Why the Playstation 3 has ruled me for 2 weeks...

I have long been a fan of Microsoft's Xbox 360. And yes, I have had one console die on me. It has always been something about the layout of the software. I always felt it was so easy to use. Looking back, this is what I call the Windows Mindset. But this isn't about Microsoft, the 360, or Windows.

I bought a PS3 with backwards compatibility. Not sure why they did away with it in later models, it is a wonderful feature. But wow, talk about an open platform. My wife and I played a few games when we first got it, but mostly I was dying to push the hardware and software to see how far the package would take me. This processor is supposed to be the future, right?

So I installed Linux. I installed Yellow Dog Linux. Don't be fooled, it isn't easy to do. The cell processor runs on a Power PC architecture and is complicated by having 9 (or 8, depending on if you count the system-reserved one) cores upon which to process data. Sadly, Linux dragged, the PS3 only has 256MB of RAM. I don't really understand why they skimped on that, as it seems important. Of course, some would see that as the Windows Mindset speaking (need at least 3 GB of RAM to run Vista).

So the Linux operating system failed. Yet the PS3 still shone for me, like a beacon as I came out of the Xbox 360 fog. Throughout the installation, the PS3 operating system never fought me and waited patiently as I tried to replace him. I backed up the hard drive several times that day, and never had a problem with my (luckily only one) save game. Never any corruption issues, or strange back-end permissions that keep you from doing what you feel you are entitled to do. Why shouldn't I be able to take my songs, save games, or profiles with me to use on a friend's console? I say that because I once removed the hard drive with all my Rock Band 2 songs, and took them to a friend's house. We couldn't access any of the songs. No explanation, just no. I was able to sign into my profile and everything, but could not play the songs. It was maddening.

Here, in the Playstation 3, lies an open and complete platform. Have an emergency? Backup your data. Want to watch a movie? Which genre? Would you like to buy or rent the movie?

Oh, and lastly, I'm glad I waited this long. When the PS3 first came out, I was disgusted by the original Sixaxis feather-weight controller. I'd forget I was even holding the thing. The Dualshock 2, if you didn't know, is the optimal weight.

My one, and last criticism of the PS3 controller is that the x button doesn't seem as pressure sensitive. I say that because Gran Turismo 4 on PS2 had a nice feel to the x button. It was difficult, but I could feather the throttle around turns a little. In the PS3, its all or nothing. Of course, that could just be because I was emulating. I doubt the controller's sensitivity is tuned exactly the same as the PS2 controllers. Some would say, "Declining to step forward is really a step backward."

Halo 3 Special Edition Xbox console

If you haven't already seen it, I suggest you go look at this:



Tell me that doesnt' look amazing. I'm not a drooling typical fan of Halo 3, but the 4-play coop and this kinda thing is well-placed marketing by Bungie/Microsoft. The coloring and contrast of the console is just dead-on.

Yet, the negative part about this is that its just not... all that great. I was hoping that it would be an elite console painted this nice color, but its actually a downgrade. I took this list from Xbox.com's page of features:

• Halo 3 Special Edition Console
• Halo 3 Special Edition Wireless Controller
• Halo 3 Special Edition 20GB Hard Drive
• Halo 3 Special Edition Wired Headset
• Halo 3 Special Edition Gamer Pics and Theme (Exclusive download via Xbox LIVE)
• Component HD AV Cable
• Ethernet Cable
• HDMI Port
• Play & Charge Kit
• Xbox LIVE Silver Membership
• One-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership
• Halo 3 game not included—sold separately

Compared to the Elite, this just doesn't quite cut it for me. Maybe its the missing 120GB hard drive. Put that on one of these, and you have an instant sale to me, your typical customer.

Why not just do this? Make these things customizable? Upgradeable IN STORE. I mean, why should I buy a whole new hard drive just to have my old one sitting around at home. Seems silly. Make it like a sandwich from Subway. I want cucumbers, please, and hold the onions.

World of Warcraft entering a new status:

Its dumb. Seriously, World of Warcraft is really dumb. In fact, its so dumb, I just looked the word dumb up in the thesaurus to better describe it. I can't say its brainless, but I will say it is ill-advised decision to start playing it. Here's a symptom of its now horrid state:

I once went to this "party" (can barely call it a party as all we did was listen to the hostess whine cause she was a dumb bitch, and there was no alcohol around to help me tell her to shut her stupid mouth.). Anyway, about halfway through, I was sitting on the couch, and this new girl comes in, and so now, there are like 6 people at the party, and ya know what they all start talking about?

They start talking about their World of Warcraft characters.

They seriously started talking about their World of Warcraft characters.

Let me say this one more time:
I WAS AT A PARTY AND THESE PEOPLE WERE TALKING ABOUT WORLD OF WARCRAFT.


Needless to say, I'm not friends with any of those people of those people at that party anymore. The game isn't even that good. But I'm a dork, and you don't find me going off to parties, even ones withOUT alcohol, and discussing World of fucking Warcraft, or Forza Motorsports 2. Don't fucking DISCUSS THEM. I just don't get it, I hope the MMO genre dies, or gets a makeover.

I kinda sympathize with the Chinese government with their, "Hey, if you play too many hours on MMOs, we'll send you to prison." Honestly, I knew this other guy who'd rather play WoW than attend the anime club meetings. And this was why he was treasurer. Get a fucking life, I mean, shouldn't you wake up some day and say, "holy shit, I didn't do anything yesterday at all, including not going to class and missing a test and its because of WoW! Maybe I should curb my habit a little bit."

Nope, they don't do that. They end up moving back in with their parents and having "no life" like the South Park episode (now available on Xbox Live if you're interested). If you like WoW, move to China and get arrested, please.

Dreamfall

Fan of the adventure game genre, but never played The Longest Journey? Make a note on May 21st to get Dreamfall: Game of the Year Edition.

With a pricetag of only $30, it is well worth it. Within Dreamfall: GotY Edition are two PC games (the original The Longest Journey and its sequel Dreamfall) and the soundtrack for Dreamfall, which was nominated for an MTV award in 2006. Of course, you could always buy the two games now for $28 at Steam and miss out on the soundtrack (which is pretty much a $20 value by itself including shipping) but considering how most games are costing nowadays, I'd just get the GotY Edition.

Atlus games to obsess over this year

If you've never heard of Atlus, a videogame publisher notorious for their unique and usually hard-to-find games, don't worry. You'll most probably be hearing a lot about them this year, as they will be coming out with 4 RPGs: Etrian Odyssey (DS), Luminous Arc (DS), Odin Sphere (PS2), and Persona 3 (PS2).

Etrian Odyssey seems to be your typical turn-based RPG, but instead of having your map filled in as you explore, you have to draw it yourself. Map icons are available for you to mark off items such as treasure chests, stairs, doors, etc.

In the screenshots you can see how well the handdrawn backgrounds look in the game, and you can also see the 3D-rendered environments looking a bit pixelly but still gorgeously done and interesting.

Then there are the character classes. The characters for this game look so bad ass and yet so cute at the same time. This girl to the left for example. She has a blank look on her face that says, "I can do nothing wrong!" yet you know she wouldn't hesitate to kill you. There are also quite a few male characters in the game who look like psychotic killers (especially the black-haired Alchemist with the twin-blade looking weapon) and those are always fun.

Top reason to get this game: Dominatrixes (known as Female Dark Hunters in the game.) Coming May 15.

Luminous Arc is a strategy RPG, much like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. The character art is beautiful, with clothing styles similar to those of Ragnarok Online and the .hack series. The game uses highly detailed sprites and unique animations for each team-up attack, which vary depending on the character.

Top reason to get this game: Didn't get enough of Final Fantasy Tactics and don't own a PSP (yet anyway). Coming out, according to Gamestop, August 14.

Odin Sphere. The graphics, the animation...amazing. Even Tycho of Penny Arcade fame says so. While this game still has that cute factor similar to that of Etrian Odyssey, there is also sexiness.

This witch garbed in red? Hot. Yes, draw them (whoever they are - probably huge robots with tentacles attached) away with your chain and red lights. Do you see those stockings and high heels? Top reason to get this game right there. Coming out May 22.

Persona 3. I've never played the Persona series before, but it's a good time to start. With a description of "an occult-themed RPG set in a Japanese high school" how can any anime fan resist?

And resisting will be hard to do, as this game is filled with anime-style art and animation. Persona 3 uses a turn-based battle system and although you do all of your fighting at night against bloblike ghouls (like No-Face from Spirited Away) and other monsters, the mood doesn't seem to be too horrific. Upbeat music starts playing once you get into battle and nothing is scary when you're dancing! Although you have to shoot yourself in the head during the game, multiple times even, it isn't suicide at all because this releases a "persona" or a summon that will help you in battle.

Top reason to get this game: Looks really fun if you love anime and have a morbid sense of humor. Coming out Q3 2007.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl for the PC was developed by GSC Game World and published by THQ.

Overview:
After much wait and tons of speculation and hype, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has finally hit the market. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was originally slated to be released a year or two ago, but do to the nature of the game the developers ran into difficulty. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was made with the intent of fusing the FPS and RPG genres into one game. So whats the big deal? Its been done before with Deus Ex and the Morrorwind Series (minus the guns). The difference? A-Life (I'll get into that later). STALKER is a great game that does a terrific job of combining and FPS with and RPG. At times it may have its flaws, but at its heart it is an excellent game that could help change the FPS genre.

Story:

• I don't want to get much into the story in STALKER, but basically you are "The Marked One". A truck that you're riding in wrecks and you wind up in an area called "The Zone". The Zone is around an old nuclear plant that fell out. You suffer from memory loss due to the crash, and the only thing you know is that you were sent to kill someone. In hopes to find out more about yourself you continue this mission, but to do so you have to do things for others to make money and earn their trust/respect. While this sounds simple enough... well its not. The story is a bit hard to follow. When you talk to people, much of the speech has to be read due to a lack of voice acting. This approach, while effective, can be rather dull. Sometimes I just don't feel like reading paragraphs of text, especially not when things are happening around me. This one time i met some guy to find out more about the person I was supposed to kill, but when i started talking to him, a pack of wild dogs attacked, so I didn't get to read the info. When we fended the attack off I went to talk to him again, only to find that was a one time thing... so wtf do i do now?
• Pros: The story is interesting, though definitely not the game's strong point. The RPG type of story is a welcome change to the normal FPS type (Aliens are attacking... save earth). Its also nice that, even though there was a main mission, the story wasn't really linear. There are many side quests to partake in, and the map is free roaming (if you can survive). The game is also long for a FPS. I'm guessing its well over 10 hours of gameplay. There are also 14 different endings (I believe), which is kinda cool if you think about it.
  
• Cons: The lack of voice acting was a bit annoying at times, though definitely forgivable.

User Interface/Environment:

• First I'm going to start with the user interface, the main menu and load screen to be exact. Now, these two things usually are pretty unimportant, but the ones in STALKER are definitely worth a mention. The main menu is surprisingly impressive. A lot of games are either content with just having a basic menu with no "flair" (if you will) or being overly complicated. STALKER's menu however is just right. It's simple, yet interesting. It's hard to make it sound exciting, but take my word for it. The load screen is also visually pleasing. This is important, because when you're waiting for something to load, you're pretty much wasting time, so the least developers can do is make it somewhat pleasing. The in game user interface (i.e. inventory) is what you would expect from a RPG. You have a slots to put your armor and weapons, and you have a weight limit, which affects your stamina. This system works well. Unlike most FPS's you can't carry every weapon you come across, because if you do, you'll be walking the whole game, which sucks if you have a pack of 10 wild dogs chasing you. You'll need to decide what kind of weapons you want to use and what ammo these weapons take. There are also other pickups that are available in the inventory such as med kits, bandages, food, vodka ^_^. The are you are in is called "The Zone". The zone is one massive world, that is pretty much free to roam if you choose. The zone is separated in sections which when crossed initiate a loading screen. While this isn't ideal, its understandable.

• Pros: Large free roaming world with a good variety of scenery. Anything from lightly forested to industrial. Changing time of day (It gets dark at night). Weather patterns. Intuitive inventory system. Beautiful menus and a nice load screen.
  
• Cons: The only con is sometimes the inventory can be buggy, but only kinda. If you right click on an item it brings up a menu that allows you to do something with an object (i.e. use it or drop it). Sometimes, however you have to do this more than once to get a response.
  

Graphics:

• STALKER was slated to come out a few years back, and it shows a bit in the graphics. There is nothing really revolutionary about them. They're probably on par with the graphics in Half-Life 2, maybe slightly less pretty. Don't get me wrong, they're by no means ugly. They just lack that extra polish. Due to the fact that I can't play the game with dynamic lighting (curse my aging rig) I can't accurately comment on how good the graphics can be with lighting effects, but I have everything else maxed, so it can't that big of a difference. The amount of viewable scenery is amazing. Unlike a lot of FPS you can see much more than just down a corridor or across a room. This has to take away from the detail of everything due to a lack of horsepower in many computers (such an mine). Character models and geometry are smooth and their animations are decent. There aren't many decals. When you shoot something you might get some smoke and MAYBE a mark, but rarely. I'm not sure if there is blood splatter, because I haven't done much close quarter fighting yet, but I don't think there is. Body parts don't come off either : ( which isn't present in a lot of games, but would have been a nice addition (I guess this was due to software limitations). Hopefully with the coming of DX10 we'll see this become more common.
  
• Pros: Excellent view distance. Decent models and texturing.
• Cons: Few decals. Graphics overall are a bit dated. No blood or body parts.

Everything Else:

• The system requirements for this game baffled me at first. When i read them I was like... So can I play this or not. The minimum requirements were like Pentium 4 2 ghz or AMD Equivalent with a Radeon 9600 and 512 Mb of ram. The recommended, however was a Core 2 Duo 6400 with a Radeon x1850 and 1 Gig of ram. This is a pretty big difference. I'm not sure why the recommended requirements are so high, but with my Athlon xp 3200 1.5 gigs of ram and 7600gs I can play with all setting maxed except the lighting (I have to use static lighting or my frame rate drops like whoa) at 1240 x 1080 res. and i get a pretty solid 60 frames/second. So if you have an older system and are wondering whether you can run this game, and if so will it look like ass.. don't worry. Most likely you'll be able to run it nicely with a decent visual experience.
• The AI in this game is one of the main features. STALKER has what they call A-life. Unlike many RPGs and FPS games where an NPC's actions are scripted, STALKER features NPC's that do their own thing. They have basic routines programmed, but they don't wait for you to act. If you sat still and did nothing, the world around you would change. For example... One mission I received was to help ward off a bandit attack on an outpost. Not a problem. I left to continue with my primary mission, only to come back a little later to find everyone in the camp dead (there were like 4 of them). This can be somewhat frustrating at times, however, because once you clear an area out, it can soon become occupied by enemies again. When you're running low on health after a tough firefight it would be nice to have somewhere to go to re-evaluate your inventory and take a breather and figure out where you have to go next. It would also be nice to have time to loot bodies, but with enemies always on the move, it can be difficult. I guess this is just part of the realism of the game, which definitely isn't a bad thing.
• The sounds in STALKER are decent. The guns sound good and the environmental effects are nice. The sounds also help let you know where things (be they friend or foe) are. You can hear wild dogs barking in the distance, letting you know to watch out, you can hear footsteps and speech. All of this will help you get a one up on your prey (or assailants). The NPC's however also use sound to find you, so watch the amount of noise you make. Another nice touch is the random speech between other stalkers. A few times when stalkers were sitting around a barrel fire one pulled out a guitar and started playing. This definitely wasn't necessary, but it added a deeper sense of realism and immersion.
  
• S.T.A.L.L.E.R. is difficult. The weapon accuracy in this game are fairly realistic. This means if you're shooting at someone a good ways away with an automatic rifle (set to semi auto of course), the chances of you actually hitting them are VERY slim. This combined with the number of enemies the game throws at you makes it hard to get through some areas. I'm at this one part where I have to get into a base with over 12 enemies outside (I don't know how many are inside), and no matter what I do I get raped. This can be both positive and negative. On one hand it forces you to refine your skills and increases your sense of accomplishment, but on the other it makes you want to break things.
• Pros: Excellent A.I. and A-Life. Good use of sounds, which can be creepy as hell at times (especially underground). Difficulty adds a sense of accomplishment to winning.
• Cons: Confusing system requirements. Can be a bit hard, which can cause aggression towards keyboards and monitors (its always the monitor's fault).

Overall:

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is definitely unlike any FPS I've played before. The RPG elements of the game are an excellent addition, which helps break the common linearity in most FPS games to date. At times S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can be somewhat aggravating, whether it be from too many enemies to take on at once, to sloppy inventory control. These aggravations, however are few and somewhat far between. The games A-Life really shines and increases your immersion into the game. The graphics can be a bit dated, but that was to be expected. Overall S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is worth buying, especially if you like RPGs.
  
• And for the rating:
• Overall (not and average): 8.5
• Not the best game I've ever played, but definitely up there.
• Graphics: 7
• Definitely not the best. Not bad, but it looks like its a couple years old. Pretty cut scenes, however
• Sound: 9
• Sounds was decent and useful.
  
• Gameplay: 10
• Awesome concept. Great A-Life and A.I. controls were tight and the environment (with weather effects and night/day cycle) was superb.
• Replayability: 9
• 14 different ending based on choices you make in game. Would be a 10, but the game itself is so long it might discourage playing it more than 2 or 3 times.

Buy/Rent/Trash: Buy it. If you can wait, wait for the price to drop a bit, but definitely pick this one up.

Mortal Kombat sucking on the Wii

So you know, Mortal Kombat is going to SUCK on the wii.

In this Documentary by Epilepticgaming.com, They explore next generational button-mashing. As Mercy1.0 would attest, just the day before this was released, I was complaining about how inCREDibly terrible this is for gaming. Here's the Link:
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/10697

Anyway, if you don't want to watch it, I'll summarize. They're trying to kill you. They're trying to rape your skillz. Instead of actually being skillful, you can now make masterful moves just by holding a button and swinging the controller around in a weird way. "Move the controller left and right to shoot a laser while holding B." That.... is bad. This is why I hate the Wii Controller. I enjoyed playing excite truck, but this is bad. bad bad bad. Now, instead of pressing "Down, forward, B", you just move the controller left, and then right.

So, you can envision it from this point on, fighting someone in Mortal Kombat on the wii, it will be something like this. Your friend will just hold b and swing the controller around violently and probably kick the shit out of you.

Guitar Hero 2 and Japanese News by Mercy1.0

Oh wow, Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360 seems like *such* a ripoff. $90 for the game and the controller, and if you want to buy songs from GH1 it's $6.25 for 3 songs. The price is a bit steep, considering each song would be 2 bucks and some cents for material that's already available, just on another system. Also, if it's to be believed that they're working on a Guitar Hero III (for Xbox360, Wii, and PS3) will they really be working on NEW downloadable content for GH2?

Ouendan 2 is apparently coming out in Japan during the month of May. Some of the music videos linked above are hilarious, especially Hirai Ken's Pop Star. Japanese people are crazy, but their craziness is so tasty. Who else would ever think of putting frosting on a stick and calling it Pocky?

Written by Mercy1.0

Xbox 360 Elite harddrive complaints

I'm not going to tell you what you're going to do. You're going to stop complaining about the Xbox 360's hard drive being so expensive.

You want more space? But they 20 GB one and follow the instructions on my previous post.
Xbox360 Hard drive upgrade.

Yeah, do that. Get a 320GB SATA drive and pop it into the 20GB chassis and you're fine. no bothers, no worries, just fine. I really don't see this as being difficult.

The Wii Controller

After much fiddling and thought, I have decided that I don't like the Wiimote. I'm sorry, I just... don't like it.

What it really comes down to for me is that you can't use all the buttons. I mean, how many times have you fiddled around trying to reach down and press one of the buttons at the bottom? How many times have you accidently pressed the home button or the A button? Why do developers only use the triggers? Have you ever thought about it?

Its because really, those triggers are the only useful things on the controller.

Also, the aiming. It irritates me. Its not so much aiming as it is guessing. I can't look down the controller and say "Boom, headshot" (Credit to PurePwnage for the quote), because the controller doesn't aim where you aim it. I feel like the whole infra-red thing is bullcrap and that why do we need some silly bar to be on the top or the bottom? Why can't it be a strap that hangs down over the sides and has one infra-red signal on each side of the screen?

But really, can you imagine playing Spiderman with the Wii? How are you going to handle doing all that? I remember playing Spiderman 2 and wanting to sprint up a wall after webslinging. You'd have to let go of like L1, hold L2, and press Circle to do it, and the thrill of it was AMAZING. It took SKILL to web sling into a sprint up the side of a 30 story building and not die. Well, maybe not die, but fall happily with a heavy thud into the pavement (I can't tell you how many times I jumped from the highest buildings to fall flat on the pavement, just for the pure rush of motion-blur and speed as the ground approached. :) )

Anyway, please leave your comments on the Wii Controller, you're welcome to disagree. Maybe I'm overlooking something...

Mexican Police Strikes Back!

Read about this crazy stunt the Mexican Police is pulling.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3158305


Someone brought up a good point though. While it does SEEM to be a good idea, its actually a horrible idea because the people that now win these things will just be killed by the people who do own the guns. Or, they'll buy more guns to protect what they have. Either way, it seems silly.

Here comes the Glory of Microsoft. Straight from France, the news is "Xbox 360 loves you". Underneath the link, there is a beautiful video about how while the PS3 was releasing, Microsoft's local marketing director decided that they were going to have some fun. They rented a barge and floated it down the nearby canal and really stole the PS3's show.

If you don't already know, PS3 is now worldwide. Yippee, yeah, whatever.

N00b Pwnage = Pure

This should be a link to PurePwnage. If it doesn't work, just google PurePwnage, and you'll find it. This is a hardcore site about n00bs and pwning their n00by little holes. N00bs are the 3vil.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid263813119/bctid301961300

Forza Two Chair of Destiny

Ummm, please tell me I can have this. I want it. Surround sound speakers, triple screens, foot-pedals, steering wheel, oh man.

also three 360s, not to mention the 3 hi-def flat screens. This is looking like $8000.00 of merchandise. If I'm ever rich, one of these is going into my house.

Pre-Counter-Injunction!

With what I'd like to call a Pre-Counter-Injunction, Take Two Interactive sued Jack Thompson on March 13th. You may know Take Two better as the people who brought you Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series.

A link to the PDF of the actual suit lies here:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/images/legal/FL-T2-JT.pdf

For those of you who don't like to read Legal Jargon, I'll summarize it into simple terms.

Take Two is suing Jack Thompson to prevent him from suing them. I know, it sounds silly, but that is really exactly what it is. Previously, JT (Referred to as "He-who-must-not-be-named" on popular sites like 1up.com) had sued them for being a nuisance to society, and had been rejected time and time again.

Take Two's grounds for preventing JT from filing anything against them in the future is that he is trying to shut down their right of expression (First Amendment). They then proceed to say that if JT ever did win, the gaming industry would enter an irreparable period of self-censorship where ALL the game developers would then try to avoid being sued for their expressions of creativity. Take Two says this is a direct encroachment on their rights.

They then drop a long list of cases that have occurred in the past relative to this case.

Lastly, they say that JT has not pursued any of his previous cases, and seeks only to play around and cause financial harm to a company that is simply pursuing a freedom of expression that many other mediums of communication have obtained. They refer to violent books, movies and even newspapers.


And there you have it. Under the cover of Due Process and Freedom of Speech, Take Two is claiming JT has no right to attempt again to delay the release of the creative and expressive content of their games. They are also claiming that Florida's nuisance laws are silly, but thats kind of a hidden thing.

For more information, visit
fuck-tard.ytmnd.com

Which company is Game Development's best friend?

The answer may surprise you.

Some of you may know what this is, and if you don't, you're about to find out.

XNA is a Game Development platform designed by Microsoft. It can create games for both the Xbox360 and the PC at the same time. No porting required. When Microsoft originally made promises to fill the Xbox Live Arcade with new original games, they did not lie. Instead, they just announced it a little too early.

While development kits for its rivals, Sony and Nintendo, tend to cost a lot, XNA Game Studio costs almost nothing. I say almost, because compared to the HUUUGE costs of competitors development kits, this IS nothing. You can develop games that will work on the PC for free, but have to join a Creators Club for $100 dollars a year. That's cheap.

Nothing else compares to what Microsoft has done here. This makes available to ANYONE who has motivation, the full tools to create an Xbox360 game (well, maybe only for the arcade, but there's still money).

Want a list of what you need?
To develop for PC:
Have Visual C# Net installed, and you can get an express version for free.
Download and install XNA Game Studio Express - $0
Knowledge of the C language.

To develop for the 360:
Have Visual C# Net installed.
Download and install XNA GSE.
Join Creator's Club -$99
Knowledge of C language.

Yar? Now go make some games for me.

Second Life

I'm going to try out this game that's new to me called Second Life.


Its basically... a world, I dunno, its crazy. And free. :P MMO

Just check it out:
Join Second Life.

Forza Motorsport 2 Preview

Forza Motorsport 2 is being developed and published by Microsoft for the Xbox 360. Planned release date is May 2nd, 2007. I expect this to be pushed back.


My first experience with Forza Motorsports series was with the XBox version of it. Of course, it was the only version to have ever existed, so its pointless to delineate which version it was. Anyway, my friend had come over, and he was addicted to Grand Turismo for the PS2.

We went to Blockbuster to look for Grand Turismo, assuming they would have one of the most popular racing games of all time... No, apparently not. I saw Forza Motorsports there, and was like, "Hmm, I've heard good things about this one, wanna give it a try?"

We took it home, and I loved it immediately. The controls were quick to learn, and hard to master (accelerator and brake on the rear pressure-sensitive triggers). To my friend, this was a complete departure from the accelerator and brake buttons of X and O. To me, it was <3.

On to the Preview!
You may hear me say how much Forza was love for me. I loved the non-linear layout and the way you could accomplish and complete races in the way you chose, with the car you chose, at the time you chose, and no sooner. I loved the pressure-sensitivity of the triggers, and how accurate they were. How does this carry over to Forza Motorsports 2?

This game was designed physics up, creating a more realistic racing game than ever before. They've included damage, layers upon layers of customization, beautiful graphics, and a unique money system.

First off, they took the original layout of non-linear play, and just built on top of the already successful formula, which is gold to me. Looking to race the heavyweights, and don't really care about the lightweights? Well, you don't HAVE to finish the lightweights, you can play heavyweights whenever you want.

Next, they increased the damage modeling of the cars, INCLUDING persistent pieces of your car on the track after they are knocked off. You can see this at minute 1:30.

Gamevideo.com

The layers upon layers of customization (minute 5:35 in the video) include thousands of layers on each side of the car. If I wanted to put a body vinyl, and then a decal, and then a decal on top of that, with a nice blue color highlighting it, you can do that.

Also, the player interaction is phenomenal. Everything from AMAZING force feedback (I suggest Microsoft's wheel, it has received GREAT reviews, and is wireless) to the console's networking ability to output to three monitors a surround view of the game (minute 4:10 in the video). I highly suggest you check it out.

Anyway, as I said before, the game is THE racing game. Grand Turismo comes nowhere close in terms of horsepower, capability, sustainability, and replayability.

Review - Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)

I've loved the Castlevania series ever since I experienced the pixelated, hanging nuns on the NES. The sad thing is, I haven't played a new Castlevania title since the Castlevania 64. That is until I got my hands on Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS. I needed a good platformer and I had heard good things about PoR, so I picked up a copy. That was the beginning of the end for me, as I've been hopelessly addicted ever since. Allow me to explain.

I'm a sucker for leveling, which has lead to past addictions with
RPGs and the like. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin combines the classic
whip-weilding, vampire killing action fans have come to love, with RPG
elements that allow your characters to grow stronger as the game
progresses. Anyone who's played last year's DS title, Dawn of Sorrow,
will recognize the system. It's all really basic: you kill enemies,
earn EXP, and your stats increase. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it
adds depth to the game.

The game takes place when Johnathon Morris and Charlotte Aulin, the
story's protagonists go to the newly raised Dracula's Castle to slay
the legendary fiend. Instead they encounter a different vampire named
Brauner, who has taken control of Dracula's castle with the magic
power of several paintings located throughout the building. While
leaping into portraits and exploring the worlds within (a la Mario
64), you'll come across a helpful ghost, named Wind (who played a role
in the Genesis classic, Castlevania Bloodlines); Brauner's two vampire
daughters, Stella and Loretta; Dracula's right-hand man, Death; and an
item-selling priest named Vincent.

As noted above, This time around you control two characters:
Johnathon, your whip/other melee weapon using protagonist, and his
magic-weilding sidekick, Charlotte. You can control either character
individually, switching between the two characters by pressing X, or
control both at once (really basic AI controls whoever you're not).
Both characters share HP and EXP, and the system allows for the
occasional puzzle. The main idea is that some enemies are weak against
certain weapon classes or spells, but if you have a strong enough
melee weapon equipped for Johnathon, it's easy to overwhelm an enemy's
physical defense. I only ever used Charlotte when one of her spells
came in handy to heal or access a secret area. Also, if you have
enough magic points, you can execute a Marvel Vs. Capcom-style combo
attack, in which your two characters will team up to bring the pwnage
to whatever unfortunate ghoul you're fighting.

PoR is addictive, but it's definitely not perfect. After beating
the first four levels, you get the pleasure of playing through them
again with rearranged rooms, tougher enemies, and different bosses.
I've never been a fan of recycling levels or bosses, but it wasn't a
huge problem for me here, because it meant fighting enemies with more
EXP and better item drops. Nonetheless, it felt like a cop-out, and
I'd have liked to have seen some added original levels. Speaking of
originality, the 4 levels that get recycled are a town (that might be
the town surrounding the castle), a pyramid, a carnival/funhouse, and
a wooded area/academy. I thought the pyramid and funhouse were
especially out of place, generic level concepts, but like I said
before, I was too busy hacking away to be too bothered.

There were a couple things that did annoy me, however minor they
might be. The first of which is the fact that item pickups (with the
exception of enemy-dropped items) are unique. Once you pick up an
item, that's it. The problem here, is that some of the optional quests
require finding one or several of these items. I came across a couple
and sold them before the quests opened up, and now there's no way to
complete those quests without knowing someone who has the game,
getting them to link up, and buying the items from them(via the wifi
shop mode), but then they'd be S.O.L. Also, in order to find much of
the game's secrets, you need to destroy breakable walls, floor, and
ceilings to access hidden areas. These breakable walls look no
different from any other surfaces, however, so without a certain rare
item, you literally need to attack every surface in the castle and its
levels if you want to conquer all PoR has to offer.

So, it's got a few little problems, but in terms of sheer fun,
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin has turned out to be the best game I've
played on the DS. The 2D graphics are pretty basic, but the animations
are all top notch, with quality backgrounds and the occasional 3D
enemy or effect. The voice work is also well done, though hearing each
character yell the others' name every time you switch can get old. As
for the music, it's standard Castlevania fare...it's all moody and
atmospheric, but isn't as memorable as some of the older titles.

If I were to rate PoR on an out of 10 scale I'd give it an easy 9. If
they had put a little more work into the level designs, thought of the
annoying little quirks, and made the 2-character gameplay a necessity,
this game would be perfect. Also, I should note that the touch screen
capabilities aren't used at all in the main game, with the action
taking place on the bottom screen, and maps and enemy and character
stats on the top screen.

Here's a video of some in-game action that does a pretty good job of showcasing the game.

Verdict - Buy this game 9/10

XBOX 360 promoting PS3 down under?

Microsoft's Xbox 360 was apparently used to promote the Playstation 3 recently by an Australian electronics store called Harvey Norman.
As you can see by the photograph, there's a cardboard cutout sitting overtop something in a pretty display case. Because Australia hasn't actually received any PS3s yet, this is the only way to advertise, apparently.

Its unknown as to what exactly the Xbox 360 is doing underneath the display cutout. Is it promoting Xbox360 games as Playstation 3 games? Are they using it to play videos about how wonderful the PlayStation 3 is? They may as well sell the Xbox 360 and give up on the PS3, but that's just my opinion if they are this desperate.

The photo and information was taken from Xbox360Fanboy's blog site at http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/02/15/ps3-kiosk-can-you-spot-the-360/