Hey guys, just wanted to post pictures and some videos of the Christmas City of the North Parade and the BragGame Rights float. It pretty much looked awesome.





























Tell me what you think of them.

Borderlands, the latest combination of FPS and RPG genres since Fallout 3. Personally, I haven't been able to get into Fallout 3, but Borderlands is much easier to get into. The learning curve isn't so big. When you pick up the controller, the button mapping feels a lot like the Call of Duty games, showing that it put the FPS genre before the RPG genre. I had to change my button mapping on the PS3 because I can't stand R2 to be the "shoot" button. That just doesn't compute in the Playstation mind. So I changed it to the only configuration that has R1 as the "shoot" button.



[b]Borderlands (PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3(reviewed))
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: October, 20th 2009
MSRP: $59.99
BGR Price: $57.49[/b]

You start off in a bus, your character selection screen and you have a choice between Roland, The Soldier; [color=violet]Lilith, The Siren[/color]; Mordecai, The Hunter; or Brick, The Berserker.
Roland specializes in increasing bullet damage and also serves as the team's medic, if available. His special ability is to spawn a turret.
[color=violet]Lilith has the ability to be more specialized in elemental bonuses. Her special ability is to "Phase Walk," which means she basically turns invisible.[/color]
Mordecai specializes in sniping. His abilities increase his accuracy with sniping. His special ability is to summon Bloodwing, his hawk, to attack an enemy. This can become very useful when you get surrounded by lots of enemies.
Brick

I chose Mordecai, the Hunter. He's difficult to play in the early stages of the game, but once you start leveling up and upgrading weapons, he becomes a very fun character to play. Getting headshots becomes so gratifying, especially when the enemies also have no head after the headshots. "BOOM HEADSHOT!!!"



I did not complete the game, but I did become level 21. I was able to get to the next "world" which then ramped up the difficulty by quite a bit. The Arid Badlands became decently easy after I hit level 15 or so. There were a few places that had bad guys that were a couple levels higher than me, but they became easy with the better and better weapons that you came across.



The terrain, however, had it's fair share of glitches. There were numerous times where a part of the terrain glitch out and block my shot of an enemy. The "deaths" weren't really what I was looking for, but they had a great idea with that. Every death you have, you respawn at a "New-U" station, while having to pay a price (I think it's about 10% of your money). Everyone who is dead at that point, is still dead, but if you had an enemy down to 1/4 health or so, they'll be full health again. The nice thing with the deaths though, is that it doesn't pass any time. It's instantaneous.



Claptrap has got to be my favorite character though. For as much as most people hate him, I love the fact that he can get the cheap laughs from people. Here's a video of the main menu of the game, which has a bunch of Claptrap's antics.



I stopped playing the game only because I had to return it. The game was a lot of fun, really addicting, and I had an all around good time playing it.

I would recommend that anyone who is a fan of Fallout 3 to get this game. The game does a great job at sucking people in right at the beginning of the game.

Rating: Shadow

With the recent acquirement of a PS3, I played Uncharted 2 and found the game to be just as amazing as all the reviews said. For those of you who haven't seen the Playstation 3 commercial that has Uncharted 2 in it, here it is. It pretty much sums it up.



When I wasn't busy fapping over Chloe and Elena, I was able to notice how truly amazing this game is. Again, having it be the first game that I played on the PS3 probably isn't the fairest thing in the world, but I don't care. Don't worry, no spoilers will be given.



[b]Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Playstation 3 (Reviewed))
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: October, 13th 2009
MSRP: $59.99[/b]

The first thing that I loved was I popped in the game, hopped onto my computer (thinking it was going to take forever for the game to install), looked up to see if it had gotten to the install screen yet, and it was already at the Main Menu. THERE'S NO PS3 MANDATORY INSTALL!! The game starts off with you on a train hanging off of a cliff. It follows the same beginning as Bioshock in regards to the fact that it's not obvious that you now have control of your character. This is your tutorial.



The next part of my fapping contest was the character models. Not only were they very detailed, but they changed with the environments as well. I noticed that when I walked into a puddle, Nathan Drake's pants were wet about up to the ankles. Same thing happened when I walked in snow. The witty comments that Drake says are great to hear every once and a while. They aren't over done, and it keeps reminding you that you're actually playing a character, rather than a character model on a screen. There's a joke that I legitimately laughed hysterically. I jumped into a pool and was swimming around, just to be funny, and Drake kept yelling "Marco." After a little bit, Chloe finally responds with "Polo." There are also the times when the scene gets really tense, and you hear Drake yell "no no no NO NO NO!" which makes you feel a little more tense. I could go even more into detail, but I don't want to accidentally give spoilers. So, just play the game, and you'll pick up on what I'm talking about



Level design was AMAZING! The detail and expansiveness of the levels left me boggled. My only complaint is in some of the "puzzle" (climbing) stages in the game, there are textures that you think you can climb, but when you jump for them, you end up falling to your death. This was probably the 2nd common reason why I died. Most of the time, it's pretty obvious where you're supposed to go, but there are also the times where you have no idea, and you just start jumping randomly trying to figure out where he can and can't jump onto. Rather high falls kill Drake instantly, so be careful to not drop from too high up. But the fluidity of the climbing worked really well in my mind. There were the few glitches, but no game can be "perfect."



Negatives: For as detailed as this game is (which usually means lots of things are wrong), this game doesn't have many negatives. But I'll touch on a few of them. For one, the cover mechanic has the same flaws as it does in Gears of War (the magnetic stick, and having the game guess what you want to take cover behind), which killed me a lot in the game. Another issue is the inconsistency in the guns and AI. There were a ton of times where I'd be in the middle of a melee combat with an enemy, and another AI walks up, stares at us for a little bit, then instantly kills me by shooting me with a shotgun. Then there's also the weapon issues. For one, an enemy can take a full magazine of bullets, and still live; but the Pistole and Desert Eagle (which I found to be one of my favorite guns in the game) kill almost instantly. The final boss battle was pretty lame, once you figured out what you were doing (although I do have to say it got the adrenaline pumping when I almost died 5 times in it). The story following it was funny, but not too great.

The game took me just about 11 hours to beat on normal. There is also the Hard and Crushing difficulty. But this game has multiplayer too, which adds some replay value to it. I didn't have a chance to play it much, but I played it when the Beta was out, and I really liked it. I can't really go too much more into detail until I play it more.

Final Note: If you own a PS3, buy the game. If you don't own a PS3, buy a PS3 then buy the game.

Rating: Super Shadow

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Gamers have gotten a really bad reputation in the past few years. Why? You ask. Well, consider this situation: There’s a school shooting. The police go through everything that this kid owns. They come across Call of Duty, or Halo, or Killzone, etc. What are they going to assume? They’re going to assume that it was the game that influenced him to kill innocent people. Educated psychologists then automatically assume that kids can’t tell the difference between real life and the virtual life caused by the video game. The most famous debate in recent years is the infamous “Mass Effect Sex Debate” where the game Mass Effect was unfairly criticized of having “full digital nudity.”

For the few people who haven't seen the video yet, here's the video:


Games have been the scape goat for everything that’s gone wrong in society in recent years. Society complains about a naked digital person, where you can only see their back side, but you don’t hear anything about movies like Zack and Miri Make a Porno, where the entire movie is like a pornographic film. Not saying that this movie didn’t attract its own controversy, but it didn’t make news like Mass Effect did. I’m just saying that the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is doing its job, it’s up to parents to ultimately keep M (Mature) rated games out of 8 year olds’ hands. People complain about games that “should get the AO (Adults Only) rating.” Facts show that as of August ’07, only 25 games have the AO rating. Most games tone down its content to get the, more sellable, M rating.

What really bugs me is the fact that the media doesn’t judge games and movies in the same way. Not saying that they should be, considering they’re completely different, but people are freaking out about slight nudity in a game, while no one will say anything about the equivalent rated movie with full frontal nudity.

News programs and newspapers alike both say that games increase aggression in children. In my opinion, they actually decrease it. Consider this example: You come home from a bad day of work. You’re stressed and angry. You feel like you want to hurt someone. Would you rather grab a shotgun and go to work to kill people there? Or would you rather go online and play some Call of Duty 4 and kill virtual things on there, and avoid jail time.

Society is resistant of admitting that video games are now expanding into the adult category. Most people in the news say “Games are meant for children.” This was the case ten years ago. Now, adults are gaming because they grew up with video games. The group of 18 – 25 year olds grew up with video games, so obviously they’re going to bring that into adulthood, which calls M rated games, and even AO games, into demand. If you were to equate video games to movies, the ratio of M rated games/R rated movies to E rated games/G rated games are equivalent. R rated movies are in huge demand, because there are more people who see movies that are 17 years old and older than are under 17. The same can be said for video games.

There are a few big names that have some controversy that aren't new games. Those games are Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D, and Doom. Wolfenstein 3D has been banned in Germany. Here are the screenshots with why they're controversial (if it's not obvious):

Wolfenstein 3D (For implementing so many Nazi symbols)


Duke Nukem 3D (For being so sexual)


Doom (For being so gory)


But being older, they aren't brought up at all. But for the most part, some of them are worse than current games. But 10 years ago, games weren't taken as serious as they are now.

Anyone who wants to discuss this further, or point out something that I forgot, can post in the comments.

Hey guys, just wanted to let anyone know that BragGame Rights will be at PAX this year. They'll be sharing a booth with Tritton (I believe). Coy will be there along with Master Chief, Joshua, and Parnell, expanding his empire, selling his brain child, the BGRmods flexboard. Click on the link for more info about the turbo mods. Coy will be selling the flexboards for $20-$30 (I'm not sure what his final price is). So check out the booth, visit some of the BGR staff, get some cheap modded controllers, and earn some BragGame Rights.

Ok, first of all I'm going to say that I'm not intending this to take any business away from any related businesses, this post is meant just to get the name out there to more of the public. I figured since there are a ton of users on Destructoid, this would be the best way to get this company's name out there.



BragGame Rights is a BRAND NEW gaming store that opened in Duluth, Minnesota last August, owned by Coy Christmas (yes, that is his real last name). We are located across the street from a Gamestop and a Best Buy and we're holding our own in game sales. BragGame Rights is almost exactly like Gamestop in the fact that we buy and sell new and used games, but our nitch is the fact that our motto is "Try before you buy," meaning we have 20 gaming stations with 46" TVs, Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360s in each station. It's $7.50/hour to play, and we are usually filled up completely on weekends. If you decide that you are going to game a lot during a month's period of time, you have the option of purchasing a $10 Monthly Membership. This gives you reduced rates for gaming ($5/hr on weekends and $3/hr on weekdays), 10% more on trade-ins, and 10% off of used games. There's even a Summer Membership that will cost you $25 for the summer, and you'll only have to pay $3/hr. ANY day that you come in. We hold birthday parties for up to 15 people for $185.00. Making it one of the less expensive birthday ideas, and one of the most unique. Lock-ins are also an option for the people who just can't sleep. You are required to rent out the entire store in order to hold a lock-in, but pizza will be provided, courtesy of BragGame Rights. There are also mini tournaments that are usually held throughout the night. Where you can win anywhere from cans of pop to a FREE Tritton AXPRO Headset (depending on the intention of the lock-in).

The tour of BragGame Rights with Coy Christmas (Filmed by BoZack):


We also sell our new games for less than either store. For example, a new copy of Prototype hits the shelves at all 3 places, Best Buy and Gamestop sell it for $59.99, BragGame Rights sells it for $57.49 and BragGame Rights guarantees the games for LIFE. That's the way it goes with ALL new games. Our used prices also follow the same pattern. We are also the ONLY place in the area that's able to buff Blu-Ray discs. BragGame Rights also is certified to repair next gen consoles. Weekly, we get about 5+ Xboxes in. If you so choose, you can ship your Xbox 360 to us (if your warranty is voided) and we will fix your Xbox for $55 (you will be responsible for shipping as well). Keep in mind, we only fix the 3 red rings, and drive repairs (costs $85) in house. If you end up getting an E74 or E75 code, we have to ship it off to another business for them to work on, and that will cost $90. That's not just saying that we work on Xboxes however, we also work on PS3s, Wiis, DSes, and PSPs. We are also one of the only places in the area that will mod controllers and game cases. The guy who does all of our mods has been working on different projects. His most recent one was changing the LED lights in the Xbox 360 controller and the Wii Remote. But his best mod (so I think) is getting the Tritton AXPRO headset lights to strobe whenever you shoot a gun or throw a grenade (sorry, no video of that). Over 90% of BragGame Rights customers say that they will never go to a Gamestop again if there's a BragGame Rights in the area.

This is one of few jobs that people want to go in to work at. Everyone that works at BragGame Rights loves being there, and it shows in customer service. We are able to joke around with customers and have them joke back. During our Nightly Tournaments, we are able to have fun by just messing with people as they're competing (don't worry, not enough to hinder their playing experience).

BragGame Rights Hosts ggCircuit's 4v4 Halo Tournament:


Nightly Tournaments are also held Monday-Thursday night at BragGame Rights in conjunction with the (attempted) monthly Large tournaments. Admission for the Nightly Tournaments are ONLY $5 with the possibility of winning $25 cash or $40 in-store credit. There's usually a game within the month that you'll enjoy. There are such a wide variety of games that we host for the Nightly Tournaments.



Videos/Pictures:
BragGame Rights Official Site
Pictures on the Main BragGame Rights Page
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Please comment below if you think you want a BragGame Rights in your area!!