Here is a Halo 3 machinima short from TheDuoGroup, who I happen to be a fan of. They also created a Metal Gear Solid animated short which circulated around the Internet a few months back, and I was very impressed by it.
This new piece is short and simple, but has some very clever visual elements that you don’t often see in Halo machinima, or any machinima at all, really. Great use of some animated elements, and it features a song by Beck, so you know it’s gotta be good.
Last year, Ubisoft showed off some early gameplay footage of Splinter Cell: Conviction. This title didn’t play like other entries into the series, which typically have Sam Fisher infiltrate terrorist cells and do his best Solid Snake impression as he downed bad guys in stealth. No, Conviction instead has Sam Fisher on the run, doing his best to avoid cops in public as he is a wanted man.
Since that early preview, nobody’s really heard much about the game, until Chris Easton of Ubisoft recently gave a few more tidbits about the game’s progress. Apparently, they had some bumps along the way.
Just a heads up to those of you in Canada. It appears that Future Shop, a Canadian retailer, is bundling Gears of War, Force Unleashed and 60GB XBox 360 models for 299.99, which isn’t bad at all, if I say so myself.
It seems that since the 360 price drop, these kinds of deals are popping up left and right. If you’re thinking about getting a 360 and live up in the great north, it might be the time to take the plunge, so to speak.
Source- Future Shop
To me, one of the cool aspects that hasn’t been talked about in Left 4 Dead is the “Director”, an AI system that creates encounters for you as the game goes, meaning no 2 single-player (or co-op) playthroughs might be the same.
In versus mode, this changes. You play as a zombie, which makes you the “Director”, designing the campaign experience for your friends, in a sense. You can even call other zombies to your aid to battle your human foes. A new video interview has appeared on the webz, highlighting some of these features.
Ok, this one is for Eddy and all those other Achievement Whores out there who are anxious for Fable 2 to come out and hopefully live up to the hype it has generated. I think it looks like a fun game, but time will tell. Time and fanboys. Full list of Achievements after the jump. Continue reading Fabulous Fable 2 Achievements
Apparently my XBot is showing today, as I bring even more news from the MS front. Once again, Gamerscore Blog has updated this week with some new info about the features of the upcoming new XBox Experience, an update to the 360’s dashboard.
This week covers the creation of Avatars for you to use as part of your Gamertag, and I have to say that I like some of the options. While there are lots complaining about them being glorified Miis, that is 100 percent correct. However, Nintendo hates all things related to the Internet, so the Miis just live in loneliness on your Wii. Here, they go out into the wild and flourish.
I have a weird love/hate thing with “best of” gaming lists. They’re addictive as anything to read, but a lot of times you want to just slap the writers of them in the face for the way they have ranked the games. While a lot of that is expected and just typical subjectivity, sometimes dudes just get it wrong.
Take GamePro, for instance. While I’m sure they mean well with their new “Best of XBox 360” list, they are sadly, horribly, woefully misguided in the way they’ve placed the appropriate titles. There should be terrible punishments for people that are this far off.
No, not the vaporware Duke Nukem. I’m talking about the flesh-and-bone older brother, Duke Nukem 3D, which is coming to XBox Live Arcade later this month. A new trailer hit earlier this week, and man, I’m actually really pumped for the release.
I remember playing this thing on the N64 with my brother, and we would just do the deathmatch stuff with our friends all day long. Not to mention that this new version comes packed with 8 player multiplayer over XBL, but also the ability to save and share clips and even rewind it when you die, a la Prince of Persia. This is going to rule. Now if only they could get Goldeneye on XBLA…
As we all know, the world of video game movies has been a tough one for studio execs to crack. Nearly every movie based on a video game has been wretched, and it just doesn’t seem to show any signs of letting up.
However, it seems that Avi Arad, one of the bigwigs responsible for Marvel’s recent comeback, has optioned the rights from EA to produce a movie based on the RPG Mass Effect. Pretty wild.
Gears of War 2 is looming, and the hype machine is ever-marching towards you and your XBox360. That’s why Epic has released another developer diary to tide your insatiable hunger for all things Gears of War 2 related. This new video features the weapons in the new game, along with a few other treats.
Despite the hype that is going to be all over this, I can’t help but be excited. I loved the campaign of the first game, and the second seems like it’s going to top it in nearly every facet.
Videogamer.com is reporting that Microsoft has indeed confirmed that downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV will be out this fall.
What exactly this entails is anyone’s guess, but as a PS3 owner, I hope it’s nothing storyline related. But there is hope yet…
Halo is this weird kind of dividing line within the gaming community. On one hand, it’s overrated by the throngs of people who go crazy over it and swear that it could perhaps be the greatest FPS on any platform, PC or otherwise, EVER. On the other hand, there are people that just don’t seem to “get” Halo and what makes it fun, and in fact, would rather hate the game just to hate it, regardless.
For some reason, there are many hardcore gamers that have never been able to embrace the franchise or its signature character, Master Chief. Either they are blinded by the fanboy ravings, their own fanboy prejudices, or they’ve never give the game the time of day. So I thought I’d put together a little list to take a look at what makes Halo unique.
Continue reading Halo Haters: 5 Things Under Appreciated About Halo
Personally, one of the things that shocked (in a good way) me most about the 360 when I bought it was the dashboard. I thought it was such a clever user interface, and it had a nice slick look to it. For me, it changed it into something more than a console, so I’m really excited about the completely revamped interface, coming soon.
For anybody else that’s interested, Gamerscore Blog is now going to be updating each Friday to bring tips and explanations about all the features of the new 360 dashboard.
As some of you know, I’m kind of a huge nut about most things Valve-related. Whether it’s head crabs, crowbars, portals, layzorz, scouts, I’m all about it. Another thing I’m a huge fan of is Zombies. Also, co-op play. Mashing all these things together like potatoes gives you Valve’s upcoming gave Left 4 Dead.
So, it was to my delight that Gabe Newell confirmed that a Left 4 Dead demo is going to be hitting XBox Live and the PC soon. If I’m frothing at the mouth, it’s not the T-Virus, it’s just that I’m so happy.
So, we all love Star Wars, us nerds. We’re quite fond of it. Especially those who are like me, and gobble up any table scrap that kindly ol’ Lucas throws down to the floor. If that scrap is a demo for a new Star Wars game where I get to do whatever I want with The Force? Watch out.
Apparently, I’m not the only one with an XBox 360 who feels this way. It seems that in a rush of fanboy zeal, the Force Unleashed demo has broken records on Xbox Live.
So this weekend my goal was to get through a couple of new XBLA games, Castle Crashers and Braid. I’ve been hearing a lot of great stuff about both of these games, and I wanted to check them out, with hopes of reviewing them sometime in the next week or so.
As of right now, I’m completely thrilled with and loving both of these titles. It’s funny, because they’re the exact opposite of one another in terms of their playing styles. Braid is a puzzle game and Castle Crashers is an old school arcade beat-em-up a la The Simpsons or Streets of Rage.
Tempted yet?
First there’s the price cut, now Amazon is offering a $60 gift card on all XBox 360 Elite purchases. Not to mention the fact that any purchases over $25 get free shipping, this certainly isn’t a bad deal. Just thought I’d throw this out there for any of you who are on the fence about getting an Xbox 360 and love to do some shopping around at Amazon.
Source- Amazon
I’m not sure how many of you guys that own 360s have had the RRoD (Red Ring of Death for those of you who, like ostriches, have buried your heads in the sand and missed the acronym), but I have experienced 2 myself. Yeah. Dos.
Being on my 3rd Microsoft XBox 360 has left kind of a sour taste in my mouth, and I wouldn’t tolerate it save that it’s probably the most played console I’ve had since the original Playstation. It’s kind of weird because out of all the consoles I’ve ever owned, only 3 have broken. All were Microsoft products.
Continue reading XBox 360: A Sordid History of a Broken Console
Looks like MS has accepted along with everybody else that Nintendo has won this round, and is now shooting for 2nd place in the console war over Sony’s Playstation 3. Essentially, they’ve figured out what everyone else knew almost a year ago.
Don Mattick, senior VP of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division, recently told Business Week that even with the new Xbox 360 price drop, they don’t figure that they’re in any place to catch Nintendo at this point. And let’s face it, the Wii is essentially a Benjamin factory for Nintendo these days.
Even though the rumors have been all over this for months, Microsoft finally confirmed that the 360 is dropping in price.
Here is the rundowns of the new pricing, as of September 5th:
Now you won’t feel quite as bad when you get RRoD-ified. Still not as cheap as the Wii, but this probably will make just a few buyers think twice when trying to choose between the two systems. Does this move any of you guys that don’t have one closer to buying?
Source- XBox
