I recently decided to go out and purchase myself a copy of Mass Effect 2 on the PS3 to see what the new engine is like. I've heard mixed things about the PS3 version, ranging from "the best version available" and "pales in comparison to the 360 version", so needless to say, I was intrigued.
No more than just over an hour in and having had experienced multiple frame-rate hiccups, texture issues, sounds delayed in a cut-scene by half a second and what looks to be stiffer animations in general, I also had this happen:



(if embed doesn't work - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5iSretDe3I )

Maybe the Normandy flew too close to the sun and bleached reality? I don't know, I'm not a scientist...
My thought? I think the PS3 version was released a wee bit too early and has a few too many kinks to be ironed out to have been put on store shelves yet.
EA, you're not winning any points with me yet, and it's been many, many years...

I recently purchased myself a copy of "Just Cause 2", and it was like getting kicked 18 times in the lower jaw by a foot called "refreshing". When you play simulators and games that take themselves way too seriously for so long, you begin to forget what games used to be like. They used to be about fun, about adventure, about being aimlessly ridiculous and pleasing the player. There's nothing wrong with all the realism in games today, and you know what? I like it to a degree. But the fact of the matter is that silly, over-the-top games don't come out nearly enough anymore. I can count on one hand games of similar nature, and when compared to all the sim/serious games these days...
Not to forget the bitchin' built in video capture the PS3 version has... Why hasn't every game incorporated that?

Let me demonstrate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmpFM8z-Z7o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JB_nBaD6hc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC80F6wXsc4

Woah!

The engine this game is built on is just BEGGING to be fucked with, explored and experimented on. It's a huge world of silly non-sense action. I for one really hope that a nice hand-full of future game developers take this as an example and we start getting some diversity in gaming again.

How do you all feel about modern gaming?

A new year brings alot of good things. New hope, a long journey, and entirely new slew of possibilities in game announcements. Personally for me, though, the thing I'm looking most forward to is the third season of Breaking Bad. I don't know if many of you have seen the show, but for those of you who have, how're you feeling? A little nervous perhaps? The story certainly is getting pretty thick and harsh.
Anyways, while watching the show, everytime Walter says "We need to COOK!" I always envisioned a wonderful game that mixed two different worlds together. What two worlds you may ask? Well, let me show you.



I've got such a desire in me to attempt getting the rights to do this.

Happy New Year everyone.

Do any of you ever come across character designs or story ideas that are a little TOO similar to other ones like them from either your childhood or a few days ago? I know I do. All the time, infact. Well, I just logged into Steam and got slapped in the face with an almost recognizable image of an almost recognizable character... just aged a little.

Meet The Punisher in 25 years:



Now just to cross reference, meet the Punisher current day:



...hmmmm...

On the same note, I'd like to share a collaged image I made from three different characters that fall under this same blasphemy. I call it "Soap Joseph Sev":



I don't know about any of you, but I'm getting pretty sick of these paper cut-out character designs. I'm sure these bruting roles could use a little more spice. I mean c'mon, Captain America got away with a little extra flare and was still taken pretty damn seriously.



All I'm asking for is a little more creative effort. We've had a few recently, but we've had alot more of the same.

It's no secret that Gamestop is one shady, questionable cult of people who's sole goal in life is to make as much profit as they can squeeze out of desperate gamers. I for one am thankful for Toy-R-Us coming into the trade-in scene, because a little more competition has almost straightened up Gamestop's shady tade-ins. The only problem here is that its come to my attention time and time again that Gamestop has to put out two, sometimes three special deals with trade-ins just to be able to slightly compete with the competitors. For example, last week I was playing with the "trade in six games, get 40% extra!" deal. I grabbed six games, each of different age and obscurity to test this out. I called Gamestop for trade-in prices, looked up the same games on Toys-R-Us tade-in site, and called my local BuyBackGames.

The results:


If you were to be doing these six trades during a month where Gamestop was doing their "trade in 6 games get an extra 40%!" deal, the total would come out to $66.50. And if you had bought an Edge Card prior, you could get a whopping 50% extra, as the card adds an extra 10% to the deal, causing a maximum total of $71.25. That's right, even after adding two special deals on top of their trade in values, it's STILL $10 less than you could get at Toys R Us. But I'd recommend trying out your local independent game store, as they seem to be the most giving this day in age, which is funny to me because I remember when EB Games was in the scene, they put local game stores to shame on trade in credit.

On another note, I just came across another Gamestop deal where if you trade in any two "select titles", you can get a new game for only $60! ($65 after tax).

It may sound semi-tempting until you give it just a simple moment of thought and realize that you'll be giving them back $120 worth of product, and still spending $25 (with tax) on top of that, leading to a grand total of $145 for something that is only $65. That's over double.

I for one am getting pretty sick and tired of Gamestop's ludicrous trade-in program.

(I was asked to put a Warning Spoilers on here, since I reveal some very minor story elements. Nothing too big, however. So there it was. You've been warned.)

There's been something that hasn't settled well with me over the last couple of years while playing military related shooters. This "something" I speak of is the fact that I've played, who I believe to be, the same character in at least three game franchises now. I'm not sure of this character's "actual" name, but he's gone by the code-names of "Joseph", "Sev" and "Soap". I've been hashing out a time-line in order to better understand this man's amazingly huge adventure sprawling between wars, space and the Jurassic. I believe this timeline to be a bit skewed from the order in which we've played his tale, and I also believe the dates we've seen to be a little exaggerated, so I'll go ahead and give a detailed story of how I believe it has happened while trying to avoid plot spoilers. I'll also attach the "photo evidence" of this character that lead to this entire thing.

The first thing that needs to be stated is that while in the story of Modern Warfare, behind the curtain the whole Helghast from Killzone's story is slowly brewing. Remember that...

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare was said to happen in the "near future", so we'll say "near future". Back in "near future" a new soldier fresh to the whole "battle scene" took a bold step into a WWIII like war. He did what one could expect from a solider in a WWIII like scenario and saved the day with a mere pistol. Being a little shy, "Soap" refused to get a photo taken of himself, so we have no real photo-evidence of him in this age, just something close. Well, as we just came to realize with Modern Warfare 2, "Soap" had grown 5 years in age, grew in his badassery and decided to go with a super sleek fohawk. You see, in the last 5 years, "Soap's" confidence had grown significantly and he gladly allowed for photos (I'm guessing it's more or less power from the fohawk). In the end of Modern Warfare 2's story, "Soap" is being hoisted into a helicopter seeking a place to hide as he's now under the "most wanted" listing and the pilot states "I know a place we can go". Well my friends and strange readers, this "place" was no less than with a group of men known as "Wolf Pack" stationed out in middle of no-where. Because "Soap" was a wanted man, he was dressed as such for the symbolism, this being how General Kane liked his new thug recruits introduced. (It's an initiation thing, we wouldn't understand...) "Soap" felt he needed to change his nickname as the government was looking for a "Soap", so he decided to go with a low-key name. He chose "Joseph". Well, years pass and the war on earth escalades to space (as hinted in Modern Warfare 2) "Joseph" and Kane have their little issue so "Joseph" goes to Whiskey Company and they head to space to hunt down Kane. I forgot to mention that Kane had become affiliated with the Russians/Helghast (that's not explained in the story, but it only makes sense). Well, we all know what happens next. Yep. DINOSAURS! That's right, "Joseph" takes on a hoard of Dinosaurs while hunting down Kane as this war just keeps on growing to ridiculous levels in the un-announced background. By this point the Russians had surrendered, leaving the war faced mostly at the Helghast. After "Joseph" kills Kane, he finds that he has been cleared of all charges, as the conspiracy against "Soap" ended years ago, so he heads to space again to the main ISA cruiser airship to be joined in with his new team (with the terribly boring name) "Alpha". By this point "Joseph" has taken alot of blunt force to the head and lost alot of blood, so while trying to recall his old nickname (with not alot of luck), he settles on "Sev", as it's close enough. After we leave "Sev" in the end of Killzone 2, we're not too sure what's to happen to our on-going protagonist, but I'm sure that with that fohawk, everything will end just fine with him.

So, there you have it. That's my new theory that I'm desperately trying to piece together after seeing the photographic evidence that we've been playing the same guy for a while now. I'm also not too sure what the Russians and Helghast were doing fighting together, as they each seemed to be fighting over different things, so I'm guess the Helghast just got word of the airport massacre. That whole scenario seems to upset alot of people...