Review: Naughty Bear
Here’s the deal, I was a big fan of Conker’s Bad Fur Day for the N64, and absolutely loved the remake of it for the Xbox, Conker: Live and Reloaded. The idea of a cute, cuddly, and furry animal wreaking havoc in a peaceful world is so twisted that it’s awesome. What helped that game succeed was the humourous dialogue, varied level design, and satisfying, yet rewarding combat mechanics. Now Naughty Bear has arrived, and he is trying to cash in on the same idea. The problem with this is that Naughty only ends up succeeding in concept, and fails in getting everything else right. (more…)
Live – The Electronic Addiction
Won’t anti-video game lobbyist love the title of this post? The joke will be on them though because it won’t be what they think it’s going to be about. Now if you follow me on Twitter or if you’re on my 360 friends list, you already know that I’ve had a bit of bad luck as of late. First I had a serious tire issue on the way back home from vacation. Then last Monday on my way home from work, I check the mail like I always do and my truck wouldn’t start. Luckily it was only my battery – probably couldn’t take the heat from sitting so long, plus it was over five years old. And according to superstition, “bad luck comes in threes,” which brings me to the third bout of bad luck. During a typical afternoon thundershower, lighting had struck nearby and zapped part of my router and my Xbox 360 ethernet port. While losing connection to Xbox Live through an ethernet cable isn’t a total loss, it is financially when you consider the cost of an adapter and any possible future repair costs, to the price of a new console. But the real loss is losing a way to socialize with friends.
While there are many ways to socialize with online friends, like Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Myspace (if that even exists anymore), but nothing beats hoping on Live to chat with friends while playing some multiplayer games. There are folks out there that would say that myself, and many others in a similar situation are addicted to games, but honestly most of us aren’t. I think that most of us enjoy sharing the OMG moments with our friends. It gives us something to talk about for days on end until the next Kilimanjaro happens, or watching a friend take out a helicopter that falls on top of a tank and destroys that too in Battlefield Bad Company 2.
On the bright side to all this, I now have plenty of time to play all my single player campaigns. I can now finish Dragon’s Age, Bioshock 2 (that never really impressed me), Oblivion (that feels to be an ongoing game), and hey, I have loads of time to find all 500 Agility Orbs and 300 Hidden Orbs in Crackdown 2. My word of advice to all the complaints about Live, while it may feel that it costs a lot and we may feel that we’re getting screwed, either remember or imagine gaming without Live.
The Kinectabilities await us
The other night, my daughter and I watched the GameTrailers.Com worldwide reveal for Kinect on the Xbox 360, as presented by Cirque du Soleil, before a premiere audience that included various Hollywood stars, VIPs and media from all around the world. This program showcased a highlighted version of the June 13thlive performance, that was held this past Sunday and featured live performances from dancers, musicians and acrobats of Cirque du Soleil. (more…)
E3 2010: Dance Central Gameplay
The other Kinect title that peaked my interest was a new music and rhythm game from Harmonix and MTV games entitled Dance Central. Basically, you dance inside of a circle, and perform specific moves when you are prompted to do so, and you earn points for it. This could be a casual hit at parties because who doesn’t like to watch their friends make fools out of themselves, I know I do. Check out the onstage demo from Microsoft’s E3 press conference, and see if you want to get down with your bad self (its a lame joke, I know).
E3 2010: Your Shape FE Gameplay
The first party titles for Kinect at this year’s E3 didn’t impress me all that much, but there were a couple of third party titles that really caught my attention. One of them is called Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, the sequel to last year’s Wii game Your Shape, made by Ubisoft. This time around, the Kinect’s camera follows your every movement, and will have you participate in a number of exercises according to your specific body structure. It has alot of potential in changing the way workout games are made in my opinion. Here is the onstage demo from Microsoft’s E3 press conference, Enjoy!
E3 2010: MS Press Conference Highlights
The first press conference of E3 2010 is finally over, and Microsoft showed us everything new and exciting that they have to offer, kind of. Other than a few new titles from already existing franchises, and a tech demo of the new motion control peripheral, the majority of this presentation was rather dull in my opinion. There was one major announcement that saved this from being a total disaster, but more on that later. For now, let’s take the time to go over some of the highlights from the show. (more…)
Microview: Alpha Protocol
Not every game can be a 10 million dollar project that sweeps the industry off its feet with it’s years of polish and technical advancements. Most of the time, it is the “little thing” in a game that can make it a part of your personal favorites list. Alpha Protocol is one of those games. While it won’t impress anyone visually, it’s those “little things” it has that make this spy-RPG a game you should give attention to. (more…)
Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition Review
Inventive control mechanics and bizarre art direction are all it takes to knock me out. I have the lumps to prove it. (more…)
Customer Support Sucks
At one point or another, we all have to deal with it. Even if we don’t like to do so, they are the only source of information we have when it comes to fixing problems with our consoles. Who am I talking about you might ask?, I am talking about Customer Support. Now I don’t know about your previous experiences in dealing with these people, but there had to be at least one time that they screwed up in trying to help you with your problem. And now I would like to share with all of you a story about someone i just met, who just encountered this situation a couple of days ago. (more…)
Deadly Premonition: Next on Spoilars!!
Official word from http://spoilars.blogspot.com, is that the next title to be “ruined” by the best video game documentary-cast on the internet is . . . Deadly Premonition!
Word on the street is part.2 of the Bioshock 2 episode of Spoilars!! will be up by mid-next week. In the meantime, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes ( http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/spoilars/id368841094), rate, and review it. Thanks much! <3
Deadly Premonition – “Movie mania on the drive” ; A Creator’s Blog
“Movie mania on the drive”
Author: SWERY (ACCESS GAMES Inc.,)
Hi Everyone,
It’s SWERY, game director of Deadly Premonition.
The game’s been released for a month now I think, and I’ve actually gotten a lot of feedback.
I was also glad to see so many people tweeting about the game on the Deadly Premonition Twitter account and had good fun reading the comments. (more…)
Preview: Splinter Cell Conviction
Well it’s about friggin time Sam Fisher, where the hell have you been the past few years. Conviction got pushed so far back that I thought you were going to enter a retirement home faster than Ubisoft was going to finish creating this game. As much as the constant delays kept pissing me off to no ungodly end, the final result was well worth the wait, at least from what I’ve played so far. It’s time to break out the triangle goggles, and snap some necks my friends, Splinter Cell Conviction has finally arrived. (more…)
Aliens vs. Predator Review
Two of RJG Staff members chose to fight the everlasting battle between Alien vs. Predator. Which side did they choose, and how did the fight turn out, find out more after the break. (more…)
Week in Review: Feb.21-27, 2010
Topics: Aliens VS Predator, Fret Nice, Crap of Defense, Puzzlegeddon, & P.B Winterbottom
Intro music performed by “Incubus” off their album “Make yourself”
Outro music performed by “Bilithic” off their album “empire”
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Review: Fret Nice
Not only has Fret Nice developer Pieces Interactive prove they can put together an inventive and fun platforming title, they’ve also proved they aren’t afraid of trying something different. Busting out the ol’ plastic guitar to play a platforming game sounds like a lot more fun than it really is, but that doesn’t mean the game falls short of being “purchase-worthy”. (more…)