Along with the completion on investigation and correction of the critical issue, we have decided to begin FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test on Sep. 2, 2010 at 02:00 (GMT).

Starting on Sep. 2, 2010 at 02:00 (GMT), acquisition of registration code required for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will become available on “FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Application Site.” For more details, please refer to “FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test Application Site.”

http://entry.ffxiv.com

We are looking forward to your participation in FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test!

So if any of you readers are going to dive into Final Fantasy 14 let us here at Gamedibs know and we can try out the game together. Hit the link above and we’ll see you online!

Games in this episode:

Dewy’s Adventure (Wii)

Windjammers: Flying Power Disc (Neo Geo)

The Combatribes (SNES)

I hope you all enjoy this work in progress, as it truly is a labor of love for me.

Gamedibs is currently going under a major overhaul, so stay tuned for further news.

Q. Considering the number of Fifa fans there are out there, how excited are you guys about the exposure?
A. We’re so excited and stressed out that we decided to hide our identity behind red tracksuits and gigantic sunglasses, Daft Punk style…

Q. From your photos it would appear you guys are skaters, how long have you been boarding and what is your favorite skating game?
A. We’ve been boarders since before it was legal in Norway. Favorite skating game is without a dubt Skate Or Die!

Q. Do you guys game more now that you have been in such a huge title as FIFA?
A. We’ve got tracks in four different FIFA games, so we’ve actually had to quadruple the gaming.

Q. What are some Norwegian bands that you guys enjoy that we might not know about in the states?
A. Røyksopp, Denga Denga, Syntax TerrOrkester, MT SIX, Quasimojo, No States, NOXAGT, Sound Of Sotra, Karin Park, John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen, Audiogarde, Purified In Blood, Kvelertak, Moha, Ultralyd, Bjørn Torske, Lindstrøm & Prince Thomas, Todd Terje, Diskjokke, Of Norway, Christian Tilt, Annie, Ungdomskulen, Skatebård, Tobii, Fjorden Baby!, Teebee, Kråkesølv, Casiokids, Lars Vaular and a bunch of black metal bands such as Burzum, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem, Gorgoroth and Enslaved?

Q. What is your favorite track on Fifa 10 aside from your own?
A. Peter Bjørn & John´s Nothing To Worry About

Q. What EA title will you be in next and how do you feel about it?
A. The amazing DATAROCK track “Amarillion” will be featured in a game we can’t tell you about, but we already feel great about it!!!

Q. What game do you guys play most on tour?
A. Skate Or Die!

Q. Who is your favorite skater?
A. Øyestein Greni who won the 1991 European Skateboard amateur championship in Antwerp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4P2ilyiYlA.

Him or anyone who dares to use the Photon light boards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7pXgk0iGM&feature=related

No , no wait – that’s an eaven tie between Christian Slater in “Gleaming The Cube” and Michael J Fox in “Back To The Future”.

Q. Have you guys every googled yourselves, if so were you surprised by anything you found?
A. Sure. Loved it when Playboy fronted us: http://www.playboy.com/articles/free-music-alert-datarock/

Q. What was your biggest American musical influence?
A. Talking Heads & DEVO.

Q. You guys have anything to say to all the gamedibs fans out there?
A. Check out the label we run – YAP Records at myspace.com/yaprecords

For more information on them please also visit the official EA blog.

I know the difference between a reel of shots prettied up and slapped together and an actual gameplay trailer but other may not. For instance, I recently discovered my parents started playing video games. Despite the years of watching me play as kid it took an Army of Two trailer to get them rolling with their gaming career. Before long they beat it and called me in a panic wondering what game they should buy next. I asked them what game they had played and quickly deduced that co-op shooters were probably what they were going to stick to. I suggested everything from Left for Dead to Halo. Had they seen the mouthwatering trailer for Dante’s Inferno they might have gone out and bought it. The trailer offers nothing but an outstanding visual experience and offers no insight into what the game is like to play. It might confuse people that are not life long players or very young gamers. This type of misleading adventure is not restricted to modern day shenanigans.

I was a kid I played every Final Fantasy I could get my hands on. I read all about the game in magazines and on the internet but never seen the commercial. By the time I actually seen the commercial I had beaten the game. I was watching and began to get confused. They showed only the cut scenes in the game, totally unplayable sections. The commercial was a huge misrepresentation of what the game actually was. Had I seen the commercial I might not have bought it. I really enjoyed classic turn based rpgs. I would have thought the game was more like Zelda than Final Fantasy. The Dante’s Inferno ad would have the opposite effect. People might buy this game thinking it is something its not and be terribly disappointed. Granted, there is a disclaimer on the screen but who is going to notice it when they are picking their jaw up of the floor.

Hard Headed Heroes: The Iron Man, War Machine, Doctor Doom, Sentinel, Juggernaut, Mega Man, Roll, Servbot, Tron Bonne and Zangief

Babes and Villans: Magneto, Rogue, Gambit, Blackheart, Spiral, B.B. Hood, Chun Li, Cammy, M. Bison and Felicia

Orgy of Favorites: Cyclops, Cable, Storm, Psylocke, Colossus, Ryu, Ken, Morigan, Jill Valentine and Akuma

February 11 two sets of 10 pics and one set of 5 pics (80 MS points) will be available for a totaling to 55 gamerpics.

The Wolverine collection: Wolverine, Omega Red, Sabretooth, Silver Samurai, Marrow, Son Son, Charlie, Dhalsim, Jin and Hayato

Sakura Meets Capatin America Colection: Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Venom, Iceman, Captain Commando, Dan, Sakura, Guile and Strider

And the package that’s guaranteed to be a fan favorite…..
Weird Ass Includes: Thanos, Shuma-Gorath, Ruby Heart, Amingo and Anarkis

Though there are 56 playable characters in MvC2 there is one gamerpic missing. MvC2 players are invited to find the missing character. The first person to give Capcom blogger DJ Qbert the correct answer wins a free signed copy of the MvC2 vinyl.

“We’re looking for a brand new bum (the best in the world!) to be the new “face” for our always expanding intimates and briefs lines. The winners will be flown to LA, photographed and featured online. Send in a close-up photo of your backside wearing American Apparel panties, bodysuits or briefs for consideration and vote for your personal favorites.

You must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Submit your photo(s) between January 28, 2010, and February 21, 2010. Two winners – selected by American Apparel judges – will be eligible to be our next butt model. The top ten contestants, as voted on by the public, will receive a grab bag of American Apparel items valued at $300.”

See the butts!
http://i.americanapparel.net/storefront/UGCStyle/BestBottom2010/View.asp?e=4314

Fans that want to get their gaming and football fix all in one are invited to “watch the NFC Championship with Bio-Ware” event where they chat live with the Development team of Mass Effect 2 through the Bio Ware game room via Usream. Participants will of the event get an exclusive look at Mass Effect 2 gameplay during halftime. Bio Ware will also be giving away its coveted “shwag” every 15 minutes throughout the game.

Bio-ware is also set to launch a mass effect 2 trailer during the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game. The full length, uncut trailer will be the games first television debut.

In Critter Crunch, players assume the role of Biggs, a friendly, furry forest dweller with an unending hunger for tasty critters. Using his long tongue, Biggs must set the food chain in motion by launching smaller critters into the waiting mouths of larger ones, clearing the screen and filling his belly.

It’s a multiplayer puzzle title, which can be purchased from the Playstation store. Enjoy!

Back to the Basics

These are awesome…

The staff of Savage Cycles with their creation. (l-r): Jack Rafferty, Sean Snyder, Mike Dixon, Jeremy Gordon, and Steve Shreve

Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack brings players a whole new world to explore called Amaranthine. In this new world players discover the secrets of the darkspawn; their true motivations are revealed. Players will battle new horrific and terrifying creatures including a new breed of intelligent darkspawn , Inferno Golems and a Spectral Dragon. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening provides new customization features for both heroes and parties, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes. Other features include an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items and five new party members. Players can continue using their own characters or start fresh with one of the new options.

“Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening shows BioWare’s commitment to our fans by delivering new story-driven experiences which enrich the dark heroic fantasy universe our fans have come to know and love,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder of BioWare. “The vibrant worldwide community of Dragon Age fans will relish uncovering the secret motivations of the darkspawn, revealing how the darkspawn continue to infest the world despite the defeat of the Archdemon.”
The Dragon Age story arc continues, following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander charged with revitalizing of the order of Grey Wardens. Players will also be in charge of discovering how the darkspawn survived after the death of the Archdemon. How players rebuild , resolve the conflict with the mysterious “Architect,” and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the moral choices that will shape each player’s journey.

“No other release rejuvenated a genre more than Capcom’s flagship fighting game. It grabbed a new generation of fans and reignited the passion of old-school gamers in the series,” according to Geison Cacho of the Contra Costa Times. The runners up were Uncharted 2, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

Reigniting the passion of old school fans was not the only award winning quality according to the judges at Mercury News. “The huge turnout at Evo Championship Series 2009, the preeminent U.S. fighting game tournament, is proof of that. The return to the classic gameplay, along with some new tweaks and a great online mode, made “Street Fighter IV” the game I played and loved the most this year,” according to Cacho.

Capcom itself was ecstatic about the choices made by California judges. “I was very happy to see Street Fighter IV pick up some nominations not just for “Fighting Game of the Year, but actually for “Game of the Year” overall, and now it’s actually won…It’s nice to be nominated, but nicer to win, and an EVO shout out to boot,” Capcom said on their blog.

CID The Dummy (Wii/PSP)
Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward (Wii)
Hurry Up Hedgehog (DS)
Pirates: Duels on the High Seas (DS)
PDC World Championship Darts (PSP)
Obscure: The Aftermath (PSP)

Enjoy!

Have a merry x-mas and a happy new year, and I’ll see you all on x-mas day with a review to wrap up retro month!

For me video games brought me into my own mentally. It was a kind of media that I enjoyed and was, frankly, educational. I did not enjoy reading as a child. I hated school and anything that related to it and as a result I was a very poor student. I was a typical problem child and for the first few years of school I was a hardship for my parents and teachers. Teachers believed I had a learning disability and behavioral problems. However, at age 8 I played my first RPG, Breath of Fire. I still remember digging through the games at Blockbuster and reluctantly picking it out. I didn’t understand it but the art work intrigued me.

It was slow starting but once I got the concept I was completely hooked. I could barely read at the time but I read every word of the storyline. I made sure to talk to every single towns-person in every town and never skipped a single scene in the story. I loved the story lines and the characters inspired quite a bit of emotion in me. I began to understand what was going on in my classes at school much better and even enjoyed being there more.When I finished I was terrified that the game was one of a kind and I wouldn’t get a chance to play another game like it. I was glad to learn that there were tons out there even some that I enjoyed good deal more than Breath of Fire.

I continued playing games did not only serve as an English tutor for me. Other titles such as Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals confronted me with puzzles. Solving Lufia puzzles is not the most daunting task but it is challenging for an eight year old kid. I really feel that beating the scenarios in the game was intellectually stimulating. Considering that the games I played were text heavy and contained puzzles I think it is safe to say that what I was doing was akin to reading and solving puzzles books. If you laid out the text of a game it would easily come out to the length of a short novel. Not to mention, the puzzles were harder than finding the little bird in grand ma’s frying pan in the highlights books at school.

Right before my parents were getting serious about threats to take away my SNES for spending long hours on it, they realized my grades were improving. It was not hard to see what changed in my behavior because it was obvious that I spent at least a couple hours a day playing in my bedroom. They continued to let me play and I continued to love gaming. Story lines in games such as FF III, Lufia and Chrono Trigger were not exactly Black Beauty or Wind in the Willows, but I remember them fondly and feel they did a great deal for me as a child.

By the way, in all of these games I have racked up thousands of simulated “kills” or “simulated murders,” as some might call them. As I said before, to date I have not mounted a tower to pick off civilians with a hunting rifle or loaded fetuses into a gun and launched them like tee shirts. So, for all the Michael Atkinson’s and Jack Thompson’s out there who believe gaming to be an entirely negative force, dig deep and find people who have hyper-positive gaming experiences. There has never been a single incident of violence that can be traced directly to gaming but this article is evidence of a life unarguably changed for the better because of games. I believe they are responsible for me getting into college. They were basically the books of my childhood. If never discovered Breath of Fire sitting on a shelf at Blockbuster who knows what I would be doing now.

Controversy was struck recently when game developer Rebellion refused to change its PC title Alien vs. Predator to meet Australian approval ratings. Australia’s Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) CEO Ron Curry responded to the ban: “It doesn’t seem democratic that a single attorney general should be able to dictate what the vast Australian population can interact with. The government trusts us to be adults with films, but they only want us to be children with games.”

Atkinson insisted that games were a negative force that needed restriction and that many gamers are unable to think for themselves. “I accept that 98%, 99% of gamers will tell the difference between fantasy and reality, but the 1% to 2% could go on to be motivated by these games to commit horrible acts of violence.” Atkinson also claims that gamers were a minority interest and trying to impose their will on the greater population.

“This is a question of a small number of very zealous gamers trying to impose their will on society, and I think harm society. It’s the public interest versus the small vested interest,” said Atkinson. Gamer Gary Farrow defended gamers and believes the matter is one of product awareness, “we’re talking about just labeling content, so we have a fairly educated idea as to what to expect [from a game].”
I

Not wasting anytime, the show opened with a large present on stage. The voice of Mark Hamil’s Joker begins to echo from the loudspeakers, asking viewers if they’re ready for the big surprise. And thusly, the shoe kicked off with arguably the biggest reveal of the night, as were were treated to a short teaser trailer, ending with a sickly looking (and sounding Joker), hooked up to an IV and coughing and wheezing his way through his trademark maniacal laughter. Fade to black and we’re greeted by the phrase “Arkham Has Moved”.

Of course, that was just the start of the big reveals. We had been promised a new Star Wars game would be announced, and fans were not let down as LucasArts brought us the first teaser for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. The trailer featured the first game’s protagonist, Starkiller, walking into a large gladiator arena while the voices of Yoda and Darth Vader speak about death, destiny, and the future.

Trailer snippets of a so-called “mystery games” had been released by Spike over the past week or so, and that game was also finally unveiled at the VGAs, in the form of a new True Crime title. You might remember the name from a pair sub-par GTA clones that Activision published in the first half of the decade. Both of those games were developed by Luxoflux, who went on to make games based on Shrek and Transformers. This new True Crime is being helmed by United Front Games, makers of the promising but yet to be released ModNation Racers, and moves away from the United States to China. The original True Crime titles had tons of promise but failed to deliver. Hopefully the recent trend of excellent open-world games will ensure this new True Crime game is worth playing.

The premiers continued throughout the show’s two hour runtime. We got our first gameplay looks at the new Medal of Honor and Crackdown 2, debut trailers for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Tron Evolution, and game reveal trailers for Spec Ops: The Line and Green Day Rock Band. Be sure to tune into the Dibcast next week for our full thoughts on this years VGAs (or check my Twitter feed from tonight to see just how bad of an idea I think Green Day Rock Band is). Drop me a line at josh[at]gamedibs.com and tell me what you thought about the awards, and maybe we’ll use your email on the Dibcast next week.

Until then, be sure to check out all of tonight’s reveals by clicking here.

Pint Shot Riot is one of the many video game rock stars helping EA develop awesome sound tracks for games like Fight Night Round 4 and Fifa. GameDibs had an interview with Pint Shot Riot bass player Baby Dave.  See what Baby Dave has to say about the bands habits and hobbies, which include a love for MMA, Boxing, and XBOX Live.

How avid is Pint Shot Riot about gaming?

“I’m probably the most avid gamer, my life changed when Xbox live entered it! We do get the chance to play together sometimes which is always intense!”

Do you guys play the EA games your band is featured in?

“Well, I had Fifa 10 on pre-order when I found out we were going to be on it so definitely that one! I did take the time to check out all of them to some extent, Fight Night 4 is an incredible game.”

Do you see any relationship between making music and playing games?

Does gaming help the process?

“Oh no, the opposite if anything! It’s important to practice and work on writing as much as possible but it’s a lot harder with an Xbox 360 in the room! Also, it’s a common cause of lateness at rehearsal times!”

I never listened to Pint Shot Riot before I heard it in Fight Night

Round 4; did you guys discover any musicians through gamming?

“A few through the Tony Hawk games and Fifa, they were probably the soundtracks which had the most impact on me.”

What was it like hooking up with EA games, was it just a phone call out

of the blue or did you contact them?  How did you get a deal with EA?

“Through a third party originally. We were getting radio play from a DJ in L.A. who then gave our music to E.A and it went from there.”

How big of a factor was getting a track on an EA game in helping

expand your notoriety?

“That is an ongoing process but it’s been awesome so far. We’ve had a lot of interest from the internet; we’ve received some awesome messages from people all over the world which feels amazing.”

Do you think landing a track on a video game could be a new avenue for musicians to gain recognition?

“I think it already is, for sure.”

Pint Shot did music for Fight Night and FIFA but who do they prefer,

Ricky Hatton or David Beckham?

“I’ve nothing against Beckham, and I look forward to watching him help England win the world cup but we were big Hatton fans before Fight Night. We like a bit of boxing and Hatton was a big favorite anyway so to actually end up being his entrance music was sweet!”

Fight Night and FIFA are both sports games, is Pint Shot into any

Sports, what do you watch or maybe play?

“Well, as I mentioned we love boxing and also MMA, as well as being Coventry City fans. A couple of us have done some boxing training and we all like to stay fit. I attended my first UFC event recently, which was mind-blowing!! And Mini-Rocket is a demon striker on the local Sunday league football scene.”

What kind of influence do you think music simulation games will have on the gaming and music world?

“Hopefully it will help youngsters understand the basics of how music is made and how instruments work which has to be a positive thing.”

Guitar Hero or Rock Band and why: game play, downloadable content or

personal quark?

“Both, evens in my book.”

Can any of you play any instruments on Guitar Hero or Rock Band on expert?

“I’d so love to lie here!! Not really, I tried playing Metallica with the double kick pedals but I sucked big time! I reckon it is easier to play proper drums on some songs!”

Would you like to be featured on a game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

“Of course, that would be an honor.’”

Have you ever jammed on the real thing while a friend wailed away on a

Guitar Hero or Rock band song you know?

“Actually, I did once whip out the acoustic bass when my friends were playing. How did you know that, were you there, hiding?!”

As a band what are your three biggest influences?

“Good music, good friends, good times.”

Are there any British bands you think fans should know about, people

making great music underground or even something popular across the

Atlantic but practically unknown here?

“There is a massive music scene going on in every city in the UK. Pick the kind of music you like, Google it or check MySpace.”

Now that you have been exposed to international audiences will you

be touring in the U.S or anywhere else soon?

“We would love to in the future, we’ll have to see.”

After all is said and done do you think you will attract more game

groupies or music ones?

“Do you know any gamer groupies?! Holy macaroni, that is a scary thought!”

Have you guys ever drank a few pints, taken a few shots and then

started a riot, i.e trouble of some sort? Do you have a really

memorable experience your willing to share?

“Sure we know how to drink but rioting for us is having a good time which can end up with girl trouble…”

Do you have anything to say to all the GameDibs fans out there?

“Just thanks for listening, and if you need further information check out www.pintshotriot.co.uk or www.myspace.com/pintshotriot.”

Peace. Baby Dave

Divineo is an online producer of flash cards that allow users to play Rom’s of Nintendo DS games. Nintendo originally took the group to court over DS flash cards, but the judge has ruled against Nintendo and suggested that they are purposely locking out developers from their consoles.

The ramifications of this are huge, as it indicates that flash cards are actually legal. Moreover, it could have bigger implications for developers and the like because Nintendo is deemed to be ‘illegally’ protecting their system by locking users out. Therefore, developers should not actually require separate development kits and should just be able to develop applications as they wish on retail versions of Nintendo’s consoles.

This may be a globally relevant court case and seems likely to be relevant to the whole of Europe. Essentially, France has allowed a legal window for pirating on the Nintendo DS. According to their laws it is all fine because Nintendo has left them with little other choice.

Full court documents will be available soon.

One of the problems Torres had with the game was the realism of events in the campaign. Although riding a helicopter through a hot combat zone might seem like a fun way to spend your Sunday afternoons, Torres has seen that situation go bad and it is not for the faint of heart, “I saw a helicopter crash and it was brutal. I want to say of 25 passengers… four might survive.” Even if you are one of the lucky survivors, permanent incapacitation and death are not far off after that. So it is safe to say that there is no way you could jump into a fire fight right after a helicopter crash.

Another interesting inaccuracy deals with night visions devices; in particular a device used by soldiers called Aviator mods. Torres said this about Infinity wards equipment choice: “rangers wouldn’t use aviator mods. We use PVS 14’s, night vision monocular. The reason is having one of your eyes adjusted to night vision gives you some kind of depth perception. [When using night vision] Things close to you look further away. Your night eye is adjusted to dept and your night vision eye lets you see what is around you. If it came to an emergency situation where you engaged in a [lit] room, you would still have your other eye.”

Although Torres took issue with the game scenarios and equipment choices he did not have much to say in terms of gameplay. However, one of the few gameplay gaff s that stuck out to Torres dealt with reloading. Spam reloading is rampant in MW2, and Torres would definitely agree that always having a ready weapon is a plus, but “in a real life scenario, you aren’t going to reload every three shots.” Soldiers are trained to be aware of how much ammo they have left and to conserve every round.

Many people will never know the feeling of being in a full-out war, and that is the reason MW2 has been so successful in bringing the desperation of real combat into the safety of our living rooms, but in reality death isn’t just a reason to use the restroom and crack another soda.

What attracted you to MW 2?

“I don’t play too many games but realism of [Modern Warfare 2] caught my eye.”

Do you think Infinity Ward did a good job constructing a realistic game in Modern Warfare 2?

“Rating it on a scale of one to ten I think it is pretty high up there, I’d give it an 8. One of the things I enjoyed is that it brings adrenaline and excitement, as far as the action goes.” Torres said the rush was smaller yet similar feeling of being in actual combat.

How realistic is MW 2 weaponry compared to actual weaponry used in warfare?

“A lot of what Modern Warfare brought to the table is pretty accurate. When you look down the sight it looks pretty realistic.” MW 2 also contained many weapons Torres has yet to get his hands on such as the SCAR-H.

How realistic is the environment displayed in MW 2 compared to environments you experienced?

Torres felt the snow covered terrains most reflected environments he experienced. “I know in Afghanistan, when it snows, it snows. Afghanistan is rough mountain terrain, sometimes when had to get flown in. A couple of time we had to suck it up and get out there on foot.”

What is your favorite MW 2 weapon?

Torre’s best loved MW 2 weapon is one he did not get a shot to test drive while he was still in the military, the SCAR-H.

Is there anything unrealistic about MW 2 that really sticks out to you?

“The corporal guy was wearing aviator mods, rangers wouldn’t use aviator mods. We use PVS 14’s, night vision monocular. The reason is having one of your eyes adjusted to night vision gives you some kind of depth perception. [When using night vision] Things close to you look further away. Your night eye is adjusted to dept and your night vision eye lets you see what is around you. If it came to an emergency situation where you engaged in a [lit] room, you would still have your other eye.”

What is your favorite weapon in real life?

Torres has a few favorites but he mentioned three weapons of different types to balance it out a bit: the M4 carbine, the USP 45 with LAM sight, and HK UMP 5. The M4 was his primary weapon as an Army Ranger.

What do you think of the scene in MW 2 where Russian Civilians were shot in the airport?

“Well, it is for the sake of entertainment. Politics aside I think they did a good job getting their point across. Any soldier would know its entertainment. No soldier would stand for [gunning down civilians.]”

What do you think of Obama sending 30,000-35,000 troops into Afghanistan?

“I think it’s a good idea. It is no secret; he said he was going to do it since his campaign. I see his logic. When Bush came up with the surge to invade Iraq we had it right, we just did it to the wrong country.”

Gamedibs will continue doing exclusive interviews with actual soldiers, asking their opinions on various subjects, touching on everything from gameplay to politics. We invite you to submit questions of your own to get answer from the men that have seen what many spend hours simulating. Feel free to add a question to the comment section.

“Capcom fans now have the chance to take a trip down memory lane and experience these characters in their first appearance before playing them in the new Street Fighter game,” according to Capcom’s latest blog entry. The game will also include a remake of classic game Magic Sword.

“Final Fight: Double Impact is a dual release of two classic arcade side-scrolling beat-em-ups,” according to Capcom. Both games have been redone in GGPO coding but will still have the option of using the classic pixilated look if preferred. “Alternatively, purist pixel junkies can toggle back to a classic and arcade cabinet modes to render the game in its original form.”

Both games will be playable online with new soundtrack updates and enhanced game play. “Vault system will allow users to get extra game play out of the game by unlocking new content from both the original developers and fan artists.” There has been no word as to when the characters will be released for play on Street fighter IV but with Final Fight and Magic Sword coming early 2010 playing Cody and Guy may not be possible until later 2010.

Bottom line. It’s worth a rental, but that’s about it. That is, of course, if you want to enrage the folks over at PETA, for which i strongly encourage, and salute you. Until next time folks.

In a recent article, that can be seen at news.bbc.co.uk, a gamer calling himself Raz said this when his XBOX 360 was banned from XBOBX Live for having been modified to use pirated games, “To be honest, I’ve contemplated whether to move to Playstation 3 or buy another Xbox.” Many other disgruntled users are making the same threats but their behavior may not be tolerated any better on the Playstation Network.

An analysis of the terms of service and terms of use agreement of XBOX live and PSN show an amazing similarity in how both companies view piracy. “All use or access to such Property shall be subject to the terms of this Agreement…You may not sell, rent, sublicense, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any portion of the Property,” according to Playstation Network’s terms of service agreement.

The feelings of PSN are echoed in XBOX Live’s agreement,” You may not copy, download, modify or create derivative works, publish, transmit, sell or attempt to sell or transfer, or otherwise use or exploit any software,” according to the XBOX Live terms of use agreement.

Although many users are making threats to leave the XBOX behind the truth is, changing platforms might not change anything. Purchasing another XBOX would be the same price as switching to Ps3, considering the slim version is now available. Not only is the price the same but what is more obvious is that the users agreements are pretty much the same.

It is understandable that users feel betrayed and angered by the permanent termination of their accounts. The solution to their problems may not be to satiate the lust for revenge but to stop pirating. But, if a gamer really thinks it is time for a change PSN does have much to offer and the avenue for the switch is always open. They only need to remember, the terms of use are there, they may change systems but the rules are set in stone.

The game has 3 stories that you play through. Two of these stories are a retelling of the events from Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. In addition to the retelling of those stories, there are several new aspects of the series’ storyline that is explored, including a brand new chapter.

The new chapter, called Operation Javier, takes place prior to the events of Resident Evil 4. This chapter features Leon Kennedy and Jack Krauser traveling through the South American village of Amparo on a rescue mission to save a mysterious young girl named Manuela.

You have your choice of various playable characters, although they all play the same. You can select one of two characters depending on the chapter or mission. The characters include:

Claire Redfield
Leon S. Kennedy
Jack Krauser
Steve Burnside
Chris Redfield

Other RE characters like Ada Wong and Sherry Birkin also play a role in the storylines.

Now onto the gameplay. The game can be played with the Wiimote, the Wii Zapper or any gun controller that is compatible. The game feels great, with many difficulty settings to choose from, you’ll find yourself constantly firing and reloading to keep yourself alive.

Whichever character you choose, you will always have a second player on screen with you. You can have a friend jump in and control this character, or the CPU will control it if you are playing solo. Check out the video review below for more.

NASA has set a release date of early 2010 for Moonbase Alpha, a demo of its MMO designed to educate people on space exploration through gaming. It is now available for viewing on their website
“The mini demo game Moon Base Alpha utilizes actual NASA Constellation program design details developed by NASA for mankind’s return to the Moon in 2020. Timelines in the much anticipated Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond MMO will be set even farther in the exciting future (2035+),” according to NASA’s website http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/mmo/. The game will focus on different themes, incorporating space travel and exploration of extraterrestrial environments. Although the game is made for entertainment purposes, NASA has a higher agenda for its product.
“Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity, making it easier to grasp complex concepts and transfer this understanding quickly to practical problems,” according NASA’s website. The software is geared toward educating people on scientific subjects that are hard to grasp in traditional learning environments.
Officials at NASA recognize that gaming has created new avenues to approach learning and wants to utilize gaming technology to improve education. “The power of games as educational tools is rapidly gaining recognition. NASA is in a position to develop an online game that functions as a persistent, synthetic environment supporting education as a laboratory, massive visualization tools and collaborative workspace while simultaneously drawing users into a challenging, game-play immersion.”

Grand Theft Auto was released way back in 1997 and-despite the top down view-it was a fun game. In the twelve years since the original release of the game not much has changed other than its graphics and things have gotten more than a little dry . Though fun at first, it still relies on cursing and random acts of simulated violence to attract an audience. Sure, one could argue that there is a whole story line to it and it changes all the time but the story is mediocre at best. Compared to story lines like, Modern Warfare two’s, the scenarios are laughable. MW 2 incorporates more realistic scenarios that deal with subjects that brush on topics that are relevant, like terrorism. Not to say that Russians will invade your local suburb any time soon but we can be sure you’ll never be able to recover health after a gun fight by drinking soda or visiting a local prostitute. Adding explicit material for the sake of itself means that the producers of the game are not treating their audience like adults. It also creates a huge stigma about what video games are about, leading to my next point…

Reason number two: Jack Thompson…among others

I am sure there is not a single gamer that hasn’t picked up on the views of Jack Thompson and many of his peers who believe video games are out of control with the level of violence and sexuality portrayed in them. Given that he calls games that contain simulated violence “murder simulators” and that he blames game producers for retailers selling M-rated games to minors, I think that the man is clearly wrong in his assumptions. No one blames Smirnoff if a couple of kids get a hold of a bottle of vodka and there has never been a game entitled “how to be like Charles Manson 3, the Ballad of the Butchered Butler.” I don’t think the case can really be argued. But, what is up there next to his ugly mug other than Grand Theft Auto IV. Part of the “fun” of the GTA series is the option to wander the city killing random people, law enforcement officials, stealing cars and having sex with hookers. These things don’t really offend me per say, some of it is legal in Vegas, but where is the Why? factor. If there were an entertaining story behind it then it would be justifiable but there isn’t so it becomes a liability to the gaming world, it gives every bored mom a reason to start boycotting all games. If GTA were my only perspective into what gaming is like than I might think gaming is a negative thing as well.

Reason number three: There are just better games out there.

I know GTA won game of the year 2008 on several websites and I think it was one of the worst decisions that could ever be made. No one can really explain to me why it has so much appeal. Any competent FPS has better weaponry than GTA. Any FPS has a better story line, it is not hard. Any game with an environment that is able to be freely navigated the way GTA is does it much better, think Fable 2. Getting chased by the police over and over again is worn out to the nub . Having sex with hookers to gain health is ridiculous and a liability. I think it is time for fans to ask themselves: is driving tanks and car jacking people really fun for for 12 years straight?

HoN came through with all of its promises. The graphics were crisp and frankly, impressive. There was no lag and no leavers, a dream come true for anyone that has ever played a public game on battle.net. After I settled down and gathered a few thoughts I began to examine why I enjoyed it. I came to conclusion that it was essentially DotA, which really means: the creativity of Icefrog.

There is so much to admire about HoN, the graphics, the built in VOIP server, it seems unreal at first glance. I am not counting it out, but removing the element of Icefrog removes the creative aspect of DotA, which is the engine behind the game’s ever-changing dynamic, which makes it fun. The thing that scares me about HoN is, for the most part, every hero, item and idea is taken directly from DotA. HoN is a visually superior, regulated copy of a game that already exists but with less variety.

Many DotA fans can easily adjust the game and appreciate the add-ons, but what makes DotA fun is the constantly evolving dynamic, HoN is still trying to catch up to the latest version. The true value of HoN will not be seen in its ability to compensate for the inadequacies of battle.net custom maps, but in the ability of the creators to break from it and create a quality experience from their own imagination. I can not say they will never do it and am impressed with what has been done, but HoN needs to stop relying on Icefrog to freshen up its look every update.

Another problem with HoN is its ability to gather a fan base. Despite all of the disadvantages DotA may have because of the Warcraft 3 map editor, it does have the advantage of siphoning off players from the standard, ranked, ladder games. A tired melee player goes to the custom section to relax and stumbles upon DotA. That was me five years ago, back when Guinsoo still produced DotA. WC 3 serves is a marketing tool for fans. HoN’s fans are DotA fans. Neither game is mass marketing; there are no commercials or ads for either game. DotA relies on WC 3 and HoN, DotA.

In the defense of HoN, there could be enough fans now to support a community unrelated to DotA. With League of Legends, another AoS game in the picture, more than one developer has solved the problems DotA will never be able to overcome without third party software like ban lists. Not being able to rank, tag, and generally keep track of players is a major disadvantage that HoN and LoL solved. However, seeing the issue as HON vs. DotA vs. LoL may be a short sighted approach to what could become a main stream experience. There could be players that have never played DotA and can now enjoy an AoS game, which has to happen in order to ensure the survival of the genre.

Something that may change the genre further is that Icefrog does not plan to stay on the WC 3 map editor indefinitely. In a Q & A at sk-gaming.com, he spoke about a possible expansion into other engines. “I’ve been actively exploring several options for some time now. Starcraft 2 might not necessarily have what DotA needs to become a better game.” Clearly Icefrog may not stay with Blizzard’s map editor indefinitely. He commented on the issue in his blog:  “Moving to any new engine presents various challenges that need to be considered… My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights.”

The only thing that can be said about HoN or DotA is that they are competing AoS games with different issues to address to ensure a quality gaming experience. DotA is stifled by its engine and the HoN team may not have the creative potential to keep fans interested by developing a unique dynamic. Neither game is near coughing up a last version. Since there are now three AoS games available for the taking the future may not be one or the other but a market for AoS games that can support multiple titles.

Probably the most anticipated title of the holiday season, aside from Modern Warfare 2 of course, is New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Mario has returned to his 2D sidescrolling, platforming greatness, this time in console form.

While early reports may have speculated that this as a remake of New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS, this is actually a full fledged sequel. This is the first Mario game in which you can play up to 4 players on screen at the same time. You can work together as a team, or sabotage each other in a frantic race to the finish flagpole.

The world map set up is pretty much the same as it’s DS counterpart, with traditional stages, Toad houses, and boss castles. The Koopalings, as well as Bowser Jr. have returned to kidnap the cheating whore named Princess Peach on her birthday and they take her into the clutches of Bowser, where she secretly wants to be. I swear, she willingly goes over to Bowser’s castle because Mario doesn’t give her enough attention.

There are also Ghost houses, warp cannons, and even hidden paths to uncover and explore. In multiplayer mode, your characters are Mario, Luigi, and two different colored Toads. While it’s great to finally be able to play as Toad again, it does suck that you can’t choose which character you want to go through the game with in single player mode. Yoshi has also returned, but he is only in a few levels. So don’t expect to see much of him.

Each level has three star coins to collect. You can use your star coins to purchase strategy and hint videos from Peach’s castle. Getting all star coins for every level in every world unlocks something very special, but i won’t ruin it for those who want to find out on their own. Make sure to hunt them down, as many of them are very well hidden throughout the game’s 80 levels.

Now onto the items in the game. Of course you have the traditional mushroom which makes your grow, and the fire flower and star, but there are some new items as well. There is the propeller item, which lets you temporarily fly in the air with a shake of the Wiimote, the penguin suit which lets you slide on your belly, swim faster in water, and shoot ice balls to freeze your enemies in ice cubes. The ice ball has returned, which is kinda useless when you take the penguin suit into account. Finally you have the mini item, which shrinks Mario and allows him to float and have access to tiny pipes.

You can collect and store items upon gaining them, and can save up to 99 of every item.

There are also world map battles against various enemies. You must collect Toad balloons and a treasure chest will appear containing a Toad that will give you three mushrooms for saving him. All you’ll ever get from these are three mushrooms. In some levels, a balloon caption with a toad face will appear on the map. In these levels, you need to carry Toad through the entire level. Doing so will grant you hidden Toad houses, which will contain items or mini games. There are two mini games this time around, one which lets you slap panels to match items, similar to Mario 3, and a cannon game where you shoot Mario into 1-up balloons to gain extra lives. Oh and getting 100 lives causes Mario to lose his hat. You don’t have to save the Toads at all if you don’t want to, but it’s nice to stock up on items for your journey.

Another new feature is the Super Guide mode. It basically babysits you through certain levels and i wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who wants the satisfaction of beating a Mario game all by themselves.

You face one of the Koopalings twice in each world, in both castles. Each fight is different, so be prepared. Many enemies have returned. The Hammer Bros. Big Bertha, The Moles, Wrigglers, etc. The biggest surprise for me was the return of the floating airship levels from Mario 3. It was great seeing them make a comeback. They are just as fun as i remember.

You control options are the Wiimote on it’s side, or the Wiimote and nunchuck. Some may bitch about the lack of Gamecube and Classic Controller support, but honestly the game doesn’t need it. It’s two buttons after all. The game feels great, but often times Mario feels like he is on a permanent oil slick, causing you to overshoot jumps and often die when you shouldn’t have. Though that’s probably just me. The game is very challenging, and will keep you busy for hours and hours. Don’t expect a walk in the park with this one. The game has crisp, clean graphics which look very nice, though i do think they could have been a little better. I didn’t care much for the soundtrack to be honest, it’s just not very memorable and i enjoyed the DS New Super Mario Bros. soundtrack a bit more.

The Multiplayer experience is truly where it’s at in this game. If you have friends that suck at platformers, then use that to your advantage. Although, playing with such people can also cause you to die often by accident.

The game is a great addition to any Wii owner’s library and i strongly urge any Mario fans to pick this one up as soon as possible. After Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy, it’s great to see Mario return to his 2D roots one more time. Nintendo president Reggie Fils Aime predicted this title will surpass Modern Warfare 2’s sales numbers, but who knows really? Time will tell. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the shit out of this great game.

This game is a blend of strategy, beat em’ up and action/adventure. It’s from a 3rd person perspective, and you have some rpg and management elements thrown in as well. When you start the game, your character is Ben Riley, and his occupation is up to you. You can choose from the following occupations at the start, each with their own attributes and special abilities.

-Paramedic: Hand To Hand, First Aid, Spot, Interaction, Medicine

-Soldier: Pistol, Blades, Rifle, Assault W, Clubs, Hand To Hand, Spot, Scout

-Police Officer: Pistol, Assault W, Clubs, Hand To Hand, First Aid, Spot, Interaction

-Construction Worker: Clubs, Hand To Hand, Carpentry, Metal-Working, Mechanical, Electrical

-EX-Convict: Pistol, Spot, Sneak, Scout, Lock Pick

-Trucker: Pistol, Hand To Hand, Metal-Working, Spot, Mechanical, Electrical, Scout

-Doctor: Blades, First Aid, Spot, Interaction, Medicine

-Reporter: Pistol, Spot, Sneak, Interaction, Scout

-College Student: First Aid, Spot, Sneak, Mechanical, Electrical, Interaction

After picking your occupation, you can use points to select your attributes and skill levels. You can also choose to add new skills if you’d like.

After that, you select your fort. The first ones in order are:

Police Station (Easy)
Prison (Normal)
School (Hard)

When you start off, you’ll get a quick tutorial about the games control keys, and how to use them. They are pretty simple, so take the time to read them and get it over with.

You’ll find boxes that can be broken by standing in front of them and right clicking on the mouse. These boxes will contain items that you can drag and drop into your backpack. You can find weapons, food, medicine, supplies and misc. items in these boxes, so be sure to check them out whenever one is nearby.

You use the Tab key to switch between weapons, and the R key to reload. Simple enough right? Reloading takes a bit of time, but this is intentional.

Now onto the stamina bar. The stamina bar is drained by jogging which is done by holding the shift key. Hitting CTRL lets you walk and conserve energy. The space bar is for jumping, and shift+space is a dive roll. The game itself claims the move to be a bit “Shatner”

Enemies can hear you running as well as firing off your weapon. So try not to dick around too much lest you want to get killed easily.

The games graphics are alright, reminding me of a PS2 launch title, which is fine. A game like this doesn’t need too much detail. The sound is lacking for me though. No music during the early parts of the stages makes the game seem kinda bare.

The game’s difficulty can be a joke at times. As the AI is often functionally retarded. You’ll find yourself constantly shooting and running, often missing shots in the process. However you can outrun and even outwalk most of the zombies. Though, i feel the zombies take far too many hits to go down for good, until you get the stronger ammo and weapons.

I found the bare fists to be more efficient of a weapon than the handgun more often than not, which is a let down. Though i admit it is more fun knocking the limbs off of a zombie one by one with your bare hands. Guess you just don’t fuck with Ben Riley.

Once you arrive and claim your fort, the game kicks off for real, after clearing your fort (this will take a while if you play on the bigger forts) it’s here you learn the game wants you to work on your own, you’re given a prompt you must click away, a short congratulations pop up, then you are left with no objective or new button presses, until you notice the done button at the bottom corner of the screen.

This is where part of the survival gameplay gets killed, as your fort is now an individual map, cut off from the town. The map has no built in invisible walls, if you walk to the edge, you’re dropped into a never ending pit. However, the fort button will just drop you back in your fort and save you from having to start from the beginning. Oh yeah and you can save in this game, even though there seems to be no mention of it anywhere.

You can set where barricades should be quite easily, and they are added to a rather simple task list you can set your survivors to do.The mission screen is awkward as hell to use.

In twelve days ( in-game days) a massive zombie horde will hit your fort, so you’ve got to organize using whatever you can find, so to do a mission you must go to your map mission screen, choose a little icon peg, then an absurdly long amount of time is taken away from you (it also goes down in real time as well.) and allows for only that one objective to be fulfilled, and this may have been done on purpose to make you decide how to spend your game time wisely on what you should have prepared for your final battle.

Then I learned why I could not make my first run an intense “try to survive” game. The game is so poorly made that it could turn into an insanely crippled lag fest the likes of which I’ve never seen in a video game before. When trying to change levels, it seems to do it randomly and it gives me no indication of what is causing it. Changing my graphical settings and starting new games don’t seem to fix a single damn thing.

The biggest issue for me is the gameplay itself. It’s just flat out boring. It’s sort of mindless, clicky click click until something dies, walk a bit, repeat and keep repeating until the fort is reached. I kept finding myself getting killed simply because i didn’t have the willpower to focus on working with the sluggishness of the character to properly position myself.

The game just feels slow and clunky when fighting zombies, and frankly I’m a bit tired of zombie games. The market is over saturated with zombie games, and frankly this is one of the worst, most boring zombie titles i have ever had to sit down and put time into.

It’s like Zombies Ate My Neighbors developed a crystal meth addiction and this is the result of years of self abuse. This game would have been acceptable in mid to late 90’s, but there really is no excuse for games like this today.

The type of gameplay is fine, and i love the genre don’t get me wrong, but it’s all just done completely wrong. Games like this are the reason i rarely enjoy PC games. I for one can’t stand using the keyboard over a gamepad. Granted, it’s not the worst PC game i have ever played, but it’s certainly made the list.

The game is horribly broken. It’s very laggy. I’ve had less lag running much more powerful games than this. Not to mention the fact the game requires software and service pack add-ons and updates it does not supply in the installation.

The game is BARELY entertaining, at best. But it’s not gonna be a memorable experience. It’s like watching a really bad zombie movie. This game had a tremendous deal of great ideas going for it, but every single one of them was poorly executed and made this game abysmal.

Even at 10 bucks, this game isn’t worth it.

Unlike the previous Rabbids titles, this one is an action adventure in which you play as two Rabbids in a shopping cart, running around and collecting various items and junk, to build a ladder to their home, the moon.

It kinda reminds me of that ladder to heaven episode of South Park. “Where were you…..”

Anyway, you use the nunchuck to control your Rabbids. You can hold the A button down to speed up your cart, and shake the Wiimote to make your Rabbid scream and knock over boxes and break through walls. Those are the basic controls with some minor additions later in the game.

Perhaps the greatest feature in this game is the option to create your own Rabbid look. This mode is very deep and has tons of customization options to make your Rabbid look any way you’d like. You can unlock present boxes in the game, which give you more customization options to choose from. You can move their ears around, make their eyes bigger or smaller, and even pop them if you want.

The Rabbid is inside your wiimote during the customization process, and you can shake the wiimote around and make the Rabbid do all sorts of things.

The game is extremely funny. From the old school music tracks like “Somebody to love” and “Me and Ms. Jones” it’s sure to hit a nostalgic nerve in some folks.

The game is not without it’s flaws though, as you can see in the video portion of the review with a glitch accidentally discovered by Domojade. We got stuck and had to restart the level. Also, the game crashed on me once randomly.

There is also a Rabbids channel, which is an optional install. The Rabbids channel lets you download other peoples Rabbid creations, and even share your own via wi-fi. It’s about 71 blocks or so, and it’s entirely optional.

Overall, the game has great controls, lots of humor, great music, and very nice graphics. It’s worth a look if you are a fan of the Rabbids, or would like to play a Rabbids game that isn’t just a bunch of mini games. This has been Rabbids Go Home for the Nintendo Wii, and it’s a pretty good adventure title that’s sure to give you a few laughs.

“There are 16-year-old kids out there; they don’t earn money so they go screaming to their parents saying, ‘Can you buy me this game’?” Everyone wants to play them all. And for them to pay £50 a game?” said a man on news.bbc.co.uk calling himself Raz, a 25 year old gamer who got his account banned. Raz realized he lost his account when he tried to log into play his store bought copy of Modern Warfare 2.

He decided long before he went to buy his copy of MW2 to get his system “chipped” in order to pirate content. “He charged £75 to get it chipped but at the end of the day I said to myself I’ll pay £75 to get it chipped, after two games I’ve paid the money back. I’ve probably saved about £600 [overall].”

Despite Raz’s view on the issue pirating content XBOX LIVE and other gamers have taken issue with what people are doing. “You may not copy, download, modify or create derivative works, publish, transmit…or otherwise use or exploit any software unless we or our suppliers have expressly allowed you to do so,” according to the second paragraph of the intellectual property clause of the terms of use of XBOX LIVE. Although every player must abide by this contract many gamers have modified their own system to do a number of things including ripping MW2 earlier than its release date.

“I see 30 people online [right now] and I know 15 of them are playing Modern Warfare 2 and not all of them are legit,” said Josh Parker gamedibs editor in chief in his podcast, dibcast, five days before the release of MW2. Parker believes that pirating video games is worse than other forms of pirating because it lacks benefit for the creators of the game. “If music gets pirated the music gets out there and the band can make more money that doesn’t go to the record companies,” said Parker referring to concert revenue.

Gamers are obviously playing the game early, taking advantage of what they can, but not all are stealing. “It is not illegal or against policy if that game is a retail copy,” said Parker. Retailers receive games days before the actual release, if someone should come across a copy they would not be breaking the rules according to Parker.

Stephen Toulouse Director of Policy and Enforcement on Live released a statement. “You know, when you play a pre-release title on LIVE when I know you shouldn’t have it, it’s not hard for me to figure out.” Even if you have a retail copy the company may hold the player suspect if they are playing before opening day. Rumors have been floating around tagging the holiday season as a no go zone for those looking to rip games or have modified XBOX’s.

“Microsoft has started its annual Xbox Live banning spree and it has disabled 600,000 accounts so far in the US and Canada,” according to pinoycosplay.blogspot.com, “they have been given instructions to push for a million banned accounts by the time the holidays are over.”

Pinoycosplay does not site the name of their source’s so their testimony remains a rumor but gamers will need to buy a new XBOX to rejoin their previous community if they are found pirating. Both Pinoycosplay and parker have thoughts on the issue. “If I had a pirated copy of MW2 or a retail copy [before the release date] I would probably not play multiplayer online, I would probably play the single player campaign,” said parker. Pinoycosplay’s advice was, “If you’re a big Mininova fan…stay away from Xbox Live until after Christmas to continue playing online.”

Links are available for sources as follows.

http://www.gamedibs.com/dibs/featured-articles/dibcast-show-29

http://www.pinoycosplay.blogspot.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_10000000/newsid_100029       00/10002915.stm

In all honesty, the primary reason we’ve decided to cancel the show this week is so that we can bring you, the readers, a special Modern Warfare themed episode of the Dibcast. In addition to the usual crew, several other members of the Gamedibs staff will stop by to give us their thoughts on the biggest release of the year. We’ll discuss the launch event in New York City and adventures at other midnight sales around the country, critique the Wii and Nintendo DS iterations of the series, and discuss the future of the Modern Warfare franchise.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this picture taken at last night’s Modern Warfare 2 launch event in NYC:

Yeah dudes, that’s Ice-T.

Sadly, the first month of Minis has been less than stellar – with only one real standout title worth mentioning. That title, luckily enough for developer Frima Studios, is Zombie Tycoon. Acting as an on the go RTS-lite, you’re handed a few classes of Zombie squads who can be equipped with a wide range of goofy items that lend themselves well to the Dexter’s Lab-like cartoonish feel – which is where I find the biggest appeal in Zombie Tycoon, the sense of humour and pure simplicity.

Historically I’ve never been a fan of RTS games. I’ve given Halo Wars a shot, but it’s still sitting on my shelf at home collecting dust. Ditto with Battle for Middle-Earth. Where those games saddle you with countless units and upgrades, Zombie Tycoon infuses itself with a fun, approachable take on the genre while never delving deep enough to get to a point where gamers like me are overwhelmed and flat out annoyed.

From the controls up, Zombie Tycoon delivers exactly what you’d want from a pocket sized Zombiepocalypse. You’ve got yourself a map, an inventory screen and then the actual field of battle. Handing out a Zombie ass-kicking couldn’t be any simpler. Your units are relegated to face buttons, and through the touch of a shoulder button you can rotate through your active groups. You’ll quickly find yourself attacking a hospital on one corner of the map while you’re taking on angry cop outside of a donut shop down the street. It’s simple and fun. The visuals aren’t very unique but they fit the tone well enough to not turn you away from the screen, and the audio is strong but is lacking. I would’ve loved the excellent voice work during the animated cut-scenes to carry on into the gameplay, however you’ll find yourself reading more text off the screen than you will hearing it.

Zombie Tycoon definitely does have its drawbacks. For all of its simplicity in gameplay, you’re handed objectives that quickly tire themselves out. When it comes down to it though – at 8 bucks, there’s enough fun to bed had and poor civilians to destroy to make it worth your while.

According to udk.com the engine is for “Anyone, everyone [and] you.”  The developer has three demo games available and encourages others to fulfill their own gaming fantasies through the power of the engine. “Unreal Engine 3 has been used by game developers, researchers, television studios, machinima directors, artists and students. If you have an idea that needs to be brought to life in a game engine, UDK is for you.”

“This has made me sooo excited,” said Ritesh Manchanda gamedibs.com Creative Director. “I have been a fan of games that have come out from Epic games since back in the day. The amount of detail in the 3D world is amazing, everything from normal mapping to lighting, shadows. While it may seem that I mentioned a lot, I just skimmed the surface.”

The game is currently available free for non commercial use but requires a licensing fee if the creator generates revenue. The engine can be downloaded at www.udk.com.

Chapter 4, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, continues the story of Guybrush, the Pox of LeChuck, and La Esponja Grande. Guybrush has been betrayed by pirate-hunter Morgan LaFlay who brings Guybrush to Flotsam Island where he must stand trial for a number of silly crimes charged against him by the Pox-infested pirate inhabitants. Guybrush must act as his own attorney, using people and clues throughout the island to disprove all the wild allegations against him. Once the trial is over, the story takes some unexpected twists and turns as the chapter continues on to its cliffhanging conclusion.

Fans will be happy to see the return of some old favorites, including Stan, complete with wild, flailing limbs and insane shirt. Stan will act as both the prosecutor representing the pirates of Flotsam Island and as a salesman selling wares during court recesses. Stan has some pretty funny dialogue and spot-on voice acting, but unfortunately the same can’t be said for all the characters in the game. Monkey Island was always known for its goofy, yet hilarious dialogue; however, in this chapter, the dialogue rarely ever goes beyond just plain awkward. Guybrush will occasionally dole out a line that will make you chuckle and interactions between characters are comical, but you won’t ever find yourself holding your sides in a fit of laughter.

Much of the fun and amusement in Chapter 4 comes from the pointing and clicking. As usual, you can interact with a large number of objects, people, animals and places, and store half of those things in your pockets. As you explore each location and come across the game’s numerous puzzles, you’ll eventually piece together what you should be accomplishing, but the difficulty comes from trying to figure out how to achieve the goal. The puzzles are generally challenging, often amusing, and pretty fun to decipher. As an example, the very first challenge is to figure out ways to disprove the charges filed against Guybrush, such as being accused of burning Bosun Krebbs’ leg with hot nacho cheese. You’ll wander the Island during recess (as Guybrush Threepwood – Attorney at law) and speak with the inhabitants, including Stan, the judge, bailiff, and witnesses.

The one problem with the puzzles overall is that there’s not really any sort of punishment for making a mistake. The judge will get filled with Pox-induced rage if you continue to badger the witnesses or show meaningless evidence, but in the end it’s nothing more than a trial-and-error situation. You show one item from your inventory, it gets shot down, so you pull out the next and try again. Often, in this case, the dialogue will be exactly the same until you come across the correct item. Sometimes Guybrush will offer an amusing quip (such as when you attempt to throw hot wax or molten glass at someone), but you’ll end up hearing the same sentence a dozen or so times.

Another small, but sometimes annoying problem comes from the game’s controls. Overall they work well, but on occasion they get clunky and confusing. You’ll come across places where you clearly should be going, only to find that you need to use some other method to access the area other than walking there like you would throughout most of the game. This isn’t a major issue, but the problem can detract from the experience.

Overall, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is fun and filled with the usual zany antics fans come to expect from a Monkey Island game. The somewhat hackneyed dialogue keeps the game from being as funny as previous entries into the series, but the chapter progresses the story along nicely, the characters provide for some interesting moments and the puzzles will keep you entertained. Chapter 4 will definitely keep your interest going for the upcoming Chapter 5.

This week, we had a chance to chat with Alex Necochea, co-founder and guitarist for the hard rock band Bang Camaro. We ask him about life on the road, the band’s relationship with Harmonix, and just where the hell they got the name “Bang Camaro” from anyway.

GameDibs: I’m sure you’ve gotten this a lot, but where does the name “Bang Camaro” come from?

Alex Necochea:  A lot of bands I listened to growing up had two word names, like Def Leppard, Skid Row, Motley Crue, Thin Lizzy.  Names in those days had to be over the top – both ridiculous and provocative.  We wanted something similar so, like Bang Tango before us, we appropriated Bang and threw the name of an American muscle car after it instead of the name of a dance.  Bang Camaro.  Sounds better than Bang Lambada to me.

GD: How exactly did you get your foot in the door at Harmonix?

Alex:  Harmonix is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  We’re from there and so are a lot of other talented musicians who happen to also make video games.  When they were developing the second Guitar Hero, Bang Camaro was just getting started.  We were one of the only new bands in town making classic guitar driven music at the time.  They asked us to send them our music.  They liked “Push Push (Lady Lightning)” and put it in the game.

GD:The videogame industry is bigger than it’s ever been right now and your songs have been featured in a number of games. Do you guys plan to keep building your fan base mostly from that angle?

Alex:  I don’t know.  We’ve been pushed a great distance in terms of our exposure by those games that have featured our music; games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, The Sims, and Madden 10.  The challenge for us has been reaching music fans that may not discover new music through video games.  Bang Camaro has been extremely fortunate to be known for our involvement in video games and I would like to see that connection continue, but I’d also like to see the band reach the widest audience possible.

GD: Do you guys ever play your own music in Rock Band or Guitar Hero?

Alex:   I have played some of our songs in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.  I’ll tell you that, for me, it’s a lot more challenging to play Bang Camaro in a video game then on an actual guitar from a stage.

GD: How many singers are a part of the group right now? Are you guys on a quest to find new and unique singers to join you or do you plan to stick with the same group you have?

Alex:  Most of our singers have been with us since the beginning.  Some have gone on to do great things with their own bands – bands like Noble Rot, Bon Savants, Taxpayer, The Vershok, White Wife, and BOTDL.  We’ve also met a lot of great singers on the road.  For instance, we brought Andre Coles (aka Boy Wonder) and Sean Barry, both from Philadelphia, on our last tour.  Whether they like it or not, those guys are BC lifers.  We have about 10 to 12 guys around the country that count themselves as vocalists for Bang Camaro.  It’s a cool community.

GD: Are there ever any ego problems with so many singers?
Alex:  Yes.  Absolutely.

GD: Tell us about Camaro Thursday; Do you plan to keep this going with every new album?
Alex:  Camaro Thursday started when we first put the band together.  The idea was to release a new single ever other Thursday for an entire summer to get our music and name out there.  It was a great excuse to keep writing music and give our fans something new as often as possible.  I loved distributing our music in that way.  It would be great to be able to do it again the future.

GD: Now you have your own record label called Black Sword Records. Have you added any other bands to the label?

Alex:  Haha.  We can barely keep Bang Camaro afloat.  Releasing records and mounting tours is expensive!  We’re always looking for a flagship act to take the label to the next level.  I have messages out to Bono and Chad Kroger as I write this.  Fingers crossed!

GD: You obviously like to rock out and have fun with your music. Is the creative process as fun as it sounds?

Alex:  It can be.  Writing music that takes its cues from classic rock pop songs is a lot of fun to play.  I like the idea of using elements like big loud guitars and vocals and arranging them into new forms.  Sometimes the recording process can get tedious, but the only reason that happens is because we like to get things write and sometimes you don’t always get it right the first time around.

GD: How many vehicles are needed when you go on tour?
Alex:  We’re able to get everyone around in one Chevy 15 passenger van.  We’ve put almost 100,000 miles on it and we’re going to need a priest to remove the stench.

GD: Is anyone ever surprised when they first see your band on stage?
Alex:  Yes.  If you haven’t seen Bang Camaro live, you haven’t lived.  It’s always a rush to see first-timers in the crowd and watch them come to terms with the possibility that they may never be the same ever again.  Our shows are life changing.

GD: And finally, anything you’d like to say to our readers?

Alex:  If you’re in need of a positive and affirming life-alteration program come see BANG CAMARO play live.  And send money.  We are dirt poor.  Thanks.

You have to work together with your blob, throwing him a variety of 15 jellybeans, each with their own special ability. Solve puzzles, defeat enemies and bosses, and unlock challenge levels and lots of bonuses. I highly recommend this title to any platformer fans out there, as it’s easily my favorite Wii title of 2009. It’s available now so go pick up a copy. Be warned though, this game isn’t for casual gamers or people that prefer a game that will babysit you.

GD: Were you involved with Yoga before or during your tenure as a WWE Diva/Wrestler, or did you take it up after retiring from the ring?

Trish: I was sidelined with an injury during my tenure as a wrestler, I suffered a herniated disk and I used yoga as a means to rehabilitate my injury. I was able to recover fully and go back and wrestle pain-free until I retired a couple years later. Yoga stayed a part of my lifestyle and after retiring I pursued my interest
in Yoga further by becoming a certified yoga instructor. I opened Stratusphere, a 5, 200 square foot multi-disciplinary yoga centre in May 2008 in my hometown, just north of Toronto. (stratusphereyoga.com)

GD: Will your likeness be rendered in CG for the game as a coach/trainer?

Trish: This is the part I’m most excited about! We are taking a completely different and totally new and innovative approach for the video rendering of my likeness that is going to guide you through the sequences. We wanted to be able to give the players, or ‘students’ an experience that is as close to a real life experience as possible, as if they were in my studio. The type of video capturing and rendering that we are going to use will make that interaction truly feel ‘real’ and to my knowledge, this type of presentation has never been done on the Wii platform.

GD: How much content will the Wii owners have to select from?

Trish: Players will be able to customize their workouts based on their abilities and skill levels and also be able to track their progress. They will be rewarded as they reach goals and be provided with motivational tools that will encourage them to stay on track. They will also be able to choose different environments to workout in. So, if you don’t live in Toronto – you may still be able to do yoga in my studio – catch my drift?

GD: Will your game be packaged with the Wii Balance Board, or as a standalone title?

Trish: The balance board is not included with this game given that most of the population who would use this game already own one.  However, based on a workout method that I have been doing for years – we developed a Wii peripheral to be used with this game that has yet to be introduced with any other Wii game.

GD: Fitness games are becoming increasingly popular, especially on the Wii. How can we expect Stratusphere to stand out among other Wii fitness themed games, such as Wii Fit, Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum, and Your Shape?

Trish: Using motion captured video and never before included Wii peripherals, I am looking to give the players the most comprehensive and thorough workout that has ever been attempted on the Wii. With this state-of–the-art video capturing, being able to select and customize your routines along with a custom branded yoga experience that only Stratusphere can provide, players will feel like they are literally in my studio with me getting their sweat on … or getting their Zen on – whichever they choose! And, they can definitely expect 100% Stratusfaction Guaranteed!

GD: It was great seeing you on Raw last week in Montreal. Will you and Beth Phoenix ever have a program together, or was your appearance as guest host just a one shot?

Trish: Actually Raw was in Toronto, which was part of the reason you saw me as guest host … as far as Beth Phoenix goes – we seem to keep finding ourselves fighting each other, interestingly enough whenever the WWE comes to Toronto (in December 2007 I was in the main event in a tag team match with John Cena versus Beth Phoenix and Santino Marella).   I definitely feel we have great chemistry in the ring and frankly I quite enjoyed delivering Stratusfaction to her!

GD: Will we have to replicate any of your in-ring moves when playing Stratusphere? I’m not so sure I can do The Matrix!

Trish: Funny you mention that because The Ma-Trish was a move I derived from a yoga pose known as wheel pose or sometimes called bridge (in Sanskrit we call it urdhva dhanurasana).  So you just might!

GD: Are you a gamer yourself? If so, what games do you enjoy?

Trish: I’ve been a big fan of Halo since it first came out; I used to play online a lot with the first two. When I travel Grand Theft Auto is my go-to game on my PSP. We’ve stayed up many a late night playing both Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution. Of course, I always check out the newest version of Raw vs. Smackdown – just to make sure my character is kicking butt like she, or should I say I do!  I’m dying to pick up Contra Rebirth – that is total old school! I want to see if the spray gun is still the weapon of choice!

GD: Are there any plans for other fitness themed games on other consoles?

Trish: Definitely…We are currently working on other complementary lines for the Stratusphere Wii brand. Simply put, I want to do for fitness what Tony Hawk did for skateboarding in the video game arena.

GD: Do you make your husband get involved in Yoga as well?

Trish: Of course! When I first opened the studio, there weren’t too many guys coming through the door, so I created a “yoga for guys who like fries” class. It is an all guys class designed for the guys who wanted to try it but didn’t want to ‘look stupid’ in front of the ladies!  That class grew, and so did the amount of guys practicing yoga at my studio. After seeing the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Argonauts practice at my studio, and especially after I launched my ‘yoga for golfers’ sequence, my husband makes his weekly class part of his regular routine.

trishstratus.com

Deep underground in a place in between shadows and rumor lies the secret organization known as The Princess Acquisition Command Center.  They have one mission….to track down and rescue a lost girl. Many have tried but few have succeeded in saving this elusive lady. The search is long and tedious and what you are about to see is just a small glimpse into the daily lives of these real life heroes. In only a few short days however the entire first adventure of the Princess Acquisition Commandos (P.A.C.) will unfold before your very eyes.

The question is which side will you choose? Be part of the solution and not the problem. Help us bring a beautiful young woman out of harm’s way and punish those who put her there. Stay tuned to Gamedibs and noprincesshere.com for more clues to her whereabouts. Until then keep on fighting the good fight because the P.A.C. never rests!

Adam Grow: Monkey Island was a seminal experience for so many gamers, what was it like around the Telltale offices when you learned you’d be picking up the creative reins for the series?

Mike Stemmle: It was a curious mix of emotions.  For most of the younglings in the building, there was a definite sense of “oh, wow, I’m getting to work on this game I played when I was a kid… I hope I don’t frak it up!”  For the various Monkey Island veterans in the building, it was more like “Cool, Monkey Island, I know how to do this… at least I think I do… has it really been 10 years?  God, I hope I don’t frak this up…”  We may not have used the word “frak.”

Adam Grow: Telltale’s famous for “getting” episodic gaming.  How did your success with games like Sam &  Max, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, and Wallace and Gromit affect your design decisions for Tales of Monkey Island?

Mike Stemmle: The big leap we made with Monkey Island was to go all-in on serialized storytelling.  Until now, we’d felt the need to make our episodes rigidly self-contained, so that a user could theoretically just buy an episode in the middle of a season and not miss a beat.  With the successes of Sam & Max, SBCG4AP, etc., we felt that our customers had gotten used to the episodic model, and that it was time to roll out a genuinely epic storyline, and what better license to go all epic-y with than Monkey Island?

Adam Grow: The artistic style of the Monkey Island series has evolved quite a bit over the years – What influenced the current look of Guybrush and his fellow cast members?

Mike Stemmle: When we started sketching up the main characters, we looked over the art styles of the previous four games, and picked out the stuff we liked the best from all of them.  We really liked the coat from the second game, so we homaged that.  We also wanted to get across the point that Guybrush is a bit older now, so we brought back the beard.  With LeChuck, we originally thought of incarnating him as some sort of demon walrus-thingie (since he always comes back looking different), but once we settled on the “Pox of LeChuck” plot, his art direction pretty much flowed out of that.

Adam Grow: So many great game designers came out of LucasArts’ early days – How much of the original team contributed to the new series?  And on a personal note, can I get Ron Gilbert’s autograph?

Mike Stemmle: Dave Grossman (Telltale’s Design Director) has been co-designing the overall season (as well as providing his usual puzzle and dialog oversight) with Mark Darin and I from day one.  And Ron Gilbert came in for a week of Monkey Island consulting that was staggeringly productive (and gave rise to a number of interesting plot twists for the fourth and fifth episodes).  We haven’t heard from Tim Schafer, but that’s understandable, what with him living the life of a rock star ‘n’ all…

Adam Grow: Tell us about the scripting process – what goes into making the funny?

Mike Stemmle: Coffee.  The rule of three.  Sugar.  Checking potentially sexist jokes with the missus. Timing. Lots and lots and lots of editing by peers.  Writing way more than you need, then savagely ripping out the stuff that doesn’t work and isn’t necessary.  Keeping characters in character while recognizing that EVERYONE has out-of-character moments from time to time.

Adam Grow: What’s your favorite moment from the classic Monkey Island games?

Mike Stemmle: Today I’ll say it was the rhyming singing puzzle in Curse of Monkey Island… mostly because I’m a notorious sucker for singing in my adventure games.

Adam Grow: What’s in store next for Guybrush, Elaine, and LeChuck? Will the Threepwoods ever get to experience wedded bliss?  Is this the end of Zombie Pirate LeChuck?

Mike Stemmle: I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have some decent ideas about where the Threepwood-Marley clan should go next.  Of course, that’s assuming they even get out of THIS story alive… the life of a pirate is pretty danged dangerous, after all.  As for LeChuck, can an evil like his ever TRULY be destroyed?  Seriously, can it?  ‘Cause we’re having a devil of a time trying to figure out a way to get rid of the nasty bugger…

Adam Grow: What’s the Secret of Monkey Island?

Mike Stemmle: I know a FEW secrets of Monkey Island, but only Ron Gilbert knows THE Secret.

Sony, looking to make a move into the console MMO market with developer Zipper Interactive (Socom US Navy Seals) are bringing MAG to PS3 owners worldwide sometime in 2010.  MAG, also known as Massive Action Game, is spicing things up in the MMO genre by offering a strictly first-person shooter take on things.  Supporting massive battles of up to 256 gamers per server, MAG will rely heavily on a squad format where the combat will be broken down into smaller (yet by all accounts, still massive) scenarios with specific objectives.

Currently set for a 2010 release, Zipper Interactive and Sony are running contests with the winners being given access to the online closed beta that they currently have going on.  Be warned though, the beta is saddled with an NDA, so keep your tongue in check if you’re lucky enough to get in.

Included in this limited special edition is:  a (1:1 scale) replica Phurba Dagger Artifact alongside a collector’s artbook and Naughty Dog signed case as well as some unspecified DLC bonuses.

Sadly, the Fortune Hunter edition won’t be available to consumers on a storefront level as Sony will instead hand them out through various contests from now until the release of the game in October of this year.   Exciting as the idea of a limited edition actually being limited is, this will undoubtedly leave thousands of Nathan Drake fans disappointed dreaming of the days when the game of their desire has a shelf’s worth of collectors editions still available months after release (…looking at you, Bungie).  For contest details, stay tuned to their official blog, but until then check out this trailer from E3 earlier this year.

What this means for the future of Marvel’s various video game properties isn’t immediately clear, although Marvel’s current deals with THQ, Activision, and Sega will remain in place until they expire, at which point it can be assumed Disney Interactive would take over publishing duties on Marvel titles.

I have to admit, my initial reaction to this news wasn’t pretty. Retreating to a dark corner and crying while in the fetal position is no way for someone my age to react to anything. However, after calming down a bit, I began to think of the positives. After all, Disney has given Pixar free reign for the most part since gobbling them up a few years back, and Pixar’s stuff just keeps getting better and better. Disney has their hands in a lot of pots, more than most people realize, and for the most part they let creative people do what they do best without much interference. If anything, Disney will just be able to throw their money behind Marvel and make their products better.

On the video game side of things, I can’t imagine this deal being a bad thing. Disney has thrown a lot of muscle behind Disney Interactive recently, and would likely only handle the publishing of Marvel-based games. Sega’s Hulk and Iron Man efforts were lackluster, and  the way Activision has mishandled the Spider-Man franchise, I would not be sad to see it in another company’s hands. Hell, maybe Disney can buy up Raven Software next so they can keep making Ultimate Alliance and Wolverine games. At the very least, I can totally see Marvel characters making some cameos in future Kingdom Hearts titles.

When it comes down to it, the only part of this news that truly bothers me doesn’t have anything to do with video games, but rather movies based on Marvel characters. Much like the the video game licensing, movie rights will not revert to Disney until current contracts expire. That means FOX can continue making terrible X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil movies, at least for the foreseeable future.

If you’re still not convinced that this deal isn’t all that bad, let me leave you with one last thought: Pixar and Marvel working together on an animated Marvel movie.

Not all bad, right?

One of the standout titles from the past few years that has managed to find a home in the MMO market alongside the behemoth known as WoW is Funcom’s Age of Conan. Conan, while initially criticized for it’s lacking of higher level content, has managed to carve a home in the hearts of MMO fans worldwide with its action heavy, greatly loved IP-based gameplay. One of the questions remaining around Conan is whether or not it has succeeded based upon the gameplay itself, which is critically adored, or if the Conan name itself carries enough weight to bring gamers together from across the globe.

Banking on the latter, Korean/Japanese developer NLT has Dragon Ball Online in the works. Set to go into a private beta later this year, Dragon Ball Online sets out to right the wrongs done by the hollywood movie (Dragonball Evolution) released earlier this year which was critically and financially annihilated by fans from all over. Although the North American market is definitely not what the developer/publisher team is shooting for, a success in Korea/Japan/China would turn a hansom profit for them. Although, you can’t help but believe that with how popular anime (and Dragon Ball specifically) has become in the North American market over the last two decades that a release stateside would be met with at the very least a lukewarm reaction that could garner enough subscribers to make localization worth the hassle.

Check out the latest trailer at the bottom of the post.

Images brought to us by www.neoseeker.com

Aptly named The Siege of Spinner Cay you pick up the reins of Guybrush right where you’d expect to following chapter one. Starting you right in the thick of things, Guybrush, in typical Guybrush fashion, stumbles his way onward through the many mishaps and hilarity we’ve come to expect from him. As you continue down the road in the swashbuckler’s awkwardly filled shoes you’ll bounce your way from ship to dock and back to ship again as you fulfill the genre-standard fetch quests that see you collecting and conversing your way through the myriad of fantastic characters that fill Telltale’s world.

For those of you have never played a traditional point & click adventure, much like myself prior to chapter 1 & 2 of this ongoing series and the re-release of The Secret of Monkey Island earlier this summer on Xbox Live Arcade, the “gameplay” may come as a bit of a shock. You won’t find yourself navigating your way across ledges and jumping to and fro much like you would in your typical adventure game but instead you’ll be battling your way through the game using Guybrush’s tongue rather than his fists. The main driving force behind progression in Tales of Monkey Island are the laughter inducing dialogue sequences that have you exploring the fantastically witty characters that star in the game. Sure, the dialogue may be set over an action scene but the key to victory is in your ability to read the environment, listen to the characters on screen and then somehow combine the two to solve the scene.

Thankfully, this mechanic – being pretty much the only one the game has – is pulled off beautifully. You’ll find the odd animation every now and then that can pull you out of the scene from time to time, but the ongoing dialogue will thrust you back in just as quickly as you were wrenched out. The well written dialogue jumps off the script and onto the screen with near perfect delivery and hilarious results which is most definitely a rarity when it comes to video games. The talent involved in the voice acting manages to carry the perfect tone for the duration of the chapter, keeping the laughs coming and the story unfolding at an engaging pace that never sees you turn away from your monitor out of boredom.

Technically speaking the game is a prime example that solid art direction can overpower technical prowess. The character designs are wonderfully charming and help tie you to Guybrush’s world through facial animations that are extremely welldone, lending themselves to the delivery of jokes on most occasions. With three chapters left in Tales of Monkey Island the art team at Telltale Games have created a world that I sit here writing this review in anticipation of returning to, which is probably the highest compliment I can pay them.

What Telltale Games have managed to do with the “point and click” adventure genre over the last few years through their Sam & Max series shouldn’t be scoffed at. They, single handedly, have revived a genre that hasn’t been this popular for the better part of a decade. Now, in collaboration with Lucas Arts, they’ve brought the genre back into the limelight with the pirate shenanigans that we all have so dearly needed yet never thought to ask for. Full-fledged “laugh out loud” comedy is a rare thing in this industry yet Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay delivers it in spades and shouldn’t be ignored. Simply put, play this game.

Head over to Blizzard’s official game page over at www.worldofwarcraft.com for all the info and colour me as “in over my head” as neither my level 12 night elf hunter nor my level 21 Dwarf Hunter have even begun to scratch the surface of what the World of Warcraft has to offer gamers.

Soon enough the multitudes were overtaken by the prevailing fear that an entire generation could completely withdraw to the confines of their bedrooms, neglecting family, friends, or any form of human interaction. Throw in the increasing prevalence of violence in entertainment media, and you had politicians and moralists decrying the entire gaming industry without ever picking up a joystick themselves. Yep, electronic games have been the subject of rigorous debate in the United States for decades, from 1976’s arcade classic “Death Race”, to 2006’s controversial schoolyard adventure, “Bully”. But few titles have aroused the kind of ire that id Software managed to fuel in the early 90s with the release of its seminal first-person shooter, Wolfenstein 3-D.

It’s 1992. The ESRB rating system was not yet established, and games that had been unofficially deemed “mature” usually contained overtly sexual themes, like the Leisure Suit Larry series, or those esoteric Atari porn cartridges. But no authoritative board existed to formally classify violent games. So we realized we were in for something special when Wolfenstein was booted up for the first time and “PC-13″ flashed across the loading screen. “OMG: Profound Carnage!” id software’s voluntary warning label was a smart way to introduce an already heavily-hyped game to curious, eager players. The message was clear: “Brace yourselves.”

Wolfenstein 3-D is set during World War 2, which was without question the greatest global conflict of the 20th century. Today, contemporary war games depicting modern military violence often flirt with delicate issues, especially considering our ambiguous situation in the Middle East. Throw in general concern for insensitivity toward active soldiers and army families, and you’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about the War genre, despite a healthy market.

But there’s nothing politically incorrect about killing some Nazis.

Well, unless you live in Germany, where the game received a nation-wide ban upon release. Any allusion to Nazi imagery can be considered a federal offense in the country, but you can’t really blame them for being touchy about the past. I mean, the Nazis WERE arguably the most villainous war criminals of all time. Regardless of whether you believe WW2 was really all about fighting the “good” fight, even some of the most staunch anti-war activists will agree that the iniquities perpetrated by Hitler and his legions demanded military action. So when mom walked in the room and witnessed what was happening on the computer screen, kids were prepared with a compelling argument: “But Ma-Uhm! They’re NAZIS!”

Still, this didn’t always justify the intense graphic content depicted in Wolfenstein to worried parents, many of whom were previously unexposed to this level of gore in a game. The unprecedented amount of violence in Wolfenstein 3-D was a shock to many of us gamers, too. But even more shocking was the realization that eventually more adults were playing it than kids. Wolfenstein 3-D quickly became the quintessential “office guy” game, and heavy promotion through shareware enabled it to spread like wildfire. Volleys of digital shrieks and cries of “Mein Leben!” (my life) could be heard throughout workplaces across the country as countless enemies screamed for mercy through tinny desktop speakers.

The objective was simple enough: get out of Castle Wolfenstein and take down some Nazis in the process. Players control B.J. Blazkowicz, a captive American soldier who begins his escape armed with nothing more than a knife and his wits. Not a whole lot was going on story-wise, but Wolfenstein redefined the First-Person Shooter genre. The gameplay was addictive, and the responsive controls allowed players to either sneak around the prison complex taking out unsuspecting guards, or recklessly engage in all-out gunfights with multiple enemies on the screen at once. B.J. upgrades his arsenal throughout the game as he acquires new guns from fallen soldiers, picking up ammunition and health power-ups along the way.

The level designs were fairly simple; however, striking Nazi imagery decorates the prison walls, and the overall atmosphere is tense and eerie, creating the perfect environment for a shooter. The experience was so intense that the company’s major follow up could only take place in one other setting: Hell itself. id Software would once again revolutionize the genre a few years later with the Doom series, influencing cubicle culture even further with the games’ multiplayer “Deathmatch” feature. These were also some of the first games to encourage user-generated content; players were able to actually contribute by designing and sharing their own levels with the rest of the world.

But Wolfestein 3-D will always have more character in my opinion. Nothing will ever compare to the satisfaction of single-handedly taking out Hitler and the entire Nazi regime from the comfort of your own desktop. The latest next-gen installment, simply titled “Wolfenstein”, will be released on August 17. In the meantime, the classic that started it all is currently available on Xbox Live/PSN, or can still be purchased for download in its original form at id’s website: http://www.idsoftware.com/games/wolfenstein/wolf3d/

Coming as a shock to absolutely no one this latest listing is just another in the long line of leaks, blurry photos taken in warehouses and hearsay claiming the Slim PS3 is nearing a release.  Sony’s stayed quiet so far, sticking to their “we don’t comment on rumours and speculation”, but one just has to wonder how much longer they can stay quiet while the internet continues to whip itself into a frenzy.  There’s clearly a demand out there for a PS3 redesign, so now all we have to do is sit and wait a little while longer for Sony to finally step up to bat and just confirm the damn thing.

Check out the Amazon.de listing here

But this one, well… it could get messy.

Yes, that’s right. SquareEnix has plastered a giant roman numeral “7″ above a countdown clock, which no doubt has already caused countless fanboys to mess their shorts in excitement with the notion that a Final Fantasy VII remake is in the works. Rumors of a FFVII remake are nothing new of course, although most of the time it seemed more like fans just trying to wish the game into reality. But this countdown clock certainly points to to something that is, at the very least, Final Fantasy VII related.

Just don’t get too excited yet, fanboys – lest we forget Dirge of Cerberus.

If you want to see all the clock-ticking excitement for yourself, just click right here.

When you buy Yoostar, it will come with a studio grade web cam with built in dual microphones, with acoustic echo, noise cancellation, and remote control. It also comes with a portable green screen, and a “Quad-pod” which is a professional green screen stand. The program itself, comes with a set of 14 scenes with 38 different roles, and will also have hundreds of other scenes that will be available for purchase once the Yoostar releases. The clips will range from $.99 to $3.99 per clip.

Now, Yoostar will be available for both MAC and PC in retailers and online, and will be out around August of this year. It will set you back around  $169.95, but from what we have seen, it seems more than enough for this package. So for now, here are the system requirements forYoostar:

PC/OS
¸ Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista

PC/CPU
¸ Intel Pentium 4 1.8 GHZ or greater CPU (Dual core 2.0 GHZ or greater recommended)
¸ AMD Athlon XP +1500 or greater
¸ Graphics card (supporting Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater recommended)
¸ 10 GB of free hard disk space (40 GB of free hard disk space recommended)
¸ 1 GB of memory for XP – 2 GB of memory for Vista
¸ An available USB2 port
¸ Direct X 9.0c (included)
¸ QuickTime 7.0 (included)

MAC
¸ Macintosh 10.4.11 or greater
¸ Intel Dual Core or better
¸ 1 GB of memory
¸ 10 GB of free hard drive space
¸ An available USB2 port
¸ Recommended ATI or NVIDIA GPU

Optical disk drive (for software) and Internet connection (high-speed recommended) are required for both PC and Mac.

Twist And Shout / Cavern Club

Do You Want To Know A Secret / Cavern Club

Can’t Buy Me Love / Ed Sullivan Theater

I Wanna Be Your Man / Ed Sullivan Theater

Eight Days A Week / Shea Stadium

Paperback Writer / Budokan

And Your Bird Can Sing / Budokan

Yellow Submarine / Abbey Road Dreamscape

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / Abbey Road Dreamscape

With a Little Help from My Friends / Abbey Road Dreamscape

Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows / Abbey Road Dreamscape

Revolution / Abbey Road Dreamscape

Birthday / Abbey Road Dreamscape

Dig A Pony / Rooftop Concert

One has to wonder if it’s a pure error on Microsoft’s side or if Dude Huge managed to pull himself away from the roids gym for just long enough to make a gamer-friendly pricing adjustment.  Stay tuned to Gamedibs.com as this epic story unfolds over the next few days.

*UPDATE*

Microsoft has since removed the listing from Xbox Live and have yet to comment on the pricing details.  As is, the downloadable content is still set for release on July 28th.  It will be interesting to see what the actual price for the DLC will be.  Stay tuned.

Larry, thanks for joining us on the show, it was great having you on it and we hope that you would join us again in the future!

• And The Quarterback is Toast – Defeat Boba Fett (30)
• Skywalker Style – Meet Jabba and defeat his pet using the pit gate (15)
• No More Lies, Old Man – Defeat Obi-Wan, before and after he becomes more powerful than you can possibly imagine (50)
• Hot Bot – Use the hot irons three times on the Gonk Power Droid (15)
• Jawa Juicer – Crush 5 Jawas by using the grinder in the Garbage Processing Room (15)

So not only can Force fans (not to mention those crazed Crashdown fans) boost their gamerscores, but it also looks like they’ll soon be able to go toe-to-toe with Obi-Wan Kenobi and fan favourite Boba Fett in whatever this mysterious downloadable content turns out to be.

As mentioned above, Lucas Arts has yet to officially announce the downloadable content but you can bet your credits that the news will show up quickly now that the cat wookiee is out of the bag.

Many Bothans died to bring us this information

Knights Onrush – $2.99 (40% off)

This game is one of my favorites.  It is a castle defense game (as if there weren’t enough of those) that has a great art style and clever weapons at your disposal.  There are quite a few different types of enemies that all have their different quirks, such as the horse knights that need to be picked up and smashed down to kill.  Also the barrel chuckers that once picked up blow up anyone near their explosives.  There are even invisible assassins that can’t be seen unless touched.  Just like most defense tower games, you get more funds with every kill, but Knights takes it further with sacrifices.  Either with the Hell Pit or the Dragon Altar, more sacrifices gets you, well, sacrifice points which are much needed for the better upgrades.  A giant smashing column, magic fireballs and balistas are only a few of the upgrades that make this game one of the few games in the tower defense genre worth buying.

Hero of Sparta – $0.99 (83% off)

Hero of Sparta is finally down in price!  What’s this?  It’s only 99 cents?  This is one of those things that you shouldn’t think, just do it.  It’s not the greatest game by any means, but at under a dollar you can’t pass this up.  It’s a fun game with a few minor issues (I’m still not a fan of the virtual joystick), however it does look pretty good for an iPhone game.  It plays similarly to God of War with the hacking and slashing and some pretty nifty quick time events to finish off the heftier mythical creatures.  This game will almost guarantee action fans something entertaining to do while on lunch break or waiting in line at Disneyland.

Stone Loops! of Jurassica – $0.99 (75% off)

When I saw this one, I figured it was just another Zuma and didn’t really have any interest in it.  Then I saw the price tag and decided to take a look.  It turns out it’s more fun, in my opinion of course.  Hardcore fans of Zuma, if there really are any, may think it’s just a knock off of their favorite stone marble shooter game, which it kind of is.  In any case though, the powerups in Stone Loops is what breaks it apart.  Lightning bolts and meteor showers help break apart stones and “stop” and “reverse” powerups give more time to think about your next shot.  Also, there is a Grab and Shoot mode that plays the same way except you grab any stone on the line and shoot it into another place.  It puts a whole new twist on the gameplay.

Toki Tori – $0.99 (80% off)

Toki Tori caught my eye with the fat, yellow chicken that is the main character.  This game is different, but in a good way.  It’s a puzzle platformer where you, the chicken I mentioned earlier, have to collect all the eggs on the map.  Sounds easy, and it is for the first few levels, but things get more difficult as you progress.  You are given limited special abilities on each level, such as bridge buliding to cross gaps or a freeze gun to stop enemies, and have to use them in a certain way to make it to each egg.  Toki Tori can only walk side to side and fall.  No jumping or flying in this game, so you must use your abilities wisely.  I believe puzzle games work best on the iPhone and this one is one of the most intuitive, clever, and fun puzzle game out now.  Take advantage of this self proclaimed “Mega Sale” now.

Wild West Pinball – FREE (100% off)

Prior to the release of OOO Gameprom’s new The Deep Pinball, they “dropped the price to ZERO.”  That’s right, they are giving away this fairly decent pinball game for free.  The game plays very smoothly and is a fun time waster.  It doesn’t have as much going on as a real pinball machine might, but it’s a simple and entertaining way to keep boredom away.  Just pull on the plunger to launch the ball and tap the left or right side of the screen to use the flippers.  One thing I would’ve added is usage of the accelerometer to “nudge” the ball a certain way when it’s balancing somewhere.  A little shake or tilt could make all the difference.  There is really no reason not to download this game while it’s free unless you really have something against pinball.

If you happen to miss the sale on any of these titles, here are a few great apps that are awesome and always have a great price:

Alternate Endings – $1.99

It’s a comedic murder mystery that you control what happens next.  For 2 bucks and hours of different ways to go about this interactive movie, it’s totally worth it.  It’s also got decent actors and it’s got some parts that are funny as hell.

Flight Control - $0.99

This game is simple, yet addictive.  As planes and helicopters fly on screen you need to keep them from crashing and show them the correct place to land.  The controls couldn’t be easier.  Touch and drag a flight path for each plane and watch for possible crashes. That’s it.

Maze Finger – FREE

Maze Finger is almost exactly what it sounds like.  It’s a maze game that you use your finger to navigate through.  It’s a simple concept that gets more and more difficult.  Really there is only one way to go so it’s not really a maze, but dragging your finger through the corridors with various twists and turns, with a time limit no less, gets tricky.

Paper Toss – FREE

Paper Toss, as Josh can tell you, is way more fun virtually than it is in real life.  Flicking a crumpled up ball of paper into a trash bucket can be fun after all.  A fan on either side of the screen blows varying speeds of wind that call for an extra angled throw.  Try to beat my high score of 6 in a row on hard difficulty.  It’s harder than it sounds.

“You wake up and everything’s on fire.  Now there’s guys in masks shooting you.  (Shout out to Oprah for possible book club mention).  Now there are crazy animals attacking you.  And there’s people screaming and music is going fucking nuts!  Hit EVERYTHING before it kills you!!”

This sums up most games, inFamous included.  Roger Ebert gave ‘Cool Hand Luke’ four stars.  It was a brilliant movie.  So how is it that I’m giving inFamous five?

Some say with age comes wisdom.  This is, for the most part, true, though it ultimately doesn’t change a thing.  If you’ve enjoyed masturbating in police station parking lots before you were wise, then you will probably still enjoy it post-wisdom.  Your awareness of the situation may evolve, but the unconscious thrill remains intact.  So while one may be conscious that inFamous has you electrocuting hundreds of possessed crack addicts for the good (or detriment) of mankind, and while ‘electrical superpowers’ are not technically realistic (shout-out to the driveling forum trolls who’ve taken up arms over this), the fun-factor of the act is so intense that lucidity in no way interferes with the thrill.

Most people reading this will probably not understand my aforementioned point of view (though I’m sure YOU definitely get it), because most gamers are bred to never question the entertainment value of murdering everything in their path.  Remember… we are ALL victims of video game violence (see how the meaning changes with the context?).  Now before I lose you to the wrong impression of me, let me state very clearly that “I LOVE SIMULATED MURDER”.  I really do.  It’s fun.  And disturbing.  And when used effectively, pushes us to both strategize and think in new and unique ways.  Since no one is actually hurt in the process, no harm no foul.

But video games can exist for many different reasons.  Some teach, some challenge, some present old ideas in ways that have never been explored, while others formulate new ideas all their own.  For the most part (currently at least), they are created to entertain.

inFamous distinctively falls into the latter category, and is as effective as any game of its type can be.  But what exactly does a developer have to offer in order to convey an experience so competently?  For the sake of technical simplicity I have broken it down into three necessities.  First, it must introduce a series of motions that are unique and pleasurable for the body and mind to perform.  Secondly, it must offer stimulating audio and visual rewards for executing these actions.  Finally, it should create an inertia which drives the user to repeat these motions when the other stimuli have grown stale.

In this, inFamous is the perfect game.

There are many other games available that present acutely similar experiences: GTA, Crackdown, Prototype, and Spiderman, to name a few.  But inFamous stands apart because of the artful intelligence that went into the basic gameplay mechanics.  Walking is as natural as climbing, which is as natural as shooting, flying, grinding, and dropping every type of electrical hell on the forces in your way.  Every immutable object in the game is laid out to accentuate the gameplay: buildings are set just far enough to make you nervous to jump to the next one, but close enough that you usually succeed and feel bad-ass in doing so.  Telephone poles, rails, wires, streets and bridges seem to have been toiled over until their placement became as eloquent as ledges in a perfect 2-D platformer.  There are occasional inconsistencies, like a few instances where one may find themselves clipping through part of a building, but these are typically few and far between.

That cohesion of environment and gameplay extends to all other facets of the game.  The story, which can seem slightly ridiculous at the start, turns into a sci-fi epic that makes more sense as information is fed to you.  The music, scored in part by Amon Tobin (one of the stars of the electronica scene), permeates the landscape with a driving subtlety that captures perfectly the vibe of the entire project: dirty, electrical, over-quantized yet fascinating in its machine-rhythm.

In fact, the entire sound production of inFamous blew me away.  Sound is a force that many overlook in the face of incredible eye candy.  We often attribute our intrigue into a video game to the fidelity of the visuals or the story that it told.  In truth, it is sound that completes the circle and connects the dots from intelligently understanding that the enemies rushing towards you are bad news, to being emotionally absorbed in the tension due to the trembling instruments and rising inflections of sound.  When you play inFamous, take a moment at ground level to listen to the hum and noise of the city.  As you climb the nearest building notice how the underlying sounds drop away, the wind picks up, and see if your emotional attachment to your current locale is affected.  I spent most of the game gliding from rooftop to rooftop, not just because it maximized the experience of the gameplay, but because the atmosphere of the rooftops conveyed a much greater sense of peace.

What I’m trying to say is that inFamous is good.  Really good.  The best of its kind.  Despite all my previous babble about violently masturbating in parking lots and what that means about the future of video games, one truth remains: Some things just feel good, and sometimes it is OK to do them.  inFamous is one of those things.

(Canadian shoppers.. don’t miss out on your exclusive inFamous price-drop!)

So here’s the deal. We usually record the Dibcast on Wednesday nights, but with Jeremy out of town and Rich unavailable, Jake and I have decided to just do it ourselves. With only half the usual crew on-hand tonight, Jake and I decided to rechristen the show with a new name. Only problem is, years of alcohol abuse have rendered us unable to actually think of a new name. That’s where you come in, dear readers. Simply post below with your suggestions for what we should call tonight’s podcast. You can post as many suggestions as you want, but remember that you can only win one beta code. You have until the end of the weekend. We’ll pick the 11 best names, and if your name is chosen you’ll win an Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta code.

Let the insanity begin!

*UPDATE* The winners have been picked and here they are!  In no particular order here are the winners of the Uncharted 2 Beta Codes:

Hay

Vashgunfighter

V_Ben

Bloodshedder

chilledsky

Buttercake

CrazyCat

Clixx33

tredogg93

hotd54me

Kurth

Congratulations to all the winners.  Those of you that didn’t win this time stay tuned!  We will have more contests coming soon!

Everyone at the Sony Press Conference sits and waits for pretty much one thing.  When God of War III shows up on the 80 foot screen, everyone goes nuts.  They go right into the demo blades a blazin’.  Now they only showed about the first five minutes of gameplay, which was incredible, but it left everyone wanting more.  Finally when the crowd was released, we sped off to the convention center to take in all that we could in a seven hour period.

Well about an hour and a half of that period was taken up by me waiting in line and getting my sweaty palms on the God of War Demo.  Now after and hour of watching other people playing it I felt as if I could just breeze through it.  I’ve seen all the tricks, I know how to mount a giant cyclops.  Well finally when it’s my turn to sit down the first thing I notice is that nothing has really changed as far as the controls.

Everything feels just right.  Throwing your enemy up in the air with a swing of your blades, bashing someone into the ground with a strong attack, they all feel exactly how it should.  Now if you saw the press conference, you already know what happens in the first 5 minutes.  Flying accross pits via the harpy, fighting a centaur and ripping his guts out, and cutting off the snake tail and shoving the horn into the face of some snake tail, horny lion…thing.

After that more of the same stuff happens with more blood and gore, but what really sets it apart from the other gameplay is when you ride the cyclops to unveil Helios from his shell of guards.  Once he’s unguarded, Kratos walks up to him and rips his head off.  No, he doesn’t slice it off with his blades, he straight tears it right off his neck.  If you press the wrong button in the badass, active scene, he’ll give you a blast of light that will throw Kratos off of him.  Afterwards you will use his head to reveal hidden doors and blind enemies.

The demo ends with a flight sequence with Kratos flying up a vent with giant chunks of debris and fireballs falling.  This, I noticed, seemed to be the part that gave most people the hardest time.  Dodging that along with flying through openings barely wide enough to fit his wings through was harder than it looked.  In the hour and a half of standing in line I felt confident that I could make it through first try.  I died about five times during that part.  Josh did however make it through on his first try, but barely mind you.  At the top of the shaft Kratos pulls out his Blades of Chaos ready to strike and just as he’s about to land on the  Fire Titan the screen flashes the game’s title and the demo ends.

This game looks and plays amazingly and is for sure going to be more epic than either of the previous two.  Expect the full game in March 2010.

Left 4 Dead 2 takes place deep down in the south and features four completely new characters.  The first thing I noticed was that the level that was demoed was in broad daylight.  Still, the intensity doesn’t stop because of a false sense of security caused by the sunlight.  Zombies will jump out of any corner and over fences, same as always, and will hide in dark rooms indoors.  Secondly, the game seems to be quite a bit more violent.  Blood spews out from every wound and limbs get blown off with a well placed shot.  The game also looks better this time around.  A lot more polish and rag doll effects make a big difference.

More exciting news includes the new zombie called the Charger.  The Charger will do exactly as his name states.  He has one giant arm that he uses to run towards you and bash you backwards.  When he has you down on the ground he’ll grab you by the head and just start slamming you on the ground.  It gives me goosebumps to think about playing as the Charger in a versus match.  Also included are the new melee weapons that will help to conserve precious ammo.  I’ve only seen two different types so far: the fire axe and the frying pan.  The axe is a blast.   Swinging it around in a swarm, lopping off limbs and heads, is a very satisfying experience.  Unfortunately once you want to go back to using your guns you have to drop the weapon for someone else or for later use.

So far Left 4 Dead 2 is just as solid as the previous undead shooter and way fun to play. Sadly we have yet to see the other levels and any possible new game modes.  Enjoy this little tidbit that we got at E3.  The video shows off the new zombie and how powerful and frightening he is.

THE ONES WE KNEW ABOUT…

MASS EFFECT 2: Let me take you back to a far away place. It was a time when I was without an HD Television. Let’s call it Christmas 07. In those days I was playing my XBOX 360 on a 27 inch tube TV that weighed around 300lbs. Text was blurry and colors were drab. Hell, I didn’t even have crisp 480p! Looming on the horizon though was Bioware’s Mass Effect. Bioware and KOTOR were the reasons I purchased an original XBOX. I could not in good faith have played their newest opus on a fossil of television. Long story short I got myself a 32 inch LCD for the sci fi RPG. So, you can understand if I say I’m looking forward to Mass Effect 2 that it would be an understatement.

There was that first teaser that advertised the death of Commander Sheppard. I was worried. Would the promise of trilogy spanning consequences for our main character be proved false? Would the 40+ hours I put into playing be rendered useless? Well having watched the E3 trailer and demo footage I am more pumped than ever. Sheppard is back, The Normandy is back and the amazing music is back. But we seemed to have left behind the frame rate issues, texture pop in and endless elevators that hampered the original release. The combat seems fiercer and the visuals spectacular. I’m ready for this dark second chapter of the Mass Effect trilogy.

THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND: I love Rock Band. I love The Beatles. Mary the two and you have a package that has my inner Ringo Star wanting to escape his Octopus’s Garden. First footage has revealed an interesting art style. The Beatles are there in digital form. But you will find no Aerosmith scary dead eyes here. They have a slightly cartoony look and it seems that Harmonix has gotten the feeling of the fab four’s career progression. I was tripping out watching “I Am the Walrus.” But what I’m most excited about is the inclusion of three part harmonies. It’s an evolution that was much needed. The retail pack will come with Beatles branded instruments. It may sound foolish to really want more plastic instruments but come these are Beatles instruments! I will shell out the $250 on 9-9-09.

THE ONE I’M MOST CURIOUS ABOUT…

CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW: We all though Kojima would trot out some form of Metal Gear at E3. And we were right, in fact we have two Metal Gear adventures coming to various platforms. But that wasn’t the only ace Hideo had up his sleeve. At the Konami event he trotted out Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The Castlevania franchise has never gone away. It has lived in several great DS titles as well as a little played Wii fighter. But it has been a hard slog for the series proper on consoles. In fact there has been nothing since Symphony of the Night that has truly inspired gamers.

But now the man behind Solid Snake will lend his visual and creative flair to this new story dropping in 2010. The tagline “reborn” speaks not just to the hope that it will reinvigorate the series but also the new characters and story it will employ. It seems the narrative will deal heavily in the ideas of mortality, grief and how someone deals with loss. But it also seems like God of War style action. If Kojima can help guide the game to the story and presentation heights he usually reaches I’m on board.

THE NON-GAME STUFF….

Motion control was a topic at all three conferences and I will wait with skeptic eyes to see how all work out. That aspect of the gaming universe its own article and I’ll cover it at a later date. For now I want to talk about two things that got me stoked and they are all on XBOX Live.

FACEBOOK/TWITTER INTRGRATION: I love do anything devices. It’s why I’m crazy about my iPhone. And this inclusion really gets me excited. It just gives me one more reason to keep the XBOX on instead of turning to my Mac device. The ability to let people know what game I’m playing in such a broad way may also help me to get more great multiplayer or co-op sessions going. It’s just bizarre we must wait till the fall for this.

NETFLIX INTERGRATION IMPROVEMENT: The inclusion of Netflix watch instantly on my Live service is the reason I switched from Blockbuster Online. Which is in turn the reason I watched Point Break for the first time. So, I’m forever in debt to this streaming service. And now I have no need to ever sign into my Netflix account because I can add movies to my queue directly from my XBOX. This will have me well on my way to being a completely useless human being in not time. And lets face it folks isn’t that the ultimate goal?

THE MEGATON ANNOUNCEMENT

METROID: THE OTHER M: I’ll be honest I’m a Nintendo fanboy. I take the temperature of my video game excitement by how amped I am by Nintendo’s offerings. I admit that last year was a little weak. Let me rephrase the second half of last year was weak. Because before June we had gotten anew Smash Bros. game, A new Mario Kart game and the introduction of Wii Fit. But after we were treated to nothing of great value with only a few small exceptions (Wario Land: Shake It was awesome.) I thought the big news of the show would be the announcement of a new Zelda title with some sort of vague teaser trailer to back it up. Instead the Big N closed the show with something that totally knocked my balls for a loop. A new Metroid game! What is more a supposed M rated Metroid game! Ninentdo is teaming with a third party developer to bring us a perspective shifting, cg cut scened, story driven Samus adventure that has the potential to shoot the series in a whole new direction.

This isn’t the first risk Nintendo has taken with the Metroid franchise. Hell they gave it to a western developer who transformed the 2-d platformer into a 1^st person shooter. And now they are changing it to a stylized and brutal action game. I think the risks are facilitated by the fact that the Japanese have never loved Meroid like the Americas have and so NOJ doesn’t treat it in the same sacred way. That attitude which could have resulted in disaster has led to a willingness to innovate that Nintendo doesn’t usually show. Now, it’s not all sunshine and roses here. Samus purists are worried that the game will forgo the sense of isolation and desolation that ahs always defined the series. But those same people decried the switch to 1^st person back in the Gamecube days. I say give them the benefit of the doubt. Don’t be knee jerk and hate it on principle. Let’s be the smart gamers I know we are and welcome change not run from it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Wii GAME THAT COULD BE AWESOME: The Grinder….High Voltage Software’s Left 4 Dead like shooter. I was skeptical but after watching videos I’m kind of sold. You fight vampires, zombies and werewolves and apparently there can be 65 enemies on screen at a time. If The Conduit is very good this title will move up pretty high on my list.

THE ONE I DIDN’T CARE ABOUT BEFORE AND NOW MIGHT ACTUALLY PLAY: Splinter Cell Conviction…. I’ve never been a huge man of stealth games and I’ve never played a Splinter Cell title. However the story elements and inventive kills sequences have gotten me excited. And I love the Fringe like location and objective messages projected on the environment.

STILL NOT SOLD ON YOU: Assasin’s Creed 2, DJ Hero, Red Steel 2.

TRAILERS: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Star Wars: Old Republic, Mass Effect 2.

After a the clusterfuck that was the check-in process at the Ubisoft press briefing, we’ve finally taken our seats. This theater is absolutely gorgeous.

Conference kicks off with a montage trailer, showing Splinter Cell Conviction, Assassin’s Creed 2, Red Steel 2, TMNT Smash, Rabbids, Petz and more.

Talk Soup host Joel McHale comes out, does some comedy and teases the upcoming lineup. Some good laughs, surprisingly.

McHale introduces Yves Gillermot. Gillermot talks about the shifts in the industry, such as the dvances in technology that have begun to blur the lines between movies and games. Introduces “UPlay” a new Ubisoft network that will be built into several upcoming titles like AC2 and SCC. Basically looks like a platform for DLC, and achievement related stuff. Announces new partnerships with Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg

Reinforces their commitment to new technology, reminding us their huge support of the Wii, and revealing plans for Microsoft’s new interface project.

Gillermot introduces Yannis Mallat. Mallat talks about their plans with James Cameron’s Avatar, talks up the “groundbreaking technology”. More details on the game tomorrow. Big short movie projects involving Ubisoft projects like Assassin’s Creed. Talks about more expansion into movies and books.

Yves joins Mallat back on stage. Yves introduces James fucking Cameron! Cameron is here to talk about, what else, Avatar. Discusses some backstory on the movie. Script was written over 14 years ago, but the tech was not up to snuff with the scale of the film project. Script was resurrected after Cameron saw how far digital effects had come, such as Golem from LOTR. Talks about the partnership with Ubisoft, the unprecedented amount of collaboration with Ubisoft, especially on the design end of things. The movie and game design team have worked together to mold the game. Cameron was so impressed with the Ubisoft team that he’s borrowed some of their designs to implement them into the film. Both the game and the movie will be built around 3D technology. Both Cameron and Ubisoft are dedicated to making sure the game and movie will be equal in quality, and that they don’t want one to be the red-head stepchild of the other.

McHale is back out, more jokes, then introduces the world premier of the Red Steel 2 trailer. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary, and it looks great, but then again, so did the first one.

McHale introduces Jason Vanderberg, creative director of Red Steel 2. This guy is, well… he thinks he’s funny but no one is laughing. Now we’re getting a live demo of Res Steel 2. Showing off the Wii MotionPlus, looking much better than the first game so far. Hit’s a couple of dummies, then moves onto the real enemies. Shows off a big dude with a hammer, called “The Heavy”. Reveals Red Steel 2 will be bundled with MotionPlus. Thank God.

McHale is back out to talk about sports games. Introduces the next Shaun White Snowboarding title, World Stage, exclusive to the Wii this winter. Introduces Pele, who’s on stage to talk about Academy of Champions..Supposed to be a trailer here… but technical difficulties cause and awkward moment on stage. Pele stalls a bit, then begins to talk about the game as his translator well, translates. Okay, not really talking about the game at all, just telling somewhat interesting anecdotes about his career and his goals with getting involved with a video game. Finally they get the trailer going. Less of a sports game, more of a strange soccer-fantasy game. Like Harry Potter, but soccer instead of Quidditch. And less magic.

Pele exits. McHale introduces Max Beland and Alex Parizeau who are here to talk to us about SC: Conviction. Trailer rolls, same one we saw this morning at the Microsoft press briefing. Live demo, again looks like the same level that we saw this morning. Shows off the new interrogation system, Sam beats the shit out of a dude in a bathroom, then moves to a mansion level. Takes out a pair of guards, then moves up the wall of the manion into a window. Sam shoots out a chandelier and takes out another group of guards. Quick shootout ensues, and they show off the “last known position” feature, where a shadow of Sam will appear on screen showing the player where the enemies last caught a glimpse of Sam. Same goes into a room guns blazing with a shotgun, takes out about a half dozen enemies, and the demo ends. Game will be exclusive to 360 and PC.

McHale introduces the RTS Ruse. Trailer rolls. Looks interesting enough, although there seemed to be very little gameplay here.

McHale starts to talk about casual games, audience groans. Tony Key is up on stage. Talks up the Imagine brand outselling Gears of War, Fallout, Metal Gear and Mario. Trailer rolls for Ubisoft’s “Tween Games 2.0” the next step in their casual games platform, starting with the Imagine series. Next is Petz Nursery. Finally, Style Lab. Yawwwwwn. Talking up the growth of the Fitness game genre. Key takes a cheap shot at EA’s “$20 rubber bands”. Key introduces Felicia Williams to talk about Fitness games and camera integration. The game is Your Shape. Headed to the Wii this Holiday. Trailer rolls. Game comes with a camera. Camera scans the body. Looks much more in-depth than Wii Fit or Ea Sports Active.

McHale is back. Talking about difficult stars… it’s the Rabbids I’m sure. Yep. Adrian Fernandez-Lacey is here to talk about Rabbids Go Home, accompanied by two dudes in Rabbids costumes. McHale makes his 3rd or 4th Ryan Seacrest joke of the night. The Rabbids’ “home” is the moon, and they must build a giant pile so they can climb home. Here comes the trailer. Looks decent enough, humor abound. Live demo upcoming. Shows a Rabbid inside a Wii remote, you can shake him around. Very evocative of the old Mario 64 “Mario-face” where you could stretch out his face. Lots of customization of the Rabbids. You control two Rabbids equipped with a shopping cart and they search for objects for your Moon pile. Very reminiscent of Katamari Damacy.

McHale is back. Another Seacrest joke! Laurent Detoc here to talk about TMNT. TMNT Smash trailer rolls. God this game looks cool. Smash Bros. + TMNT = awesome. Detoc touches on No More Heroes. Now talking about a new project with Q Entertainment. Moving on to Italy, finally! Assassin’s Creed 2 is here. First AC sold 8 million units since its release, was the fastest selling new IP ever apparently. AC2 launches November 17th. Trailer rolls. Ezio kills a noble in a large crowd. Then chases another one down, using a new firearm type weapon to finish him off.

And that’s the show!

Tune in during the E3 week for more directly from LA!

So gear up and get ready to lay down some supernatural spanking as you hop back into the war-soiled boots of B. J. Blazkowicz later this summer, but until then lay your eyes on the screens below or head over to Wolfenstein’s offical site for all things Blazkowicz related.

See back in April, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman vetoed Thompson’s video game bill that would have prosecuted any retailers who sold M-rated games to children under 17 under the guise of “false advertising”. Shortly thereafter, in an effort to prove that pornographic games were being sold to Utah children, ol’ Jacky boy fired off an Easter morning email to Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups, who had helped champion the bill through the Senate before the veto. The email featured a screenshot of GTA IV protagonist Niko Bellic getting a lapdance from two of Liberty City’s finest virtual strippers. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Waddoups wasn’t exactly thrilled with Jack’s correspondence, and after a little virtual word sparring, Waddoups eventually threatened to turn Thompson over to Utah Atourney General Mark Shurtleff for legal action under the CAN-SPAM act. Not to be outdone, Thompson responded by sending the same picture to Utah’s entire State Legislature.

That was a month ago. Totally shocked that his constant harassment of government officials has been met with threats of legal action, Thompson has fired back by threatening to sue the Utah State Legislature for violating his civil rights. In an email sent to those officials and CC’d to GamePolitics, Jacky wrote the following:

“If I get one more threat of criminal prosecution for sending you all proof, as I have, that pornographic video games are being sold to children in Utah because of the willful refusal of your Attorney General to enforce your state’s pornography laws, then I will add ALL of you to the sworn criminal complaint now in the hands of the FBI in Salt Lake City.  You will be identified as co-conspirators to violate 18 USC 241 and 242…

Maybe the real problem here is that Utah, as a recent study proves, leads the nation in consumption of on-line porn.  Maybe some among you are into this stuff, and you feel threatened…

I’m not going to put up with it.  I’ve taken down some of the largest pornographers in the world.  Taking down your legislature will be a piece of cake by comparison.

Man Jack, you are old school crazy.

There was a time in my life where I used to get all fired up about Thompson’s antics. But now the guy is just a joke. We as gamers don’t get mad anymore, we just chuckle. He’s become the freak show of the gaming news circus, hunched over in a cage for all of us to gawk at in disgust or amusement as he shouts nonsensical threats at passerby and imaginary Supreme Court Justices alike. Men laugh, take pictures, maybe even poke him with a stick. The gals are made nauseous by his groteqsue form, perhaps tugging on the arm of their significant other pleading to move on to the much more interesting sights. A little girl clings to her mother in fear, asking “What’s that Mommy?” “Nothing dear,” she’ll reply, “Just a disgraced lawyer still on an endless, irrational, and utterly pointless crusade to rid the world of violent video games”. And the child will loosen their grip, maybe even approach the cage. Jack will lift his head, his beady eyes staring into the very soul of the child, and he’ll mutter “We must protect the children” before slinking away to a far corner of his barred abode. The child will dart back to her mother, tears welling up in her eyes. “He smelled funny, Mommy!” she’ll cry. “Oh honey!” the Mother will laugh, “That’s just what crazy smells like!”

Or something like that.

Standard and HD video available below