Finally got some time to play “Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness.” Basically the game has two major problems. The first is that it is way too simple for an RPG and lacks no depth. I mean second to story, depth/customization is the most important part of an RPG. I’m shocked this was so basic.

The second problem is that if you are normal and don’t own an HD TV then the font is too small/blurry to read. This problem has basically made the game unplayable. I can’t read the dialog or narration boxes and as a result I’m missing all the humor (which is the best part of the game).

Wow. EA produced a really crappy “Princess Bride” game. It’s downloadable (for a fee of course) and seems to have been made for a two year old.

“The Incredible Hulk” the game sucks. The gameplays is worse then its predecessor that came out like 3 years ago and even on the Xbox 360 the graphics are total crap. It’s a sandbox game set in NYC, yet for some reason you can’t see more than a block ahead of where you are. There is that cliche video game fog and even when there isn’t fog the graphics pop in and out of existence like bad wizardry. Avoid this game at all cost!

The “Iron Man” game sucks. Unlike “Hulk” the graphics on this are pretty decent and its actually fun to fly around destroying stuff. However the gameplay is totally wonky. Instead of being a sandbox game, the game has set levels where you are given horrible tedious missions that make absolutely no sense. Not only that but after the third level they get extremely repetitive and aren’t anywhere near fun. Too bad the game makers didn’t simply combine the good parts of “Iron Man” with “Incredible Hulk,” if so then we may have gotten at least one game worth playing.

Here is a cool teaser trailer for the upcoming “Alone in the Dark” game. The game comes out next Tuesday and as long as I get a review copy (the promised copy of Dragon Ball-Z never came) I should have a full review. Also you can pre-order the game at gamestop.

Len Wiseman (”Underworld,” “Live Free or Die Hard”) is set to direct the adaptation “Gears of War” for New Line. It will be interesting to see what the movie is like since the Xbox game lacked any real story (just lots of action, aliens, and explosions).

I decided to rent “Lost: Via Domus” and man is it a bad game. Now don’t get me wrong, I never expected it to be a great game or even a good game, but I had hoped that with writers from the show and the real actors doing the voice work it would at least be an “ok” game. The biggest problem (other than lack of story) is that the gameplay is in the vein of “Kings Quest” and “Monkey Island” but the puzzles lack any skill or intelligence. They are nothing more than fetch quests.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is free through fileplanet. The game is dated (even though its from 2004), but if you are looking for something free that has a few puzzles and a some action then there is nothing wrong with it. Of course being a console gamer I do have to admit that the controls are a little clunky for me and I really wish I could use a controller for it.

To prepare for my early review I’m sharing descriptions of the games playable characters: (Read on …)

THQ is releasing “Battle of the Bands” on the Wii and here is a fun flash-demo to give you an idea of what the gameplay is like.

The very scary game, which serves as the grandchild of “System Shock” is getting not one but two sequels!

Speaking to investors in a quarterly financial conference call today, Take-Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick confirmed that plans exist for a third BioShock game, which will likely coincide with the release of the Gore Verbinski-directed film version of the game franchise.

The downloadable content for “Grand Theft Auto IV” has been pushed back. It was orignally goign to be released in September or October but Take-Two has bumped it back to sometime between November and January so that it will come out during their next fiscal year.

The decision was made to “provide a better balance in Take-Two’s release schedule,” company officials said. Midnight Club: Los Angeles, another upcoming Rockstar Games title, is set for release on Sept. 9 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Pac Man Cup Cakes!

Seems the media is finally cracking down on the incompetence of the Liberty City Police Department:

Many blame the LCPD directly for the increase in criminal activity, citing the department’s lax procedure for arresting criminals, which involves taking 10 percent of the suspect’s money, confiscating his weapons, and simply releasing him from custody later that day. Outraged citizens say this is not enough, especially in a city where assault rifles can be found on factory roofs and grenade caches are located under the globe at the old World’s Fair site.

The more and more I learn about the new “Alone in the Dark” I start to feel better about it. The gameplay is being described as:

This next-gen Alone in the Dark is also built around a unique episodic game structure — the story is split into a number of distinct 30-40 minute episodes, doled out one at a time as you play. Each time the player launches a saved game, the episode will begin with a video summary of the previous episode to quickly re-immerse the player in the story and removing the need to remember where they were or what they were doing. Every episode will close with a nail-biting cliff-hanger ending to rattle players’ nerves, and if the player is leaving the game a video teaser of the next episode will play to leave them wanting more.

With most TV going into re-runs and summer TV being scarce due to the strike, I’m excited for some episodic gamplay. Plus after the bust that was “Grand Theft Auto IV” it will be fun to play a game with structure and direction.

Here is a funny marketing video from “DragonBall Z: Burst Limit.” Now that we are less than a week away from the game’s release I’ll be doing regular posts leading up to my early review. Also if you’re a fan of DBZ, then you’ll most likely want to pre-order the game and you can do that at gamestop.

Downloaded a new game for the 360 called “Settlers of Catan.” It’s a pretty fun strategy game with a mix of risk and a PC RTS. My only complaint is that after an hour of playing I was already good enough to defeat the A.I. on hard. Hopefully, more people will download it and then finding multilayer matches will be easy to do.

A college has allowed a professor to teach classes through “Second Life” because the teacher feels teaching with interacting avatars is more effective than regular online education methods:

Silicon Valley’s San Jose State University has opened a simulated campus 16 acres large in the virtual world of Second Life. Why? Some educators find that teaching in a virtual environment with avatars, so students can see one another, is more valuable than your average Internet teaching experience.

In the next week or so I should be getting an advance copy of “DragonBall-Z: Burst Limit” to post an early review. So far I really don’t know too much about the gameplay, though I have to say the graphics look great. Although I’ve never been a big DBZ fan, I know the fans LOVE the art style so even the most hardcore of a fan should appreciates Burst Limit’s graphics.

I’m getting an advance copy of “Alone in the Dark” (which comes out in a few weeks) so that I can post an early review. The trailer above is the first to include actual gameplay. So far the graphics look about standard for the 360. It should be interesting to see how well the camera works since this is one of those types of games where things jump out and scare the hell out of you.

Take-Two Interactive, publisher of — among other things — Grand Theft Auto IV, is taking legal action against the Chicago Transit Authority regarding an issue with an advertising campaign. Apparently the Transit Authority, who works with Titan Worldwide Chicago for advertising, prematurely pulled ads that featured GTA IV for an unconfirmed reason and thus infringed on Take-Two’s free-speech rights. As a result, Take-Two is suing the Chicago Transit Authority and is asking that a federal judge stop the CTA from pulling the GTA ads. The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan.

A friend reminded me of this classic skit from the Chapelle show.

Conan O’Brien’s “Grand Theft Auto IV” skit on Friday was freaking hilarious.

Awww man. I’ve barely gotten to play “Grand Theft Auto IV,” but the time I have spent with it has been AWESOME. Normally, I don’t like sandbox games because I play games for the story, however GTA IV has not only an amazing story, but insane multiplayer. If you have a 360 or PS3 then you need to get this game so you can play online.

Far Out kid going nuts over GTA IV lol.

Last week of classes and “Grand Theft Auto IV” comes out tonight at midnight!

This is a freaky rendition of Mario pieced together from photos of real people. I found the pic thanks to Jim Smash who posted an untoon of Homer Simpson./

With the new computer that actually has some power, I decided to check out “World of Warcraft.” I wasn’t interested in playing the game (I pretty much loathe MMORPG’s). It was the art design I wanted to see first hand. Also I didn’t want to pay for the game so I did the 10-day free trial and then deleted it after two days. Now that the game is like 3-4 years old the graphics are a tad dated, but the art design is still incredible.

I spent hours traveling around the world and visited all the major cities. I also took over 600 screenshots (including the ones above) and really enjoyed exploring (though running from MOBs due to ARRGO was not fun). I wouldn’t recommend the game to anyone because its an MMORPG but if your any kind of fantasy fan then do some googling or check out the WoW Artbook.

Decided to check out “Second Life” since my new computer can handle it. It was an interesting experience and it’s very hard to describe. On a basic level it’s a standard MMO, but the catch is that all the content is user generated. Everying in the massive world is created by the players and they literally have everything there. If you want to go go-karting then… you can. If you want to play putt putt golf… you can. If you want to go to a strip club… you can.

The catch is that EVERYTHING cost “Linden Dollars,” the form of currency used in the game. What gets fishy is that $L’s can be converted to good old American Dollars. So now instead of playing a game, Second Life is really a place where millions of people are doing their best to get you to give them $L’s so that can turn them into real money.

Within the next few weeks “Magic The Gathering” will now be downloadable in the Xbox 360 Arcade. It will be a ported version of the PC card game and supposedly people with established accounts and decks will be able to use them on their Xbox.

With the monster sales that “Mass Effect” brought in over the holiday season it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that EA greenlight the franchise to become an official trilogy. Like with the original, BioWare will make the second and third installments of the game for both the Xbox 360 and PC.

Not only did EA announce that they will be publishing “Knights of The Old Republic III” but that BioWare, (the makers of the original KOTOR) will be the ones developing the game. No dates or game systems were mentioned but just the fact that BioWare is involved again is AWESOME.

Way back in 2006, Marvel announced they were making an MMORPG in the vein of “Hero City.” Nearly no news or updates have been released since then, so it isn’t too surprising that Marvel and Microsoft have canceled the project. In a press release the following statment was released:

Marvel and Microsoft have agreed to end development on the MMO. It’s just something that we felt that, for us and for them, it would be better if we ended development. When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of ‘Marvel Universe Online,’ we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success.

So basically they were scared of “World of Warcraft?”

Next week, three new titles will be available as part of the Xbox Originals program. Black, Ninja Gaiden Black and Sid Meier’s Pirates will be available for download at 1200 points each starting Monday, February 11th.

It’s Monday, which means I’m on campus all day. So here is your weekly “Halo 3″ pic. It was taken on Standoff and that’s me falling through the map.

If you have an Xbox and want to win another Xbox then log onto your marketplace and hunt down an “Oceanic Airlines” banner (download the free Oceanic Airlines theme before February 10^th). The banner is hidden and moves so it may take you a few minutes to find it. Full contest details are here.

Microsoft is still telling gamers that “Halo Wars” the real-time-strategy game (think “star craft” or “civilization”) is being made solely for the Xbox 360 and not the PC.

“Halo Wars is being developed from the bottom up for the Xbox 360 and its control scheme to ensure that we deliver a groundbreaking console RTS experience. Given that, we have no plans to develop ‘Halo Wars’ for Windows Vista at this time,” Microsoft said.

I have a hard time believing this because RTS games have only worked well on the PC so I can’t imagine them making “Halo Wars” an Xbox exclusive title. I bet they are just telling everyone it will only be on Xbox so PC gamers will buy an Xbox. Then a few months later they’ll announce they are also releasing it for the PC.

This is freaky. “Portal” is an inventive and fun game that came out last year and the main villain in it is a psychotic robot named GLaDOS (pic on the left). GLaDOS is seriously creepy and constantly lies saying she won’t kill you and that instead she wants to give you cake. So imagine my surprise when I see that Weathernews HQ in Tokyo created Pollen Robots (pic on the right) that seriously resemble GLaDOS. Freaky!

Sony has killed the 80 gig model of its Playstation 3 and is expected to announce a 120 gig model for the same price. Stinks for all you people who got the 80 gig model for Christmas, though this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise since Sony has already canceled a 20 and 60 gig version of the system.

“Lost” is back for an eight episode run, starting this week and come February you can chill with the Losties on Xbox! So far the plot of the game is being kept very hush-hush. Writers from the show worked on the script and the game takes place during the events of season 1 and season 2. Some major settings include the plane crash, the caves, the beach camp, the shipwreck, and the hatch. After the break I have a full list of all the xbox game’s achievements: (Read on …)