been oddly quiet since about 2007. Sure, there was the criminally overlooked Wario Land: Shake It on Wii 3 years ago but that's it. He could really use a solid portable entry and the new 3DS is the perfect opportunity. And not another goddamn minigame collection, not that those haven't been fun, but I'd like to see Wario back as the greedy platforming bastard he is known to be, in full 3D.

#6 Sonic The Hedgehog: If you have only been paying attention to the blue blur's console efforts, you might think its best to just put the poor guy out of his misery. But Sonic has managed to keep his dignity on the portable end with a solid series of games, and he could continue to do so on the Nintendo 3DS. And while most series on this list would benefit from 3D being a huge part of the gameplay Sonic would probably work best sticking to basics, but it could still be fun checking out the old school gaming in 3D anyways (like Rayman)

#5 Professor Layton: I could only imagine what kind of insane brain teasers would result from giving the Layton series a whole new dimension to work with, it's already arguably the most maddeningly brilliant puzzle series ever, yet manages to not be completely nonsensical in its solutions, so the a 3rd dimension to the puzzles would probably just make you feel even stupider.

#4 Ace Attorney: Admittedly the main draw of the Ace Attorney games is the trial portions, which would most likely not benefit much from any kind of 3D aspect. However the investigation portions where you try to uncover evidence have always been rather lackluster and incorporating 3D could be a fantastic way to beef them up both visually and game-play wise.

#3 Star Fox: Yes the are remaking Star Fox 64, but I think what we all really want is a brand new glorious chapter in the Star Fox series if for no other reason than the entire flight combat genre has virtually nonexistent the last generation be it portable or home consoles. A proper sequel, possibly even with online multi-player would be the return to glory Fox truly deserves.

#2 Advance Wars: An incredibly solid series of turn-based strategy games. They don't necessarily need a real graphical upgrade, the basic presentation has always worked well. But incorporating 3D could add a whole new layer to the already fantastic combat. Either way its a great series that has been dormant for a few years and is due for a return.

#1 New Super Mario Bros.: I'm sure there will be plenty of games featuring Mario on the 3DS during the course of its life, but one I would particularly like to see is New Super Mario Bros done the way it really should be, whether it's a remake or an all new game. That means online multi-player, a ton of new levels (possibly dumping the midly amusing minigames) and incorporating 3D in a way that really invigorates the gameplay.

Ok that's the list, hopefully should have another post up early next week. In the meantime here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars

The Top Ten Bioware characters

2011-04-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

With their latest epic rpg, Dragon Age 2 now out, regardless of what you think of their games, it's hard to argue against the fact that they create wondrous universes filled with mostly awesome characters. Here in my opinion (in no particular order) are the top ten characters their epic games have produced so far:

10. Kriea: Easily the only actually interesting character from the rushed (and incomplete) but still very fun Knights of the Old Republic II, Kriea did her best to turn your character to the Dark Side, often presenting rather compelling arguments for doing so. And if you tried to turn her to the light? Yeah, she wasn't going for that, being one of the few Bioware characters in history you couldn't turn no matter how you tried.

9. Urdnot Wrex: Wrex could've been another brawny brute with not much in the way of brain matter, like so many other warrior race characters, but there are some serious brains to go with that brawn, along with a real complex drive to save his people from themselves. It also says something when one of the biggest accomplishments in a game is how hard it is to talk him into not turning on you at a certain key point in the game, which makes him one of the more complex characters indeed.

8. Zevran: Being someone who is usually a rogue, other rogues importance as far as battle has always been dubious at best for me personally, so it's hard to vouch for his awesomeness in battle. However his hilarious dialogue be it flirting with Wynne till she is about to light him on fire or trying to help Alistair with his inadequacies in the sack, the random conversation snippets make him one of the funniest characters to keep around.

7. Alistair: Normally someone like Alistair would be the cocky self-assured hero. But Alistair is insecure, unsure of himself and very self-effacing, making him a great foil for many of the other characters. Plus he actually really grows throughout the journey in Origins into his own man capable of leading an army (or possibly king depending on how things go).

6.Varric: Easily the standout character of Dragon Age 2, telling the tale of Kirkwall's champion as he sees fit, and really it's up to you whether or not his story is truthful. Varric is greedy and ambitious, but also all about family, even family that traps him and leaves him (and subsequently you) for dead in the Deep Roads.

5. Morrigan: Whether its trading hilarious barbs with nearly all your party members, disapproving openly of your attempts to help others or just getting you (or Alistair) to conceive a possible anti-christ with her, Morrigan is a welcome respite from the usual party members that seem to be either completely good or complete bastards depending on how you roll in most Bioware offerings. She's not really bad per se, but like most real people she makes some questionable decisions in the name of finishing the mission and living to tell about it.

4. The Illusive Man: The only character on this list who is not a party member (though I've no doubt he could kick some ass if needed) the whole of the Illusive Man is an extremely compelling mystery. What are his true motives? Does he really care about humanity or is he just out for himself? Why doesn't he crush you like a bug if you don't do things his way? Only the briefest of hints are given about him at all, making him a compelling presence that hopefully will be plenty influential in Mass Effect 3 as well.

3. Garrus: The former space cop turned vigilante is one of the best all around party members for both Mass Effect games. He managed to piss off 3 separate gangs enough to convince them to team up to take him down(which they have little success in). Frankly he's just an all around bad ass, even after he gets half his face blown off.

2. Mordin: Easily my favorite Mass Effect character, Mordin is highly intelligent, funny and can kill you before you get within 100 yards if he so wishes. He doesn't kill indiscriminately but has no qualms doing so if it justifies the means. Pretty much every conversation with him is extremely entertaining, especially when he chooses to belt out in song.

1. HK-47: Easily the best character out of the KOTOR games, arguably the best Bioware character of all time, HK-47 is pretty much the template for characters that openly despise meatbags (i.e. anything living) and do it gleefully. He won't kill you for doing good, but he makes it pretty clear that if it wasn't for his programming he might just kill you for the hell of it.

All right that's the list. Hopefully another post will be up by Wednesday. In the meantime, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Hangover 2

Free Console MMOs?

2011-03-30T13:10:00.000-05:00

You'd think with the launch of DC Universe, consoles would probably be years away from getting free MMOs. After all, only recently are they becoming a serious thing on PC, with nearly everything with the exception of WOW and a few others going to that model. It is a great way to nearly ensure at least a decent user-base to survive on, and many have found that model far more profitable, since people seem more willing to spend money on in-game goodies and bonuses when they aren't already being forced to pay a monthly fee.

But yet here we are. Yesterday, Free Realms was actually released on PSN to download. It's been available on PC for a few years, but now you can play it on your PS3 no charge. This is potentially huge, as why would someone pay to play something like DC Universe when you can play Free Realms? Well the immediate answer is fairly obvious much like it is with WOW-Something like DCUO offer a much more involved and deeper experience, though for those more casual players or people who just don't have the time (personally I haven't touched DCU since Dragon Age II came out, making me regretting buying that 3-month subscription because while I plan to get back into it, that probably won't happen til after it expires) it's probably a more enticing offer since there's no real commitment. Admittedly I haven't played any of the free rpgs out there, but if they start popping up on consoles on a regular basis I might.

PS3 owners aren't the only ones getting a free MMO either. Dungeon Fighter Online is supposed to be coming to the 360 at some point this year. Though whether that actually happens or this becomes yet another scrapped MMO idea is yet to be seen. It'll be interesting to see how this development affects the future of console MMOs. Many console gamers scoff at paying for anything beyond what you already get in the box as is, so something that's free to play may be far more appealing than something that has a monthly charge to it.

That's really all for today. I should have another post up this weekend sometime. In the meantime, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Infinite Tower RPG

FINALLY I CAN PLAY NINTENDOGS IN 3D!!!

2011-03-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

No I haven't gotten a 3DS yet. I'm not really planning to in the very near future, but if you have gotten one I'm sure you're enjoying it immensely. Not really sure what games to get for your shiny new portable though? Kotaku has a pretty comprehensive list of what to get and what to avoid (Ghost Recon is getting surprisingly solid reviews, that might just be one of the big sleeper titles).

It took a little while, because in addition to being very sick, injured and working a lot, I still wanted to get through Awakenings, but I finally have gotten some quality time in with Dragon Age II. It's been the point of a lot of controversy, as people who loved the slower, more tactical approach and much deeper customization in the first game, not too mention the much lower average completion time (i.e. the first DA could run you anywhere from 40-60 hours, not including DLC, DA II seems to top out around 25-30). Now I'm about 9 hours in. I really enjoy the frantic combat, it makes for a much more involved affair and frankly you can be just as tactical as you can still pause to order around your allies, and give them very specific tactics to use in battle. Arguably the real let down is the lack of ability to really tweak your characters equipment. You can change out weapons and accessories, but aside from a couple of arbitrary upgrades, you can't touch their armor. I also like the cast quite a bit, Varric especially standing out as a favorite. I think it would be a solid choice any time, but admittedly this seems like a weak year for rpgs, what with only Mass Effect 3 & Skyrim on the horizon and those aren't coming out til at least November. So I would say this is a very solid choice for those of us needing a new rpg, which most of you probably do by now.

That's pretty much it for today, but I should have another post by Wednesday. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Captain America

7 reasons you shouldn't buy a 3DS. Yet...

2011-03-20T13:41:00.001-05:00

We are just a week away from one of the most anticipated launches of all time with Nintendo's newest portable, the 3DS. I want one, you want one. It's awesome, it's really hard to argue any solid reason why you shouldn't get one. Eventually. But launch day? Not so much, and here are 7 perfectly good reasons you should wait at least a little while:

7. It's too expensive: At $250, the 3DS is the most expensive portable Nintendo's ever launched. I'm not saying you don't get your money's worth, it looks like one hell of a deal. But $250 is pretty damn steep, and apparently the whole reason it's that high is because reaction to the system at last year's E3 was so overwhelmingly positive. So odds are once the excitement dies down a bit the price will too. And that's just the system. The games are running higher too, hitting the $40 mark. Granted, there's not really a legitimate reason to immediately declare a portable game not worth that much, but given the more casual approach you usually see in portable games, it does seem on the high side.

6. There's nothing good to play: Has anyone actually looked at the launch line-up for this thing? I mean sure Kid Icarus and Ocarina of Time 3D are not far off in the future, but you can always buy those later. The launch line-up is pretty much a joke. Pilotwings Resort? Nintendogs + Cats? Those are the big titles? Yikes. I mean sure, Street Fighter looks impressive, but fighting games just traditionally aren't all that great on portables.

5. Extra money for Advil: Though not a universal experience, many people have experienced headaches playing this thing in 3D for an extended period of time, even to the extent that Nintendo has warned against little ones playing it in 3D at all. I'd prefer a headache-free gaming experience thank you, even if it requires glasses.

4. You might have to bring a book: One of the best feature of Nintendo portables to this point has been the battery life. These things usually last 10 or more hours on a single charge, long enough for most plane trips, bus rides, etc. The 3DS has a rather paltry battery life, even if you don't use the 3D, with things like wi-fi being enabled can drastically cut the battery power without you even realizing it. Hopefully Nintendo or someone will come with a battery extender because that seriously damages the travel possibilities with this thing.

3. See what the competition has to offer: And I'm not just talking about Sony here, though seeing how the NGP stands up to the 3DS in terms of things like price & software wouldn't be a bad idea. Phones, the itouch, tablets, even the massively more expensive Ipad all offer multmedia experiences along with a constantly improving selection of games (at a far more affordable price at least on the games side). Even Nintendo has said it's biggest worry is Apple, so there's probably good reason why.

2. It's a gimmick: I'm not saying the 3D doesn't look cool and that Nintendo won't use it in some pretty inventive ways, but how many 3rd party companies will actually use the 3D to enhance the experience, rather than just shoe-horn it in, sometimes to the detriment of the gaming experience? Well the answer to that question should be pretty clear if you look at the piles & piles of shovelware lining both the shelves of the Wii & DS sections. Odds are it will be awhile before a number of good quality titles are available for the system, if ever.

1. Bigger, stronger, faster: Ok, not necessarily bigger, but how many versions of the DS have there been? Not counting limited editions like the Zelda or Mario Kart ones, there has been a whopping 4 iterations of the 3DS' predecessor, 3 or which you can still buy in pretty much any gaming section of any store. Nintendo's portables constantly have new versions come out, usually offering a thinner package, better lighting, etc. So odds are this time next year we will either already have word of a new version of the 3DS or it's arrival might even already been emminent, making those people who had to have it right away already for some buyers remorse for not waiting for the newer, arguably better version.

Now obviously this isn't really a knock against the 3DS at all, it should be a completely awesome system and I seriously doubt anyone who buys one will really be dissapointed with it. But like many console launches, there are plenty of issues that if you wait a little while will probably be worked out.

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