I gotta say, a few weeks after Halo 3 came out I was thinking I would be seeing a lot more maps that really blew me away but it didn't really. People were still mainly focused on just playing the damn game so I got a little overboard on that part. But this video changes all that.

The map you see above is a forge map called "The Falcon" which is based in the Halo 3 map Avalanche. Now, you may be wondering, why "The Falcon?" Well I'll tell you why. There's a huge freaking ship made out of crates and huge boxes floating in the center of the map, and you guessed it, the ship is called "The Falcon."

The map is basically designated for Capture the Flag. The attacking team starts a little ways away from The Falcon with a huge arsenal of weapons to choose from. The defending team is tucked safely away in The Falcon in a somewhat average sized room where the flag stands. Now you may be thinking that the fact that they made a ship out of a bunch of crates and such in Forge is amazing, what's even better is the little things.

You enter the Falcon via teleporter on the roof (as well as another about halfway between the starting point and the ship) which connects to one in the room with the flag, but there are also three other teleporters on the corners of the room that lead to little passage ways with every gun in the game. Pretty snazzy, eh?

My personal favorite part, is that if by some means the attacking team grabs the flag and somehow gets it off the ship through the clusterfuck of rockets that must be going off, the defending team have multiple ways to chase after them. There are some Mongooses (Moongosi?) tucked safely away in the corner of the room, which have a small opening for you to easily drive out to the outdoors and make chase. On the backside, you can jump down a little opening to grab a warthog which also has an opening to easily go out and chase after the SOB that just took your flag. But if you're looking for some major firepower, there's a Scorpion tank on the bottom of the ship that you reach via Gravity Lift on the ground.

This map is unbelieveable and I really think we should try this out on FNF sometime.

As a follower of the GTA IV obsession over the past couple weeks, I find the above video to be a real knee-slapper. To be honest, it's just a montage of some great Niko deaths in Liberty City as well as a little bit of time dedicated to some great driving on sidewalks.

My policy is not to just post random videos without some solid reasoning behind it, but fuck it. This video is seven kinds of funny.

Well the release of GTA IV has come and gone and while I'm still playing the crap out of it, it's time to find a new game to drool over in the meantime. And what better game than Spore. As I posted with my last blog, the Creature Creator is being released June 17th, 3 months before the full retail game so you can start populating the world before you even get your hands on the final game.

The above video is a 12 minute demo walkthrough with Jason Ocampo (formerly of Gamespot) who is the Editor-In-Chief of IGN PC creating his very first creature on the near final build of the Creature Creator. He makes possibly one of the ugliest (while somehow adorable) creatures I have ever seen made in the game.

The game looks incredible and I can't wait to get my hands on it. A demo is also being released along side the Creature Creator on June 17th. The demo is completely free, while the Creature Creator is going to be $10 (or at least I'm 99% sure) via the Spore official website. And for those of you who are wondering, you CAN use the creatures you make in the creature creator when you pick up the retail version of the game which is supposed to hit shelves on September 7th.

From the genius mind of Will Wright brings us to his next awesome fantastic awesome new project, Spore. We already know ALL about this game and how it will give you the power to take a tiny little spore and keep building and building until you have the power to conquer the galaxy. Yeah, it sounds hot.

We also are all aware that it's hitting shelves in September, but Wright has said in previous interviews that they will be releasing the Creature Creator a couple months before the release date so they can populate the servers with the user created species. It has recently been announced that not only will the Creature Creator be hitting the interwebs June 17th, but also a full fledged demo.

To crush some of your dreams, the Creature Creator will be available on the Spore website for the low low price of $9.99. But of course, the demo will be open to everyone who has a simple internet connection and will cost the very very low price of free.

[via The Feed]

I’m here to explore as to why and when gamers got the stereotype that if they play video games everyday, they are nerdy. Why were gamers stuck with such a label? Why not intelligent, artistic, or even dead sexy?

It’s safe to say when the NES came out in 1985 in the US and you got it for Christmas, you were easily the coolest kid on the block. Hundreds…no, thousands of kids would come across the land to see top of the line technology. Imagine, no longer do you have to take your lazy ass out of your home to a nearby arcade because now you can just walk into your family room and play some Bible Adventures.

Some of the features were things people had never seen before in such a small “box.” Not only could you have regular games like Donkey Kong or Super Mario Bros. but you could play some Duck Hunt with a badass light gun. Unbelievable.

This attitude continued onto Nintendo’s other successful platforms such as the SNES, Virtual Boy (besides the fact it burned out people’s retinas), and the N64.

In my opinion, I believe this whole “nerd” phase began right around the releases of the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox. These platforms offered an uncanny amount of realism to your home television and many people who had grown up on the NES and SNES now had jobs and didn’t quite have time for these new consoles. Additionally, people who loved the simple arcade like games such as Space Invaders or Missile Command on some of the older consoles found these new 3D games like Metal Gear Solid and Halo a little too technical and lost interest.

Around this shift in generation of gamers is right about where the nerds started playing video games.

Games were no longer mindless and easy to play (some were, but few). Many required some serious thought on how to maneuver through the world with a more complicated control style and difference in HUD and interface. With realism, comes a lot more things that you must look out for. Whether it’s where your enemies are flanking you from, or other cars on the race track trying to pass you, some games required serious focus and attention.

So doesn’t it make sense? Smart kids, AKA nerds, are good at video games because they are able to take everything in that is going on and able to make quick decisions on what to do next. Well, yes and no. Sure many “nerdy” kids played video games, but wasn’t that a way to escape school from kids who constantly made fun of them? In some ways yes it was.



What people seem to forget is that video games are just damn fun. What’s so hard to understand about that? If you enjoy doing something, aren’t you going to do it again? Especially if it offers something new and fresh every time you try it.

I’m not saying being nerdy is a bad thing. Hell, I usually consider myself a nerd for the exact reasons I’m listing here, but I think it’s wrong that if someone were to tell another person that they play video games, that person is instantly typecast as a nerd.

Let’s say for instance, you enjoy reading books. Books seem nerdy, right? So why don’t people who read get typecast as a nerd? Oh I get it, if you read, you’re intellectual, not a nerd. Makes sense. Not really. In some ways, video games can offer a serious amount of reading (have you heard of a game called Final Fantasy?) and other kinds of mind strengthening exercise. Hell, there’s a game out now that is solely based on making you smarter, and you wouldn’t imagine it, but it’s fun. (Thank you Dr. Ryuta Kawashima)



It’s wrong to stereotype gamers as nerds (or if your Jack Thompson, cold-blooded killers) because games offer one of the best forms of entertainment in history, not to mention a multimillion dollar industry. Gaming is not a lifestyle, it’s a damn hobby. And that’s all it will ever be. Sure we hear about the World Series of Games and people getting paid to play games, but honestly, I would be surprised to see someone start playing in the World Series of Games because it pays the bills. They start because they think it’s fun.

As I stated earlier, I’m not implying being nerdy is bad, I’m merely bringing up the fact that gamers are not all nerds. This isn’t a write-up to bring about a change. My voice just needs to be heard.

I got the idea for this after listening to last weeks RetroforceGO! and Dyson brought up for maybe one second, “Remember when consoles came with two controllers?” And you know what? Yes, I do remember. What happened to that? Why can’t we play with our friends?

Please, have a seat and keep reading. No, not there. Yes, there.

I don’t remember when I last didn’t have to buy an additional controller with the system I was purchasing. Back in the day, it was always me and my brother going out to buy an N64, PS1, Gamecube, etc. and since it was the two of us, we ALWAYS had to buy a second controller.

If I could reference RetroforceGO! again, I have to agree with Chad when he was happy that the Wii continued the box-in game with Wii Sports. Yes, that was awesome. Sure later versions of the 360 had Need for Speed Most Wanted, Forza 2, whatever in them, but nothing came with it on its initial release date. And I totally agree that all companies should continue to do that but that’s never actually gone away like the dual controllers in the box have. I’m already trailing off, but my blog post is not about in-games, it’s obvious we should include a game with the system.



I know there must be a lot of people who don’t buy a second controller when buying a game system but all the friends I have that’s the first thing they buy with the system (and of course a game). When you get a next-gen console, or any new console, the first thing I do (and I would think a lot of other people) is call up some friends and invite them over to play it. What the hell am I going to do? “Hey guys, watch me play my awesome system and be super jealous!” No, I want my friends in on the action killing some bitches.

Same goes with online. If you got a friend over and you see another one of your friends is on Xbox Live or Playstation Network, you’re going to be like “hey we should totally join his game and play with him.” But none of that will happen if you don’t have a second controller.

Yes, it may be a bit costly for the companies to include two controllers with the system, but it would be an incredible business move. “Well we can get the Xbox 360, but the PS3 comes with two controllers which is a pretty good deal.” Or vice versa. It’s simple, all companies want to be as customer friendly as humanly possible so there’s NO reason for them not to start packaging two controllers in the box.

C’mon M$, Sony, and Nintendo, it’s not so hard.