E3 2011: Ubisoft Conference

What a... weird presentation, no James Cameron boring people to death, but... yeah.

Rayman Origins
- Live demo shown, has co-op
- Looks fun!

Driver: San Francisco
- Hyperactive man says dick jokes on stage
- New trailer shown

FarCry 3
- They didn't even say what this was for the first 5 minutes of this trailer/gameplay
- Doesn't seem that exciting…
- "THE surprise of the show" I beg to differ

Brothers in Arms: Furious 4
- Looks a bit cartoony
- Oddly doesn't show swastikas despite calling the bad guys Nazis
- Probably has Left 4 Dead inspired gameplay

The Adventures of Tintin: The Game
- Spielberg and Jackson talk about the game based on their film (in a trailer of course)
- Trailer shown, 2D/3D gameplay

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
- Live demo shown, with a controller this time

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online
- Free to play web version of the franchise

ManiaPlanet
- Trackmania 2 for PC releases in September
- Shootmania and Questmania also coming

Rabbids: Alive & Kicking
- I can't believe this franchise is successful…
- Exclusive for Kinect
- Share photos from the game on Facebook
- Comes out November 8, 2011

Just Dance 3
- Another franchise I don't get why its popular
- Not only on Wii, now on Kinect and PS Move

Rocksmith
- Another use-a-real-guitar music game
- Coming Fall 2011

Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012
- I'm just bored now

Assassin's Creed Revelations
- New trailer shown
- Features Ezio and Altaïr
- Live demo shown
- Releases November, like every other big game...

E3 2011: EA Conference

No major reveals, but I did this anyways...

Mass Effect 3
- Releases March 6th, 2012 on 360, PS3, and PC
- Live demo shown, looks amazing

Origin
- EAs new Steam-like service, "Go check it out!"…
- No really, its after EVERY TRAILER

Need for Speed: the Run
- Super stat-tracking
- Out of car gameplay, a.k.a. running from the cops

Star Wars: The Old Republic
- New trailer shown, all pre-rendered footage we've seen…
- No date

SSX
- No more serious look or subtitle
- Comes next January

FIFA 12
- Yup, they still make it.
- EA Sports Football Club connects you through all versions of FIFA regardless of platform.

Madden 12
- Holy Crap!! I cannot believe they're bringing this franchise back!
- Really, they used Inception music for this??
- Enough of the meat-heads please.

The Sims: Social
- Facebook is not a gaming platform, get out of my face.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
- First game from 38 Studios
- Open world fantasy game

OverStrike
- First multi-platform title from Insomniac Games
- Weird off-portioned realistic characters, I'm scared.

Battlefield 3
- New graphics engine is … astonishing
- Beta in September
- Free stat tracking, coughActivisioncough
- Releases October 25, 2011

Steam for Mac is here! FREE Portal as well!

Hey Mac gamers! Yes, all six of you! Steam is here! And if you act before May 24th, you can even get a copy of Valve's rad game, Portal, for free! Not a Mac gamer? And for some sick reason you still don't have Portal? Guess what? Portal is FREE for PC gamers as well!

Steam for Mac and FREE Portal Download

I already have Portal on my PS3 (a system Valve should've supported first, before Macs, in my opinion), but who can argue with a free game? And a really good one at that. But, hey, maybe having Steam for Mac, and over 63 games available to play at launch, will finally lure Mac users to the gaming realm and legitimize Macs as a gaming platform. Probably not, but at least someone's trying.

After Thoughts: E3 2009 - Day 2

For my complete coverage of E3, be sure to check out my articles on Gamers Platform, as well as my constant updates on GP's Twitter page.

Another day down. While I did get a chance to play a lot more games, I didn't really have the time to write about them, so be sure to stay tuned to get hands-on impressions on a variety of games, from Red Faction and Wet, to Tiger Woods and Silent Hill.

Luckily, while waltzing around the show floor, I decided to head upstairs to the meeting rooms, where I found I actually had access to, so I could check out some special things around the convention center, like get to play and see a variety of games that weren't on the show floor for regular exhibitors to see. These included a few titles from Bethesda, Saboteur from EA, and an eyes-on demo of Mass Effect 2, which was pretty cool.

I'll be on the show floor again tomorrow trying to play some more games, including God of War III, Bayonetta, and The Grinder, just to name a few. I also have a special meeting with Bill Roper, Executive Producer of Champions Online, tomorrow afternoon, so that could be very interesting to learn what he is doing with the game and perhaps future projects.

Talk to you tomorrow.

For more After Thoughts from E3 2009, be sure to check out E3 2009 - Day 0, and Day 1.

GDC09: OnLive - Thoughts

Being that I have no actual play time or experience with the new start up OnLive, I can really only voice my opinions and thoughts on what I heard and read about the GDC meeting. For those of you that don't know, OnLive is a new company that is setting out to revolutionize the way we play and access games.

Now before anyone goes all crazy about the big 3+1 having a stranglehold on the gaming market, I'd like to point out that OnLive offers one thing that the others really can't, no hardware restrictions for users. The thing that makes OnLive so odd is that they are actually streaming a game to you, much like a giant video. The answer to your question is some unnamed new compression techniques 7 years in the making. This new compression and decompression makes a 100ms lag time a thing of the pass in favor of, get this, 1ms. To be honest, I don't believe that number unless you are running Gigabit LAN and are plugged directly into their data centers. Reason? ping Google. I got an average of 76ms. Google has pretty much the most impressive set of data power on the planet and I pay for fast internet, 10 down 2 up, and I still got 76ms. Is that anything to be ashamed of? No, not really. Would I really notice a 76ms lag, again, no not really. However, in a ping I'm sending what, 32bytes of data, a streaming 720p video is much larger...much. So I have my skepticism about their lag times.

They (OnLive) do offer a new array of tricks though that I can say haven't been offered [read:feasible] before. Such as viewing your friends playing live. It is like spectating, except you can do it for any game, any time. Since you are technically just watching a video, you are only limited by OnLive's servers, which are supposed to be spectacular. Also, this means you aren't limited to a platform. They have a little adapter that uses HDMI to go to you TV, and of course OnLive works on your PC or MAC via a download. They said plugin for your browser, but I'm not sure I want to be playing a game within Firefox or Chrome, just doesn't seem natural. This means that once you buy the little box thing for you tv, you can install the plugin for your PC and pick up right where you left off. Pretty nifty. Imagine, if you will, playing Crysis on a netbook 8.9inch screen. lol

They have put a lot of thinking into this whole 'your just watching a video'. Meaning you can watch the best players play the game before you buy it, or watch real matches any time, in realtime. You can also rent games from them for a fee. The video showed them renting for 5 days, no word on cost. You can of course purchase the game forever, assuming you want the game, and again no word on cost. They have said that the OnLive is a pay-for subscription, meaning you have to pay $xx a month to just run OnLive, then if you want to play anything but a demo, you'll need to pony up again.

I know enough about math and computers to know that I don't know much, so when I was left curious about this new compression and decompression (compression is harder than decompression) that was 'unknown'. I am quite displeased by the lack of evidence of this algorithm. Also, I'm not sure how the servers would handle multiplayer from the same tv box... it was never addressed. Multiplayer worked across platforms, which is nice, and even has a 15 second record button. Whatever though, you never know your going to do something epic until you've already done it.

A friend of mine brought up the fact that if this really takes off, the big 3 would be sure to show their displeasure. How would they react? I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine they would take it lying down. (Note: Big 3+1 is Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, PC. Since OnLive runs on servers, you could say that they are running on PC SDKs.)

They are holding betas, sign up if you want.
For more info, or to sign up for the beta, go to their site: OnLive.com

Street Fighter IV Roster Trailer

Still not too keen on the visual style of this game, as I would have more preferred HD sprites more akin to that of the new King of Fighters title, but it's not up to me. None the less, this new trailer released today by Capcom features Street Fighter IV's entire console roster. Enjoy!



Man, some of those English voices are just ... dreadful. And the dubbing on the 3D Ryu? Ew, that's all I can say. Let's hope the sound of the game doesn't ruin the gameplay.

Call of Duty: World at War Beta Impressions

While I wish I could have gotten into the 360 beta, but I'm fine playing the beta on the computer. The gameplay is basically the same as CoD4, with the addition of a few new features.
The biggest new feature I noticed is the replacement of calling a helicopter after getting seven kills in a row. Instead, you are now able to call upon some trusty hound doggies, but don't be fooled, I doubt you will ever hear the "crying all the time". In fact, these little bastards will chase down your opponents and take a bite or two out of them. I for one think this is a great new feature that adds more strategy, and is more exciting then just being gunned down by a helicopter.

Along with hounds, a few new perks have been added, as well as some new weapons and grenades of course. Oh! and lets not forget the addition of vehicles.
I for one prefer the CoD4 levels over the CoD: WaW ones, although I guess it's to early to judge since the beta only allows you to battle in three areas.

The 1st level I will announce is named "Castle". In this map you fight inside and around an olden time Chinese castle. This level, in my opinion, is the worst of the three, but if you enjoyed sniping your opponents in CoD4, then I'm sure you will be more pleased with this level than I.
The second map goes by the name "Makin". Here, you will battle on a beach, which contains three basic areas. 1st, the beach/water area. If you fight on the beach, expect to die often, since it supplies little cover. Whereas if you fight in the water, I'm sure you can get kills-a-plenty, since it offers you much more protection. The second area in this map is the forest. This are provides excellent protection (as forests often do) and is basically for guerrilla warfare. The last area of the map are the huts that you will find on the beach. Basically used as the sniping area of the map.

The last map, which is my favorite, is named "Roundhouse". This are is the 1st to introduce a vehicle (in this case a tank), which I find...very noobish to use. The tank seems to be overly powerful and seemingly invincible. Basically, whoever owns the tank will more than likely win the match. Moving away from talking about the tank, this area seems to be where many train tracks meet. It contains a few buildings, but mostly you will be fighting on the ground, hiding behind the seemingly endless amount of boxcars that are scattered throughout the level. The only thing that really annoys me about this level is that some areas provide to much protection, while others don't provide enough.

All in all, Call of Duty: World at War is looking pretty promising. The levels are average at best, but there's plenty more to come. Some new weapons have been added of course, as well as perks and grenades (but they're a surprise!). Of course, instead of calling upon a helicopter to do your dirty work, you now summon dogs to kill the enemies around you. The addition of vehicles seems somewhat out of place to me, Call of Duty just doesn't seem like the kind of game where you should be riding around in a tank. Not to mention that the tank is god-like. But, I can't complain, this beta has already drained hours of my life away, so I can't even imagine what the full game is going to do to me (yikes! its gonna be CoD4 all over again!). Hope to have the full game review after it's release on the 11th of this month.

Strong Bad's CGFAP: Baddest of the Bands Review

As I promised, although some hours late, I have the review for Episode 3 of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, entitled Baddest of the Bands.

The review can be found HERE and it has been appended to the end of the original review, which housed Episodes 1 and 2. So just scroll down a bit and you'll see it.

Windows 7 is official

Still trying to get used to Vista? Still don't have Vista cause you enjoy XP so much? Still have Windows 2000 or lower? Well, if you answered "yes" to that last one, shame on you. For the rest of you, Microsoft has announced that its latest operating system, Windows 7, which had be percieved as a codename until now, will be revealed shortly.

Why such a simple name, well according to Microsoft,

"The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve,"

Makes sense to me, at the same time it reminds me of Nintendo DS. Because Nintendo had announced "DS" as a codename, but in the end it just worked so much better than say, "Nitro". However, I don't use Windows anymore, and in fact, I have never used Vista, so I can't personally comment on the quality of the operating system. However, for Microsoft's sake, I hope Windows 7 can fix everything that people have disliked about Vista. Only time will tell.

Full announcement at Windows Vista Team Blog

Poll #7 Results

After the abysmal turnout for the previous poll, we decided to take a different direction in the poll. Because you, the readers, didn't tell us what content you wanted last time, we're going to try and figure out what you want. And luckily, this time, there was turnout! Anyways, let's see the results:

What is your operating system?

Windows Me or older - 0%
Windows XP - 33%
Windows Vista - 26%
Mac OS X - 40%
Mac OS 9 or older - 0%
Linux - 0%
Other - 0%

The results are about what I assumed they would be, though I didn't expect OS X to top Windows XP. At least I can see that nothing we cover has to cater to the Linux or Unix crowd, and I know that we don't have the make the site available to people with decade old operating systems. Still nice to see there's an almost even balance of Mac and PC users, however, if you combine both XP and Vista, Windows has 59% where Mac still has 40%.

Latest poll is up!

Spore Review

Spore's finally out... That just sounds wrong doesn't it? It's been so long, theirs been so much talk and speculation and hype, and it's finally here. That's right, our review for Spore is up over at Classic VFH. You thought this day would never come didn't you? Well shame on you non-believer, for it has, and it is a wonderful day at that.

Spore Review at Classic VFH

Note, Spore is both a PC and Mac title, so even though the review is listed as PC, it's pretty much exactly the same for Mac.
--------------------
UPDATE (3/22/10) VFH Classic is dead:

One of the most anticipated releases in quite a while, Will Wrights' newest game, Spore, is all about blending user-created material and multiple game genres. Some, including myself where skeptical of how well they could do this. Such varied types of gameplay all stuck into one game. There's bound to be issues with the quality... right?

Gameplay: 8.5
The gameplay in Spore is kind of difficult to score. You see, the game is broken up into 5 segments, each with a different type of gameplay. In my opinion they where all very enjoyable. While some outdid the others, it was all very fun stuff. One factor that really helps here is the fact that once done, you can go back and play on one gameplay portion as long as you'd like. In fact, you can do that in the first place if you feel like it, never advancing to the next gameplay type, sticking to the one you like the best. But I would recommend beating the game first, some ones you have no interest in may surprise you.



The first bit of gameplay starts you off as a tiny organism in the ocean. You have to upgrade your creature with DNA and parts by killing the other species surrounding you. The ability to make your creature whatever you want as you go along really makes this part much more entertaining than I expected it to be. I played through the game as a carnivore, so I was hunting other creatures and eating the meat left behind by them. One thing to mention is the scope here is brilliant, creatures 100 times your size in the beginning shrink to ¼th your size very quickly and it does a lot to keep you interested.

Next you go into the third-person adventure type of gameplay. This one was one of my favorites. You scavenge the land for fossils containing new parts to add to your creature, or other animal packs to befriend or destroy. The combat mechanics where simple yet effective, and most importantly, fun. You have a quick-bar of 3 skills which are used by using the 1-3 keys. The better parts you attach to your creature the better skills he will have, including gliding, jumping, and any other non battle oriented action as well. The freedom of this mode and direct control over your creature made it stand out to me. Also, it was kind of neat to see the traits you gave your little sea creature fleshed out and under your direct control. Actually having an effect on gameplay now.

The third gameplay segment was where the game moved into a RTS format. This was by far my least favorite. You can pretty much just collect food until you have enough to create a unstoppable force of warriors. You could always go for the peaceful route and buy some musical instruments to make friends as well. Personally I went as a mix of both, destroying those that didn't like me, and befriending those that where neutral. It's just an extremely simplified RTS and while by no means is horrible, it's just not all that fun compared to the rest of the game. It's the first to truly lack a sense of immense scale, since there are no giant monsters or fishes waiting to destroy you. Where's the fun in that?



After that comes what turned out to be one of the most entertaining portions. The civilization stage. It's what I would explain as a mix between Defcon, Risk, and SimCity. Once again being a RTS, with the only controllable units being vehicles. It's noteworthy that you build all of your cities and vehicles from scratch, for those of you that haven't gotten the gist of things yet. I found creating buildings to be quite boring, but vehicles where entertaining enough. The real entertainment here comes from the opposing civilizations. You'll have to compete for spice, towns, and overall land.

Getting a giant fleet of your home-made ships and some nukes then going out to storm the other towns was pretty damn fun. The one downfall of this game is the “instant win” option. Once you get enough towns you will have the option to instantly destroy all of the remaining towns with a massive missile strike for $48,000. I made the mistake of doing this in my play through and I'm sure it cut the time that portion would have taken considerably. So just a warning, by destroy all civilizations, it does indeed mean all of them.



Finally comes the “Space Faring” stage. This is the deepest stage and seems to be the one that will last you the longest. Travel from planet to planet, creating new civilizations, atmospheres, basically just inhabiting worlds so you can collect its spice. You will encounters enemy planets on the way, and other ships to battle with. This stage gives the game the epic scale that I had missed so much back in a big way. The ability to fly from space down to the planets surface in almost an instant is just astounding. A seemingly endless amount of planets and possible places to explore make this a perfectionists nightmare. You'll never see it all.

On the topic of exploring, once in space you don't directly control your UFO like in a planets atmosphere, you merely click on a planet to travel there. This was disappointing, but not a big deal, as I can see free exploration getting extremely confusing. You'll be too distracted by the massive amount of equipment your UFO is able to use to think about that anyways. Because man, that thing can do a lot. It's really more of a tool than anything, and its one hell of a fun tool. This was a great final stage to the game and it actually met my high expectations.

Sound: 8
The sound in Spore is nothing to write home about. Their was atmospheric music, but nothing memorable. The creatures sounds where very entertaining. It was interesting to hear all of the different cries from the different species and builds, although quite a few end up being pretty similar. Overall the sound presentation was very nice, if nothing else the unique sounds of the creatures added to the experience.

Controls: 7
The interface of spore is pretty simple and very easy to use. Yet occasionally I would do things that I didn't mean to because of the lack of information on what mode you're in. Mainly in the second stage. Besides that, the RTS controls where spot on, no complaints there. The first stages controls where either responsive or not depending on how you built your creature, which was a nice touch, yet get annoying in certain instances. Then the 4th stage had the very similar RTS controls of the 3rd. Then finally, the last stage controlled a little sloppily, yet its nothing that you wont get used to. To sum it up, it overall has a very neat interface with easy to use commands, it's just not always perfect. Sometimes the camera would get annoying, but it was a minor annoyance. Overall it was good.



Graphics: 8
One of the biggest parts of the game is seeing your creatures interact with the world around them. Which is why it's a good thing that everything looks so nice. The style is interesting, the graphics are crisp, the scale is very impressive, and the animations of your creature are way more fascinating to watch then some would think. I played the game on all medium settings and was still happy with the presentation.

Conclusion:
Spore surprised me and actually lived up to most of my expectations. The gameplay stayed fun and fresh throughout the entire game, and it was perpetually entertaining to see my creature do all these crazy new things. The game is just pure and simple fun for the first 4/5ths of the game, but it's the creation aspect and the last stage of the game that will keep you coming back. Spore has been built up to incredibly high proportions, and while its not exactly what everyone was expecting, it came damn close, and
it's definitely a worthy purchase.

Overall: 9/10

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Review

Hey there, got episode 1 and 2 of SBCGFAP the other day, entitled 'Homestar Ruiner' and 'Strong Badia the Free', respectively, and wrote a review for them both, together. I merged the two reviews, seeing as how the games play the same, but have different stories, so I apologize for any confusion there. I plan to either update that same review or create a brand new one for the future 3 episodes, but I'll let you know when the time comes. And yeah, you can view the review from our super review database over at VFH Classic, so go check it out.
----------------
UPDATE (3/22/10) VFH Classic is dead:

Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner & Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free

I was introduced to Strong Bad and the rest of the Homestar Runner gang about 6 years ago, with Strong Bad’s Trogdor and Techno emails and fell in love with his humor. There are a ton of things to see and do on homestarrunner.com, from viewing the emails and comics, to playing some 8-bit inspired games, but now, with the help of Telltale Games, you can play through a real adventure with all of your favorite characters in Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.

The game is broken up into five chapters (sold separately), two of which are currently available and which I am basing my review on. The two chapters available are, in chronological order, ‘Homestar Ruiner’, and ‘Strong Badia the Free’, each of which are 1,000 points on the Wii, or $8.95 from telltalegames.com for the PC. They both have you play as Strong Bad, although their stories are completely divergent, so you don’t have to have played one to play the other.

Each chapter starts off with an introduction and shows Strong Bad reading his email, which spurs the story of the game. From there, you are brought into Strong Bad’s realm and environment, which include all of the familiar favorites, from Strong Bad’s house, to Bub’s Concession Stand and Strong Badia. The game contains a central, circular hub, where various locales are placed. You also have a map which you can access at any point in the game to transport yourself to any location you desire, so moving around town is very simple. To progress the story, you must solve puzzles and do certain things to create a situation that will allow for a specific event to take place. Because this is a point-and-click adventure, you must go around town, talking to a variety of characters to learn key information that will help you, as well as collect and use items at the right time. There are a variety of items you can acquire throughout each game, and you will not be able to use them in anyway unless it is necessary, so you can’t screw up, however, knowing when and where to use certain items isn’t always obvious, which makes the game challenging and rewarding when you do come up with a clever solution to a problem. The inventory system is very easy to access and use, as you simply need to move your cursor to the top of the screen to access the inventory system, and then select the item you want to use. Then, you can click on Strong Bad if you want him to use the item directly, or you can click on something else to use the item on that object or person.

One of the exciting places you will find on your travels. Oh yeah, da Cheat. So cool.

With these basics in mind, you are free to go about your business and explore the town, clicking on items and people to hear witty banter and back-and-forths that you are used to from the Homestar Runner universe, which is what makes this game so great. On the surface, the game is a some-what simple point-and-click adventure, with some complex puzzles, but with the application of Strong Bad and the gang and the great dialogue, you’re bound to fall in love with the game if you are a fan of the website.

Aside from the main objective, the game presents lots of side-quests and activities to partake in, which break up the regular gameplay nicely. Present in both games, are interactive Teen Girl Squad comics, 8-bit games, and collectibles. The Teen Girl Squad comics set up a scenario and present you with three scenes, each of which allow you to do a number of events. At the beginning, you have about 10 items you can choose to use to perform an event in the comic, with the underlying goal of trying to destroy all four girls by the end. In order to be successful, you will have to play through each comic a few times before you understand how all the items work and how best to use them to complete your goal. Some items require other items to properly work, or need to be used during a certain time in each comic. At the end of the comic, Strong Bad awards you points for how entertaining your comic was, so keep experimenting with the items to find the best combination. Also, there are four idea cards scattered throughout each chapter that you will need to find to attain the best score, so get to exploring. It is also important to note that these comics are pretty hilarious, delivering some of the best quips in the game, such as "Fundamentals!", "Triple Doubl’d", "Meteor’d", and others, which you will have to play through to understand, but will undoubtedly repeat to yourself again and again.

Here, you can see the items you can use, which when carried over to a girl, sparks a certain event, some of which need to be timed properly for mass effect.

Aside from a single Teen Girl Squad comic per chapter, each also contains an 8-bit game to play. The first chapter contains the thrilling Snake Boxer 5, while the second chapter has Math Kickers. Snake Boxer 5 is very simple and just pits you against a snake, where you can move up and down and punch. Math Kickers is a bit more interesting, where you can attack both left and right, and need to solve math equations along the way. There are a number of enemies, and the total number of enemies you hit equals the variable in the equation, so you need to solve the very basic algebra to know how many enemies to attack. There are however, boss fights which involve very complex equations that get simplified as you battle. Each game has a secret code or two you can input to help you out or unlock special effects, and you can obtain these codes by finding pages of the manual.

There are four pages to find and they are scattered throughout the world, hidden in a variety of places, including underground, so you must use your trusty metal detector and shovel to find them, even though the pages are paper…and not metallic…but Strong Bad makes mention of that fact too. Aside from game manual pages, there are other collectibles and things to find throughout both chapters, including costumes, flags, and those Teen Girl Squad cards, all of which you can keep track of via the games map and stats menu, where you can see how many items you have collected, how many more you need, and certain other percentages and scores.

Like I mentioned, you can find costumes, however, you can’t wear them in public. Instead, you can make your way to the photo booth where you can try on all those clothes and accessories and then pose for pictures. There are a variety of backdrops you can use, and once you find one you like, you can ready the camera and Strong Bad will go through a few poses. Aside from the photo booth, you can also take pictures of the game whenever you like, aside from in the middle of conversations and such, but anytime in which you can bring up the inventory you can snap a picture. In the Wii version of the game, you can send these pictures to your friends via the message board, which is a pretty neat feature.

Here, you can see the dialogue tree, where you can choose what you want to talk about with that person.

Aside from the story, both the chapters play the same, with the point-and-click adventuring scheme, where you go around, talking with people and figuring out clever ways to use those items you’ve found, although I found that chapter one was a bit more clever and challenging than chapter two. For the curious, chapter one, Homestar Ruiner, centers around Strong Bad’s desire to pummel Homestar and then win a certain, ridiculously named race; while chapter two, Strong Badia the Free, is about performing a coup on The King of Town, renamed Of Town by Strong Bad, after Of Town enacted an email tax, but in order to take over the castle, he must first enlist the help of his friends who have each started their own "countries". Each of the stories is interesting and the development plays well on the story, for instance, with old-timey war reels playing every time Strong Bad annexes a new country in chapter two.

Each of the chapters will take you around 3-5 hours to complete, depending on how intuitive you are, but once you complete the main story, you can always continue and try to find all the collectibles and finish everything, as well as get a high score in the 8-bit game. Unfortunately, because the style of game, there is no real replay value, as once you beat it, you know exactly where everything is and how to use everything, as there is no improvisation possible; each item has a specific use(s) and you can’t deviate from that to go about a puzzle or problem in a different way.

At the top, you can see the menu system. The first item on the left brings up your inventory in that area, while the second item will bring up your map, where you can choose where to travel to and it also houses the stats section. The third icon is the camera and lets you take a screen shot. The one on the far right is the main menu, which lets you load and save games, as well as change your settings and quit.

That being said, the game is still great while it lasts, with the Homestar humor coming out constantly, from item descriptions, comments about any and everything you click on, conversations you have with others, and other exclamations Strong Bad belts out. The writers have definitely done a great job and have stayed very true to the website, so if you check the website on a daily basis, then this is the perfect game for you. The first two chapters were a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next three, each of which come out monthly. You can tell they are working very hard on these games, and I can’t wait to see the situations Strong Bad gets himself into and how Videlectrix and Telltale Games improve on the presentation and puzzles, which I believe will continue to get more and more clever and interesting.

Keep your eyes open for impressions on all of the future chapters when they are released.

------------------------------------------------------------Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands

Another month brings another episode in Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, entitled Baddest of the Bands. This episode centers on Strong Bad’s desire to fix his fun machine, which plays those classic 8-bit games. In order to afford the high cost of “a big sack of cash,” Strong Bad decides that the only logical way to get the money is to put on a Battle of the Bands concert to raise some money. However, it’s not so easy, as you must convince fellow bands to sign up, which can be quite the task.

The episode is split into a variety of goals you must accomplish: get as security guard, high some celebrity judges, sign bands, and then sabotage the bands so you can win. Each of these sections of the game present different environments to explore and characters to talk to, although they are all the same people and places from previous episodes. Naturally of course, there are completely new items and ways to use those items to accomplish your goal. Most the time, you’ll have some trouble realizing how to use an item in the correct way, but with some experimenting and ingenuity, you can figure it out without too much trouble. The hint system is also very helpful, with Strong Bad or other characters spewing out helpful phrases or dialogue.

I believe this episode is better than others in really splitting the game up into individual sections, making it easier to understand your objective. The first episode just let you walk around, exploring all of the areas and giving you a bunch of random objectives to complete whenever you felt like it, however, this episode is split up well and while you may not know exactly how to accomplish a goal, you know what the goal is and what you need to do.

After going from place to place, and figuring out what you need to do to either get bands to agree to sign up for the battle or getting bands back together, you realize that Bubs is a sneaky snake, skimming some money for himself from the entry fees, so you need to make more money, and the best way to do that is for you to enter the battle yourself and win the prize money. Unfortunately though, all the good citizens are already in bands, so you are stuck with Homesar and The King of Town….needless to say, even with Strong Bad’s awesome talent and skills, his band mates won’t be able to win the contest alone. Therefore, it is up to you to do a little sabotage, messing up each band in a unique way.

Overall, the puzzles are well done, and most of the items necessary are easy to acquire, but some are out of place and possibly hard to find unless you click on everything. Some of the puzzles require some thought, and even if you think you know what items you should use and how to use them, you may find a bit of trouble getting it all straight, which will lead to frustrating situations, but if you keep experimenting and thinking about the overall goal and what you’ve learned, you’ll be able to find a solution without too many problems.

Like previous episodes, there are a lot of items to collect and special events to find and undergo, which will lead to some exploration and replayability. While there is a new Teen Girl Squad comic, it isn’t interactive, but merely a video, which is really unfortunate, but luckily it is still funny.

Once you finish the main story, you get your fun machine back and get to play your new/old game: Limozeen Hot Babelian Odyssey. This is probably the best game yet, as you control a spaceship in this side scrolling adventure and rescue the Babelians as you go. You can move the ship up and down and shoot lasers and bombs, while using your tractor beam to save the ladies. Each level gets harder and harder as more enemies appear on screen, as do obstacles that must be avoided.

Baddest of the Bands puts Strong Band and the gang into another crazy adventure and contains all the dialogue, humor, and puzzles you’ve grown to love from the previous episodes and website. Baddest of the Bands doesn’t do too much extra from the other chapters, but if you enjoyed those, you will like this one as well.
8/10

Original Red Alert For Free!

This weekend you can download the original Red Alert for free at EA's website.

"Today, August 31st, 2008 marks the 13th anniversary of the storied Command & Conquer franchise, which has sold over 25 million copies to date. And to celebrate this milestone and this October's highly anticipated return to the world of Red Alert with Red Alert 3, we are giving away one of the original games that started it all, Command & Conquer Red Alert, for FREE."

So go head on over there to www.redalert3.com and give it a download.

Playstation Store - 8/7/08

Qore Digital Magazine
Qore Episode 03: August, 2008
- $2.99 Issue
- $24.99 Annual Subscription
- Includes invitation to the Resistance 2 beta
- Qore Annual Subscribers, in beta under “Premiere” status; early access
- Qore Ep 03 (single Episode) purchasers, access to the beta at a later date.
- All invitations will be made via email/voucher
- Multiple programs/methods for access in the Resistance 2 Online Beta

Add-on Game Content
Snakeball Team Mode - $1.99
NASCAR 09 Montreal Track - $3.99
NASCAR 09 Skin Pack 1 - $2.49
NASCAR 09 Skin Pack 2 - $2.49
NASCAR 09 Skin Pack 3 - $2.49

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Interscope Track Pack - $6.25
-“Carcinogen Crush” by AFI
- “Tina” by Flyleaf
- “Putting Holes in Happiness” by Marilyn Manson

Rock Band
- “Toxicity” by System of a Down - $1.99
- “B.Y.O.B” by System of a Down - $1.99
- “Rescue Me” by Buckcherry - $0.99
- “Face Down in the Dirt” by Mötley Crüe - $0.99
- “Life is Beautiful” by Sixx:A.M. - $0.99
- Crüe Fest Pack 2 ($2.99)
-includes “Rescue Me”, “Face Down in the Dirt”, and “Life is Beautiful”.

Game Videos (free)
PlayStation Home E3 Video
The Last Guy Behind The Scenes
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Tomb Raider: Underworld Trailer
Madden NFL 09 E3 Trailer
Madden NFL 20th Anniversary Video
Madden NFL 09 Adaptability Trailer
TNA iMPACT! Head to Head Trailer
Dead Space Dev Diary #5: Creating Horror
Dead Space Animated Comic Issue #4 PG-13
AST Dew Tour - Greg Lutzka’s Road to Finals
AST Dew Tour - One on one with James Foster
AST Dew Tour - PlayStation Pro Moments - 2
AST Dew Tour - Spinner looks to ‘08

PS3 Themes (free)
PlayStation Home Theme
- includes sign-up for Home Beta
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice Wallpaper (x3)
Tomb Raider: Underworld Mediterranean Shark Attack Wallpaper

PLAYSTATION Store for PC
Downloadable Games
Talkman Travel: Rome, Paris, Tokyo - $5.99 each

Game Videos (free)
Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 Videos (x5)
Home Video

Gotta get me that Home Theme A.S.A.P.

via Playstation.Blog

Lunchbreak!

One of my friends, Chuck, runs his own website set up to display his various endeavors in game design, art, writing, and basically whatever he comes up with, and just recently he put up his first game!

The game is called Lunchbreak and is part of the Lunchbreak series. The name of the game comes from the fact that its a pretty short and simple game that could be played during your lunch break. The game was made with RPG Maker VX, more details and the download can be found here.

Keep in mind that this is a game one person made in a afternoon, so it's not perfect, but from what I've played of it so far its a pretty fun distraction for a slow day, so go check it out.

Playstation Store - 7/24/08

E3 is officially over, let's see what the Playstation Store has ... in store for us? That hurt

PS3 Store Sale
Summer 08 Game Sale
For one week, the following titles will be offered for $4.99 (regularly priced at $9.99)
- PAIN
- PixelJunk Monsters
- High Velocity Bowling
- High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition
- Rocketmen: Axis of Evil

Downloadable Games
Siren: Blood Curse
- 3 bundles of 4 episodes @ $14.99 each
- full game for $39.99

1942: Joint Strike - $9.99

Guitar Hero III: Guitar Virtuoso Pack - $6.25
- “Surfing with the Alien” by Joe Satriani
- “For the Love of God” by Steve Vai
- “Soothsayer” by Buckethead.

Rock Band Add-ons
- "Devour" by Shinedown - $1.99
- "Junkies for Fame" by Shinedown - $1.99
- Nine Inch Nails Track Pack 02 - $5.49 includes songs below
- "Last" by Nine Inch Nails - $1.99 separately
- "Burn "by Nine Inch Nails - $1.99 separately
- "Capital G" by Nine Inch Nails - $1.99 separately

Game Demos (free)
PixelJunk Eden Demo

Game Videos (free)
PixelJunk Eden Trailer
Street Fighter IV: E3 2008 Gameplay Trailer
Street Fighter IV: PS3 Special Trailer
Bionic Commando Rearmed The Making of Part 1

PS3 Themes (free)
Street Fighter IV Summer 08 PS3 Theme
Siren: Blood Curse PS3 Theme

PS3 Wallpaper (free)
Killzone 2 Wallpapers (2 for PS3 & 2 for PSP)
PixelJunk Eden Wallpaper
Fracture Wallpapers (x4)
Siren Wallpapers (x5)

PLAYSTATION Store for PC
Games
Parappa the Rapper - $22.99

Game Trailers (free)
Parappa the Rapper Trailer

Wallpaper (free)
Killzone 2 Wallpapers (x2 for PSP)
Parappa the Rapper Wallpapers (x4)

Hmm, that price cut on PixelJunk Monsters is very convincing, I got the demo the other day and it is quite fun, I just wish there was an easier way to get PS Store credit. But I'll definitely check out the PixelJunk Eden demo, and word has it there's a second, secret demo, hidden in the PS Store. Maybe I'll download that SFIV theme and trailer as well, as long as there's none of Rufus in them...

Multi-platform Games Part One

First of all I would like to say, holy hell, theirs a lot of multi-platform games to cover, so I'll split this up into two or three parts. Second of all... that's it, lets get rollin'!

Mercenaries 2: World In Flames -
Personally, I missed out on the first Mercenaries. Because if the first is anything like the second is looking to be, it must be one amazing game. With a extremely destructible environment, 130 different vehicles, and seamless co-op, Mercenaries 2 is looking amazing. I saw minimal pop-up and no slowdown whatsoever in the gameplay demo, even when a nuke was called in- which by the way caused the biggest explosion I have ever seen in a videogame, and possibly the most impressive. The game seemed to be very physics heavy, with both the environmental objects and with any of the many vehicles involving cars, jetskiis, tanks, motorcycles, and more. All in all, this is looking to be a very entertaining sandbox game.

Street Fighter IV -
While I can't say I'm very impressed with the direction SFIV is taking, I can say that the graphics look extremely impressive, even though the character design kind of... well sucks. Although Street Fighter II fans should find something to be happy about here, as the games playing style is based on SFII, and the complexity has been brought down from three. Sure, simplicity is nice sometimes, but only two buttons are used. That sounds kind of over the line. I'm hoping the gameplay will win me over, but so far this isn't looking like a buy for me, sorry Street Fighter!

Golden Axe: Beast Rider -
The sequel to a classic, which I used to play all the time, is coming to PS3's and 360's this holiday season, and it looks quite fun. Featuring five ride-able beasts with differing strengths and weaknesses, you'll be able to tear through the enemies limb for limb. That's right, dismemberment and a M-rating! Anyone who has played Ninja Gaiden 2 can testify as to how satisfying that can be if done right. But, my one hope for this game is that you get to tear into those damn little dwarfs. While they are confirmed to return in this game, the tearing into them part is not.

Borderlands -
Now this is one of the best surprises from this years E3. I heard about this quite a long time ago, but never saw any real details or screens or anything and it just kind of vanished for a year or two. Then this year it was shown off in a gameplay demo, and wow, it is amazing. If I had to explain I would say Diablo/Oblivion/Fallout 3. Yeah, that is a force to be reckoned with. Co-op with up to 4 players, and over 500,000 weapons. (Yeah you heard me right. All different, some with elemental effects, other with just plain awesomeness imbued into them.) It seriously is looking like a must have. The game is set in a apocalyptic world and has a sort of Mad Max-like vibe. You and your friends can hop in a vehicle and travel the lands, or just go exploring in minds and whatnot. Level up yourself overall, and in weapon categories and fight even stronger monsters. Blow people in half with shotguns (yeah, you can. Sold yet?). Fight bandits, or even alien wildlife. This is looking extremely expansive, and is already a day one buy for me.

Left 4 Dead -
Not much new to share about the new zombie game from valve. Still looks like a load of fun. 4-player co-op, split screen, and zombies. You cannot go wrong with that. Added with the new character models and the creepy new expansive, yet claustrophobic forest environment and you have yourself a game that's looking even more fleshed out and fun than ever. Watch for it this November, the 4th I believe.

Various Impressions: Multi-platform

Here are some small write ups on a few of the multi-platform games. All of the following games are for the PC, 360, and PS3.

Videos of all 4 games set in a playlist:


Dark Void - An interesting take on the recent "cover" fad, Dark Void has you, a awesome guy with a jet-pack flying around shooting shit. Once you gather the necessary upgrades you will be able to fly freely and even hijack UFOs to fly yourself! The game is supposedly inspired by gears of war, and it shows. The twist is, the cover you're behind isn't on the ground, its on the wall. With your back to the ground you fire upwards at your enemies then once clear, jet yourself up to a higher ledge. It's a very interesting concept and should bring a fresh feeling to the old stop and pop routine. Their are various quick time button pressing cut-scenes placed in the game which you must complete to do certain actions such as stop yourself from slipping off a edge or stealing a aircraft. Oh yeah, can't forget the best part, the story! A cargo pilot gets thrown into a parallel dimension! Wooo! All made possible by the Unreal engine.

This Is Vegas - Riding the success of open world games as of lately is "This is vegas". But this one has a crazy angle! It's in Las Vegas... *Ehem* From what I could tell by the hands-on the game didn't take itself too seriously. While the gameplay wasn't really shown besides a mini-game or two, and I didn't get a extensive amount of time to watch the game, I did notice that the game had rather bland graphics, the textures seemed slightly lower resolution, and fuzzy, and their where no impressive effects as far as I could see. But I won't hold this against the game because it still has a few months before it's release in 2009... and that... is Vegas.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - This one is looking mighty impressive, and I'm guessing if you even relatively care about Star Wars you already know quite a bit about this game so I'll keep it short and just touch on the important points. The game is beautiful, and uses the euphoria engine, like GTA4 did, it was amazing there and I can see it will be here. Anyways, you will be able to level up and gain new powers for use in the combat system, which to me look quite complex. Also, for the sake of longevity they have added unlockables in the form of different costumes and lightsaber crystals. This game really looks like a must buy, for both Star Wars fans and non-fans alike.

Bionic Commando - A remake of the classic grappling arm game, Bionic Commando will be shipping to stores this winter. But will it be worth the buy? I can't tell yet, but I can say that it looks pretty damn fun. While the stages look linear, the interaction with the varying environment through your bionic arm looks quite enjoyable. Throughout the gameplay I have seen, city-wreckage and a forest have been shown as environments. While traveling through these environments you will be able upgrade your weapons. If you get bored of single-player, there is always multi-player, with all the "average" modes of play. You will be able to use your hookshot like appendage in all modes of play, which sounds like a blast. The game looked easy to control, your gun aim is separate from your grappling aim, the grappling aim will automatically lock onto things closely the the weapon aiming marker and looks like it works quite well. You will be able to grapple onto all areas besides certain toxic areas, so their seems to be quite a bit of freedom. The movement didn't look as smooth as I would have liked it, if you don't jump on the first swing forward the animation seems awkward, but that is a minor complaint, the rest of the game looks very fun and I look forward to playing it later this year.

Fallout 3 Teaser

With E3 coming in the next few days their has been a pretty big wave of information as of lately. One of the games I've been keeping a eye on more than any other though, is Fallout 3. Even though I've paid special attention to it, I still am not too sure as to how the game will play out or feel, but this trailer gives me a better idea of the atmosphere and graphics, and it looks amazing.



Can't wait, Oblivion with guns would be awesome, but I have a feeling this will be a lot more.

Blizzard announces Diablo III

Quite possibly the most requested sequel behind the recently announced StarCraft II, Blizzard has finally gone and announced the long awaited hack and slash rope playing game, Diablo III. That's almost exactly 8 years since Diablo II was released on June 29, 2000! I have embedded the trailer and gameplay video below, though both are also available at the website linked at the end of this post.

Cinematic Trailer


Gameplay Video

So with World of Warcraft as reigning king of MMOs, with and expansion on the way; and StarCraft and Diablo finally getting sequels, it looks like Blizzard is either gonna have to make something new, or release Lost Vikings III and Warcraft IV, as nothing else can be asked of them.

Diablo III Official Website