My Sector is a Little Dark...(and repetitive)

Dark Sector certainly didn't re-write the laws and fundamentals of what makes a good game great. In fact, I don't think it wrote any laws what so ever. I picked up a copy of dark Sector last Friday (3/28) and have grinded through pretty much the whole game. So far I've been feeling a little under whelmed and disappointed in my overall experience. Thats not to say Dark Sector isn't a good game; it just doesn't do anything to separate itself from the stigma of an "Average Action Game."

Gears of War, GRAW 1 and 2, hell even Lost Planet were kick ass 3rd person action titles that packed some serious power. From graphics to dynamic game-play these titles hooked you from the get go, occasionally punched you in the gut and always left you wanting more. Dark Sector: not so much. In the game you play as Hayden Tanno, a soldier who is picked to investigate an "AWOL" officer who has supposedly unleashed bio-chemicals into the air that causes people to go crazy and then turn into these kind of ho-hum zombies out for blood. Your job is to infiltrate, gather information, blow some buildings up and kill said evil spreader of bio-chemicals. This, like in all action games doesn't go to plan and you yourself are infected with the virus which begins to spread throughout your body, killing you slowly. There are a few perks, however, to being infected with this virus...it makes you one bad ass dude with perhaps the most kick ass weapon I've seen in a while, enter: The Glaive.

The Glaive perhaps is the saving grace of this game; it's like a Chinese Star injected with steroids. To put it gently: the thing is huge! The Glaive can be used to do just about anything; see some bullets on the ground that you cant reach, throw the Glaive to fetch it for you. Cant target the goofy looking zombie hiding behind some barrels with your shotty? Throw the Glaive and maneuver it through the air to slice the uglies arm or head clean off. This badass weapon can also be enhanced with certain environmental properties, meaning electricity, fire and even ice. This can get fun when your playing target practice with soldiers and other baddies. Oh, you can also perform "finishing kills" on targeted soldiers and other creepies. My favorite is the "Neck Breaker." You sneak up behind a dude, grab him by the back of the head and violently split his lower spine from the top of his head, very fun. There are plenty of other properties that the Glaive brings to the table and without spoiling too much, lets just say its extremely fun figuring them out.

Now, onto more pressing issues. The A.I in this game is about as smart as a brick wall. Yeah they shoot at you, charge you and take cover every so often but they just don't challenge you. Just last night I snuck up on a zombie that was standing in the corner of a room, facing the wall, doing what looked like head banging. I slowly but loudly walked up to the back of him, knocked him in the back of the head and then watched in amazement his next actions. Nothing. He did nothing. The zombie actually turned and looked at me, then did nothing. Its these types of things that hampered Dark Sector's mechanics and somewhat lax features.

One last quell I had was the fact that it felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. And thats simply because...I was. Each mission started with me following the very linear path provided by the developers, shooting some fools, 'Glaiving' some fools, shooting more fools, occasionally figuring out a Glaive puzzle (where to throw the Glaive to unlock a door) then rinsing and repeating. Now, I like shooting dudes in the face and the more I get to do it in a game the better, so in my case I didn't really mind this formula. However, not everyone out there has my undying taste for capping mindless drones and zombies and this could cause problems. If there was a little change up here and there, the game play would be satisfying for all (my opinion of course).

Some other tid bits about the game are extremely good though. The graphics are crisp and look really good. The big Mech's that you can hack and navigate are really fun and easy to handle. Also: the ambiance and sound FX are some of the best Ive heard since Bioshock . They are creepy, believable and very life like. I really liked the second hand weapons in this game as well; the shotgun perhaps being my favorite. You can also upgrade any gun in the game using money you have collected through out each level. You can attach perks like Puncture, Rapid Fire, Fire Power and even exploding cartridges. each weapon has a set amount of spots that you cant utilize, so choose carefully. This is very pleasing and fun to do.

Overall, Dark Sector feels a bit shallow at times, leaving you thinking that it could have been so much more. I haven't played with the multi-player aspects of the game yet but plan on doing so tonight, but in all retrospect I don't know how good it's going to be. If I am to be honest with myself and the readers, Dark Sector falls short of being a truly innovative video game.

out of 10.0

-Game Hard-

World of Warcraft (Starting Guide)

Here are a few tips for future World of Warcraft players (or even current players that want to know how to make the game more enjoyable). Even though these ideas might sound crazy, they worked for me, and there have been times when I was more than upset with this game. You must understand that WOW is trying to make a virtual world, like the Sims, but during a fantasy era where humans are at war with creatures. This game will not be like any game you have ever played. Even though the gameplay might be similar to the likes of Diablo (also made by Blizzard Entertainment), the gaming experience is too advanced to compare.

Tip #1: Create Multiple Characters - If you have plenty of free time on your hands, I recommend making four characters, but no matter what, make at least two. There are many reasons for this, but most important is the rest factor. If you play your character every day, you will gain normal experience. If you character is rested, you gain double. When your character is not being used, he gains rest (if you log off at a town Inn). There is a maximum amount of rest you can have at any point, so the trick is only play a character while he is rested. When you reach your rest limit, and you begin to gain normal experience, log off, and play an alternate character (one that has rest). This cycle should not be started until all players are at least level ten. You will soon be able to tell what class you enjoy playing, and will tend to play that character more. If you do not like a character, stop playing him, but DO NOT delete him. Just make a new class to sub into his spot in the rotation.

Tip#2 : Character Selection - Assuming that you are new to the game, I will recommend four classes to begin with. After playing the game some, you will be able to tell what class you like the most. The classes I will recommend will be flexible enough to PVP, while also having the ability to play multiple roles in the dungeon levels. The Paladin is the best class in the game, having the ability to spec a dominant Tank or Healer. They also have the ability to wear any type of gear, and are more than decent at PVP. The Druid is the second best class in the game, also having the ability to spec a dominant Tank or Healer. They are more limited with gear, but are the best PVP characters. The Priest and the Shaman are tied for the third spot, but I would recommend a Shaman because they can wear more types of gear. Both classes are mainly used as healers, but also can be used as the top support classes in the game. Both classes are also excellent PVP characters.

Tip #3 Leveling - Complete EVERY quest, including chain quests, given at your starting area. Read the quest log to see where to go and what to kill (or what to do). One quest will tell you to go to another town. Do that quest last. At the new town, some of the quests will require too much travel time, or just be boring, so feel free to skip whatever you want. Just make sure you are always doing a quest. Do this until you reach level twelve (Horde) or fifteen (Alliance). Now, jump into the LFG (looking for group) channel, and try to get your character into your first dungeon level, which is Ragefire Chasm (Horde) or Deadmines (Alliance). This will be your first taste of an official WOW gaming experience.

If you do this right, you should be doing the same dungeon level with two to four different characters. This will give you a good idea of what each class has to offer. Try different roles with your Paladin or Druid. Try this out, and let me know if you need any more advice. I am also available to help with any boss strategies, spec configurations, or any WOW related questions.

Playstation Network Compromised

The consumer alert section on the Playstation website had a recent addition, and it didn't just instruct you to insert a three pronged plug into a matching 3 hole outlet...hmm? Well, I guess I already spoiled it with the title of the post but read the notice from Sony or the article from Gamespot.

Before the thoughts of console wars start popping in your head, remember that Xbox Live has had it's fair share of problems as well. The good news is that personal credit card numbers were not able to be accessed and it remained internal within the Playstation network, meaning that Sony will turn that frown upside down. One could say that the Playstation network is awesome because it is free. Others will argue that what you pay for is what you get and that Live provides better security because it costs $50 dollars a year. On and on it could go. How many times have you heard about a security breach on the Internet where some or all personal information has been compromised? Once a day, once a week, a few times a month? It will happen to everyone at some point in their lives and it just happened to be the Playstation Network users this time. As long as there is something to gain from stealing, such as a new identity, there will always be thieves.

Target Breaking Into 'Indie' Games?

Yes, you read the headline correct; Target Breaking Into 'Indie' Games. It seems as though the retail store juggernaut is now selling gaming tee-shirts. Now before you get your "coin-purse" all in a stank, read on.

We all know that all these giant monopolies try to cash in on every damn pop culture break through thats happening in the "now"; so what makes Target worth writing about? Simple, Target is actually doing it right. As of this month Target is focusing on the Indie Game Scene, kind of like the underground/grunge/bad boy/every other pun associated with all things Indie now these days. These tee-shirts focus on up coming Indie Developed Video Games for the PC, 360 and PS3.

The clothing line of choice for Target is called: EGPApparel or Experimental Game Play Apparel. The line is kind of like an homage to Mark Eccho meets Prada meets Paula Abdul, wait sorry about that...Meets Element. They actually look good in my opinion and to boot, when you buy one of the tee-shirts you get the corresponding Indie game that it was inspired by, FOR FREE. Now, doesn't that sound tempting. If all it takes for me to get a copy of The Dishwasher is buying a tee shirt that was made in Taiwan by some 6 year old, sign me up! There are currently eight shirts in production, featuring indie titles like Tower of Goo, Big Vine, Gravity Head, Gish, and more. All shirts go for a measly 12 bucks and comes with the corresponding game (as stated above). Who would have thunked that Target of all retail stores would go Indie?

TARGET- 1
WALL-MART- 0

-Game Hard-

XBox Gets Nasty With Cheaters

Since day one of the integration of Xbox live there have been reports concerning the influx of cheaters spread through out the service. Now thats not to say Microsoft/Live are the only ones with this situation plaguing its online gaming component; Playstation has had its fair share of cheating cohorts, and we all now that the PC has been romped with it since day one of online play.

As reported by Joystiq.com, Microsoft/Xbox Live have now started to brand the cheaters they find. Not only do they completely strip them of their gamer score(Ouch!)but they have implemented a "Branding." You know that little spot you can put a Bio of yourself in that everyone can see? Well, see for yourself:



"Well, now there's a far simpler way: Microsoft will label them "cheater." The Xbox Live Sheriff has begun targeting players who "gain achievements through avoiding game play and the use of external tools" and, as a punishment, resetting their gamerscores to zero, making them "unable to regain all previously earned achievements," and lastly (though, most deliciously), permanently labeling them "as a 'cheater' for the community to view." And, since the "gamerscore correction will remain permanent without any way to appeal" there's a good chance we'll have yet another easy way of identifying cheaters on Xbox Live: the tinny static of their whimpering sobs."

You can check the whole story HERE

Halo 3 Heroic Map Pack To Be Free Tommorow!

As reported by our friends over at Joystiq, the 800 Microsoft Points "Heroic Map Pack" for Halo 3 will now be free for download tomorrow (Tuesday the 25th) via XBox Live. This move is basically being utilized to get people back into Halo 3 before the ever so hyped Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack makes it way to XBox Live.

"In their latest weekly update, Bungie announced the discount would come sooner than expected -- as of 2 a.m. this coming Tuesday, the pack will be free to download on Xbox Live Marketplace."

Boy, I cant wait to get back online and play with all those 12 year old racist homophob's who love to make your gaming experience oh so pleasurable (insert pun now).

-Game Hard-

-This is for the Gears Fans-

Enjoy this Clip the MLG (Major League Gaming) Put Together. Pure unadulterated Gears of War Fan Service!

World Of Warcraft

I have been playing World of Warcraft (WOW) since the first day of its release in 2004. Four years later I am still amazed at the addiction I have to the virtual world provided by Blizzard Entertainment. Instead of me throwing my personal opinion around for pages of endless reading, let me start by listing the annual awards this game has compiled since its release. WOW has been named Best Game, Best PC Game, Best Massive Multi Player Online Game (twice), Editors Choice (twice), Best Role Playing Game, Best Online Role Playing Game (twice), and Best Persistent World Game (twice). It also won an award for being the Most Addictive Game, ever.

Now that you see the resume, let me get a little more personal with the experience involved with playing WOW. First you must understand that if you get into this game, and you fall in love with it, as most online gamers do, your life will be at risk. Your wife, or girlfriend, will probably leave you. You will probably get fired from your job. This game is a virtual world, and it never stops. I will pretty much bet that you will either love it, or hate it. If you are not prepared to dedicate the next few years of your life to a virtual world with combat challenging levels and all out Alliance (good) vs Horde (evil) brawls, I would not roll the dice. You can live happily ever after with console games. They at least have a pause button.

There are so many reasons NOT to like this game. There is a very limited character selection, only five races for each faction, with only nine classes to choose from (and races only allow four to five of the class types). This means that most of the game you will see characters that look exactly like you. Your gear is supposed to make your character look different, but all the high level guys have the same gear, so it doesn’t help. The map is huge, and not only must you travel to far away lands as you level, but many times you will be asked to go across the map to achieve a quest requirement. You wont be able to get a mount (which increases your running speed) until level forty, which will take about four months of average online gaming. It is so hard to find groups for dungeon levels (5, 10, 25, and 40 man teams required). Each WOW world, or realm, is held on a server. The number of characters allowed per server is limited to maximize game performance. Bottom line, there will be times you want to do a dungeon level, and you will not be able to find a group to help you. You are forced to either do quests, PVP (player vs player), or turn off the game (my favorite choice).

Ok, a quick run down of the concept of this game would sound like this. You make a character, you kill stuff and do quests for experience and gold. As you gain experience you gain levels, which means you can get better gear, and do higher level dungeon levels. Your character can choose talents points as they level, which enable you to customize your class (for example a Priest can spec Holy to heal, Shadow to kill stuff, or Discipline for PVP). You can also choose to learn trades like fishing, cooking, tailoring, etc. but none of these are needed to play, or beat, the game. When you make a character, your mission is to reach top level, which is currently 70 and will be changing to 80 with the next expansion. Whatever gear, talents, gold, or trades you have during the troop really means nothing, they only helped you get to top level. When you hit top level, the game begins. What? The game BEGINS? Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that the game begins when you hit top level (which would take about a year of average online gaming). That is why the average online gamer hates this game, with a glowing passion. If you are an above average online game, do not dare to continue this review before asking yourself one question. Are you ready?

Ok, let me take a deep breath... and begin. The dungeon levels start at around level 12, but the elite WOW players will jump in around level 10. These levels require a group to complete. Your group should always consist of a tank, a healer, and three DPS (damage per second) characters. The strategy and cooperation needed to complete these levels is above challenging. You will find yourself stuck to the screen for hours, doing your job to help your group kill everything, including super strong bosses (usually three to five in each level). The game play is similar to Gauntlet, where four players run around and kill stuff. The difference is that all Gauntlet players are DPS, which means they all kill stuff. WOW requires each group member to take a role, and responsibility, which will determine the fate of the group. Some characters also have the responsibility to CC (crowd control), for example a Mage might be needed to polymorph (turn an enemy to a sheep) while the other enemies in the mob are killed. Each dungeon level has different environments, enemies, strategies, etc. which make each new challenge a new and exciting experience. As you gain level, you will need to find the next dungeon within your level range, and you can follow this pattern until top level.

When you reach level 60, you will be introduced to dungeon levels that require 10, 20, or even 40 members to complete. Now, instead of needing a tank, a healer, and three DPS, you can use different sets of classes. The concept is the same as the 5 man levels, but the difficulty is greatly increased. These levels will have harder bosses, better gear drops, and require elite WOW skills to complete, but they will take a long time. Be prepared to dedicate three to four hours to a single level if needed, and sometimes more. When you reach level 70, and the game officially begins, you will being defeating 25 man dungeons to get elite gear. Once your group has grabbed enough gear, they will be ready to advance to the next level, which will have increased difficulty, better gear drops, etc. This cycle, if you are skilled enough to ever advance in, will lead you to Illidan, who is the last boss of the game.

Even if you defeat Illidan, the game will not end. It never ends. You can always, at any time you want, log into the world and do quests (given at towns by random computer generated characters), PVP (battle Alliance vs Horde style in arena or battlegrounds), or just run around and do whatever. You can go anywhere and do anything, it’s a virtual world. Personally, I do not find any pleasure in questing, PVP, or just running around, but the dungeon levels are beyond words. The idea of the strategy and cooperation needed to beat this game is what makes it the best game ever, for PC or console. If you happen to get involved, you will see what I mean.

For those who are not excited by the idea of dungeon levels, WOW has made PVP a whole new game within itself. PVP matches up Alliance players to Horde players (all within a level range) and lets them have all out war. They also have games like capture the flag, and a few others, that Alliance and Horde can battle in. Arena teams can be purchased, and Alliance can fight Horde 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5. The purchased team keeps a record of wins and losses, and also keeps a ranking for each player and team.

Altogether, WOW has made is easy for an above average online gamer to find a home in this virtual world, and at the same time has found a way to piss off everyone else, and even make them cry about how bad the game is. I can understand why anyone would hate this game, but I could not understand how an elite online RPG gamer would not fall in love with it. I agree that even though you may fall in love, the hype will eventually calm down, and you might even think of dropping the game forever, and I can live with that. Personally, I will be playing this game until I hate it, or until both my hands get cut off by my future wife, Carmela. Yeah I love you baby, but as God is my witness, I love this game more.

Note: A future post will be made on World of Warcraft giving a detailed guide on how to start a character, what to do to level fast, and how to maximize the gaming experience.

Rumor Mill: Countdown to End All Countdowns

As you may or may not know, myself and my esteemed Gaming Partner Captain Spock are big time Mortal Kombat fans. Through out time we have owned every single installation of the series scattered amongst different consoles. Mortal Kombat set the precedent for all fighting games (of course this is my opinion) and gave us a reason to look forward to the weekend excursions to Fun Spot or Bear Right (Local Arcades). I know I'm ramblings and drooling over past iterations of Mortal Kombats' and arcade visits so I will get right to the point of this post: Rumors!

Ed Boon (creator of MK) has been working for Midway for over a decade now and through out time has maintained a personal web site simply entitled Noob.com (Thats Boon backwards knuckle heads). On this site he breaks down games, what's being worked on at midway etc...This may not come to a surprise to many people, hell everyone has a web site now these days. The interesting thing is if you go to the site there is now just a tiny Mortal Kombat Logo on the front page with a countdown timer with only 28 days left on it. This has me very interested and very excited seeing as though the countdown timer coincides with Midways up coming convention they are holding in CA.

Will we have ourselves a little MK announcement? Perhaps a new installation into the beloved Kombat series? Only 28 more days until we find out! God help me if there's a new MK game, I will never come out of my office.

Here's the Link to the Site!

-Game Hard-

It's almost here!

Dark sector is a third person action shooter and is set to be released this coming Tuesday, March 25th. This game was first announced way back in 2004 and it looks like the time was well spent judging by the gameplay footage. If you need more proof, the developer Digital Extremes had a large part in helping Epic Games create the super popular Unreal series for the PC.

The name says it all...well the dark part anyways. This game has been banned in Australia due to violent content and has received an obvious M rating here in the states. You play as Hayden Tenno, a black ops agent whose body takes on some interesting abilities after awakening from an infection. Basically you awake as a killing machine and your primary weapon is the Glave, although guns are still an option as well. As you go through the game you acquire offensive and defensive power-ups along the way which promises to keep it interesting. You can imbue the Glave with fire and electricity and enable a shield just to name a few. No doubt you will have to imbue the Glave to defeat bosses and other enemies which will keep you thinking and keep you on your toes. Another unique aspect is the ability to finish off enemies with your Glave while in close range.

There are also two muliplayer modes called Epidemic and Infection, which should serve up some interesting gameplay. In Epidemic you will play on teams. Each team has one Hayden and a group of soldiers with standard weaponry. The object is to kill the other teams Hayden to score points on a match by match basis. It sounds similar to Assassination in Gears of War. In infection, one player randomly starts the match as Hayden and the rest are soldiers. The object is to kill Hayden and score points. Whoever kills Hayden will then become him and then attempt to survive. Since all the soldiers are out to get you, the odds are stacked slightly in your favor. Hayden will have all the abilities available to him that you have in the single player campaign. Multiplayer will have 5 original maps, but I would not be surprised to see more maps released via Xbox Live in the future if the game takes off.

The bad....well it is said to only have about 10-12 hours of gameplay which is a bummer. If the multiplayer is good then the short single player campaign may not be too bothersome. More information can be found on the official Dark Sector website.

The Bliss of a Modern Day Tactical Shooter

I know, I know...I was suppose to do an update last night at 8:00pm sharp on Vegas 2. Well, to make a long story short; I was knee deep in the single player campaign unable to thwart my attention enough to write a post. Sorry y'all. When a game is this good theres just no excuse NOT TO put all your time and energy into the first 4 or 5 hours, right?

Well, thats exactly what I've done. As of 9:18am on Thursday the 20th of March I am 5 hours into the game and loving every minute of it. Aside from the occasional "hiccup" (which I will explain shortly) the game is very solid. It doesn't re-write history but what Ubi-Soft does is provide you with a solid tactical shooter with an on-line multi player component that, in my opinion, can compete with the likes of Halo 3 and COD4.

There are many improvements aesthetically and control wise in Vegas 2. The first Vegas seemed like they tried to cram too much in, meaning things were not explained well enough. Tutorials were few and far between and the control mapping was erratic, almost feeling misplaced. In the sequel, the controls are near flawless and feel refined to the point where guiding your A.I. counterparts is easy and fun to do. Which leads me to my next point; the A.I.

A.I. is a key part in any game and Vegas 2 makes no exceptions. You want a room fragged and tagged? Have your partners stack up on a door and select your entrance method. You want chaos? Order your men to open the door and throw a grenade in some poor schmucks face...or if you're feeling really mean; order your men to open the door and throw a incinerator bomb on the floor. Sit back and watch what happens, I nearly fell of my Lazy Boy laughing.

Many aggregated review sites have been harping on the enemy A.I. through out the game, I for one disagree for the most part. In many of the firefights I've encountered so far, the A.I. has been spot on. Thats not to say I don't have any complaints, I just have very few. The battles can get intense in this game and rarely do they play out the same way each re-spawn. Which brings me to my one big gripe with the A.I.; it varies in difficulty from time to time and when I say varies I mean it can go from easy to take down the guys shooting at you to "Holly Hell...are you kidding me?" Just last night I was creeping around a corner very cautiously and slowly. I saw a guy standing on a platform damn near close to a mile away. I figured I could just creep around the scattered road blocks on the streets and get to the check point no problem. Wrong. As I got to about half way through the street without a scratch on me I took a breather (meaning a short break to take a sip of my ice water). I then pondered the thought of taking a quick glimpse over the road block I was hunched behind just to see where the sniper was. I stood...I got my face shot. All in a matter of half a second. This can get frustrating at points but then again Vegas 1 had the same problem.

Graphically and SFX wise, Vegas 2 is spot on. It still looks great and feels perfect for the setting. I'm not going to say that this game has engineered a new breed of super graphics, but they look crisp and flow great. There are no texture bumps or break ins, no poor shading effects, the facial features on your character (which you can create yourself from the start of the game) are excellent and the weapons are superior to any other game on the market to date. Thats right Call of Duty 4, I went there. The sound FX alone make this game bump when the volume is pumped and they don't get any better than this.

As of right now, I am thoroughly enjoying this sequel. I honestly haven't had this much fun playing a tactical FPS since...well, since the first one. Its a tough game yes and may be daunting for Noobs to the Tactical FPS scene but if your into Tactics, FPS's, excellent story line and one hell of an impressive weapons cache, then Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a surefire pick.

-4.0 out of 5.0-

Online Gaming

Hello all. I will be posting my first online game review this week, detailing the epic award winning game World Of Warcraft. Feel free to comment about any online games you are curious about, and I will do my best to fully test and review them. I am proud to be a member of Warp 9 Gaming, and look forward to sharing my gaming experiences. Post coming soon...

BlizzKid-

Its In My Mitts (Thats Hands)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is now officially mine all mine. I woke up nice and early this morning all geared up to go into work and plan my attack on Best Buy. This game means a lot to me seeing as though I am going to try and get Nationally Sponsored for Tournament Play.

So I got to work this morning around 9:00am (Eastern Time), sat down in my chair, did one hour of work, sat up from said "chair", ran to car, sped to Best Buy and began my walk of honor to the Customer Service Counter.

"Uhh, I pre-ordered a copy of Vegas Six 2" were my exact words to the young lady standing behind what seemed like the Great Wall of China. "Huh?" Were her exact words back to me.

I mean come on people, if your going to allow customers to pre-order games at least know what in Sam's Hell your selling. After looking at me for what seemed like 10 seconds straight of silence coming from the both of us; I looked up on the shelves behind her and saw the Vegas 2 box neatly stacked in multiple rows. I simply pointed to the fat stack of games behind her to finally get a "Ohhhhh, The Tim Clancy game you mean." Tim Clancy? Its Tom Clancy you goofy bastard, it says so right in bold letters at the top of the case. To make a long situation a little shorter I just nodded my cranium and went along with her all knowing mental capacity. 5 minutes later I was back in my car driving back to work.

So, here I am. Sitting in my office starring at this mega block buster game just waiting to played marathon style. If I listen hard enough I can actually hear Mr. Clancy himself saying, "Go home Luke...play me." I don't know why he's calling me Luke but I just turn away and try to resist. I don't know if I can keep it up until 4pm; I'm going to try...This could be a challenge.
*Live Updates to Come Tonight at 8pm*
(In the meantime, enjoy this Clip)

-Game Hard-

*Vegas 2 Update*

So I've now officially been to 4 out of the 5 Best Buys in NH and none of them have Vegas 2 in stock. In all reality, I'm not really shocked seeing as though today is the shipping date and not the release date. I will have it in my hands tomorrow for sure; it just sucks its not in my hands today.

-A Tear-

Game Hard

Weekend Gaming News and Such

Not much happened over the weekend as you could tell by the length of this post, so I'll just divvy up the proverbial floor space here and go with the flow (ugh, that was blissfully lame; "go with the flow"). As many of you have already heard Blue Ray has officially won the not so epic battle between Blue Ray and HD DVD. It happened a few weeks back at the CES show over on the West Coast and caused some negative press for the one large company still backing the HD format, Toshiba.

As reported by Griffin McElroy of Joystiq.com, Toshiba is set to loose close to 1 billion dollars in "The wake" of the HD DVD Format Battle-Royal.

"According to the Nikkea Business Daily, Toshiba is learning this lesson to the tune of a ¥100 billion loss in revenue this year (to grasp the magnitude of this loss, here it is in numeric form: ¥100,000,000,000) or roughly $986 million in U.S. cash."
Full Article Here: Joystiq Toshiba

This not only makes for a huge blow to the gut for Toshiba but also hampers their performance module for the up coming years, meaning they will be taking much needed assets and revenue earnings and using them to stay afloat amiss this whole format outcome.

My opinion: Simple...make a duel format player that allows the consumer to chose which stinking format to use. I know its too late now, but there are thousands of consumers now befuttled and baffled at their new paper weight High Def Player. To the normal "TV" goer or avid movie watcher, you simply can't tell the difference between the two formats and if you can, well then your in the wrong business. Yes Blue Ray makes more sense (bigger storage, pure color ambiance blahh blahh) but I just don't understand that in the still prevalent wake of the first format war (VHS Vs. Beta Max) we didn't learn a thing or two about "whats right" for the consumer. Well, I guess only time will tell when the next format is on the horizon. I know the industry has stated that this will most likely be the last format war ever, but then again isn't this world all about evolving on an epic grand scale and pace? In the words of a Highlander I once watched every Thursday night on USA back in the day..."There can be only one."

WHAT I'M CURRENTLY REVIEWING:

In the midst of me waiting ohhhh so patiently for Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 (which debuts on shelves tomorrow!) I've been putting together an extensive look/review of two games that have been on shelves for a few months now.

1. Jonh Woo's Hard Boiled for the 360
2. Omega 5 (XBox Live Arcade Shooter)

I've played through both games now and am just trying to get a feel for their multi-player options, which should only take one more session (probably tonight) and then the reviews go up. On a quick note, both games are fun, look nice and play well...however repetition is a bitch.

Look back here tomorrow first thing in the morning to get my first reactions to Rainbow Six 2. I will be heading to Walmart tonight around 12am to pick myself up a copy and give it a whirl for the first time. I am very excited about this release seeing as though the first one was EPIC! See you bright and early.

-Game Hard-

Upcoming Gems Episode 2: Commando 3

If your old enough to remember the Commando series than you truly are a game enthusiast. It was a top down shooter that put emphasis on destruction and...well, not to much else. The selling point of this series always was the co-op aspect implemented in the game. Take up to three of your buddies into battle with you, shoot some dudes in the face, blow some buildings up, give the old proverbial "High-Five" to said buddies, rinse and repeat. Not much thinking involved but plenty of fancy pantsy explosions to make you go, "Ohhhhh!"

Enter: Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 (Xbox Live Arcade)


The game has been overhauled with updated graphics that almost look cell shaded, mini cut scenes and...wait for it...A STORY LINE! Yes you heard it here first. Commando 3 will actually have a story line, albeit a short one. Commando was never known for its mind blowing story arch's or even character exposition but this new installment looks to change just that; at least I hope.

Other interesting tid-bits are as follows:
1. Bigger and badder artillery
2. Staggering amounts of vehicles you can drive
3. More pretty explosions
4. Health Bar (first time this has been in any Commando's game)
5. The 'Red Button' effect (Special Move that wipes all enemies off the map)

Check out this footage to get a better feel for the game.



Commando 3 is set for a Spring release date and looks to be a great installment for you and three other buddies to load up, shoot some fools and have a few good laughs. Isn't that what its all about?

BioShock 2 In The Works

Compliments of GiantBomb(dot com)

**UPDATE**
Ken Levine will be at the helm for BioShock 2. This (in my opinion) alleviates a lot of stress for fans of the first installment. Compliments of Joystig.com

Back To Las Vegas

So I went to the store today and picked up a used copy of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six for 26 smacks. I played through most of the campaign a few months ago (rental style) but thought I owed it to Mr. Clancy and Ubisoft to actually buy it, play through once again and rack some more achievement points in preparation for Rainbow Six Vegas Two which comes out on the 18th of this month.

I cant wait for this game. The first one was near flawless in my book and the sequel looks to surpass my expectations of what a true sequel should be like. More online features, better A.I. command and supped up graphics. Most of the game play footage looks great and has me excited to pick the sequel up on launch day. Here's a taste.

Upcoming Gems Episode 1

DARK SECTOR Looks to be a promising 3rd person action romp loaded with blood, fatalities and plenty of action. This is the first installment of "Upcoming Gems"

Credit YouTube for This One.

Fuel of My War: A Frontlines Tale

As of late I've been renting a lot. Perhaps its my undying lust to play a new title every other day or perhaps its due to my video game addiction ( as my wife says I have), or maybe its because my birthday is on the 13th of this month and I'll let other people do the buying for once. As of this moment I have three titles rented from two different stores; Frontlines: Fuel of War, GRAW 2 and Army of Two. All of these titles have something special to offer you, for me it was the sheer adrenaline rush of playing FPS's/3rd person shooters that were done well!

I know GRAW 2 came out in 2007 and that its taken me this long to rent and play through it, however I think the wait was worth it. In a time where the FPS rules everything, GRAW 2 was a great diversion for me set with the 3rd person perspective. I guess I just felt the need to change it up a bit. I was knee deep in finishing up FEAR FILES and playing through Bioshock for a second time when it hit me, "I need a change." GRAW 2 filled a void; a void for squad tactics, running and gunning...and tanks. The graphics are lush, story tight and virtually no hiccups in multiplayer. I actually enjoyed this installment of the series better than the first one, which received higher scores than the sequel in virtually every magazine I read a write up in. For me, GRAW 2 was a great switch foot and a enjoyable game all at the same time.

This may sound jaded, but GRAW 2 got me, well wanting more FPS action after I plowed through the story mode. It did exactly what (deep down) I wanted it to do. Make me want more first person face shooting. I was Joansen...hard. So I picked up yet another rental, this time in the form of Frontlines: Fuel of War.


I have to be honest, I picked this one up thinking It was going to be just another ho-hum run of the mill FPS that I would beat in one session flat (as I've been known to do in the past). Wrong. This game is good; and when I say good I mean like 4 out of 5 points good. High end graphics with virtually no texture problems or pop ins? Check. Great sound track? Check. Intense situations only extreme amounts of fire power can get you out of? Double check. The developers of Frontlines not only brought their A game but pounded you on top of the head over and over again with it.

Two things I like a lot about this game is: The weapons and the SFX. The weapon variety may not be deep, hell I think there are only 5 or 6 gun types through out the whole game. However, they are rich mechanically and feel extremely real. Which brings me to my next point: Sound FX. The sound effects are intense and feel right. The machine guns sound powerful, rocket launchers intimidating, tanks robust and even the pistols sound spot on. I like my SFX loud and brutal. But thats not to take anything away from the explosions, rival soldier chatter you hear in the foreground, ambient nature sounds etc. The SFX are great and submerge you into the story line perfectly. One last quick point I want to touch on is the multiplayer aspect. Now, I haven't delved to hard into this section but have gotten my hands wet a smidgen. There are different modes in which you can play, i.e. your standard death match, team based death match etc. However it also introduces things like Drone matches and single player "old School" matches where its one versus one. All in all it reminds me of Counter Strike a little bit, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. I felt that my online matches got repetitive after a while, meaning I was doing the same thing over and over again: shooting dudes in the face. I'm not complaining but if they want the online to be on par with the likes of COD4 and Gears of War they need to introduce a little bit more variety come Down-loadable Content Via XBOX Live (Maps, guns etc). All and all I had a lot of fun with this game. Its a great game and gets a recommendation from yours truly, give it a whirl. 4 out of 5.

My last game I want to talk about is non other than the highly anticipated, highly delayed game entitle non other than Army of Two.

This is the most recent rental, so I don't have much to say about it just yet. I'm still grinding through the single player campaign, but I do have some preconceived thoughts on it. Its good, dont get me wrong however the mechanics are rough. There is allot to do with your partner which brings me to my biggest and most binding point: You need to play this game cooperatively (co-op style for the laymen). This game was built in and around playing through the campaign with a friend via Live or system link. Thats why I think the mechanics when playing through it single player style are under developed. I'm not saying that the single player campaign isn't good, cause it is, however as stated above it would be 10x more fun with a partner running and gunning with you spitting profanities, using tampons to heal each other and the occasional Wu-Tang conversation (play the game and you'll understand the Wu-Tang reference). Thus far the game is fun, looks good and is a solid 3rd person shooter. The look and feel of AO2 is comparable to Gears of War, which in my book is a damn good thing! 3.5 out of 5.

Well, for now Im tied up with Army of Two. Hopefully when the old birthday comes around this Thursday I'll end up with some new games to stick my meat hooks around. Until then, game hard.

GIANT BOMB (dot com)

It has finally been revealed what former gamespot editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis have been up to for the past few months since their departures from the aggregated video games review site. Alas: Giant Bomb (dot com)

This is going to be the next big thing for video game enthusiasts! Check out the site for yourselves and behold the eye of the tiger (Gatorade that is). If you listen to their pod cast (The Arrow Pointing Down Podcast) you would know what the hell I'm speaking of. More information on the site will come to fruition by weeks end I'm sure, but they have stated, on the site and in an interview with Adam Sessler on X-Play last night, that the full version of the site will be fully functional and operational by the beginning of the summer. I cant tell you how excited I am about this.

Catching Up Y'all

News this week on the gaming forefront is pretty scarce. The Take2 (Developers of the 2K Baseball series, Publishers of Grand Theft Auto) acquisition is still in a state of flux (if you've been living under a rock for the past 3 weeks, EA has put a 2 Billion Dollar mark on take 2 and is trying to purchase the company). Take 2 denied the 2 Billion Dollar tag that was out on them saying it was "Undercutting the worth of the overall company." This of course pissed EA's head honchos off thus forcing them to make the whole situation public to the share holders of Take 2. This has entailed a fury of remarks by said share holders directed towards the President and VP of Take 2 asking them to "Be smart about this." In the end I predict that the deal will go down sometime in the next month or so, but from what I have read and seen this could become a very HOSTILE take over by EA. If I was a share holder in Take 2, I would be yelling at the top of my lungs, "SELL, SELL, SELL!"

ITS OFFICIAL: THERE WILL BE NO ACHIEVEMENT POINTS ADDED INTO XBOX ORIGINALS. This (in my humble opinion) sucks. I wanted to go back and replay Ninja Gaiden and Indigo Prophecy one more time...they were great games! For those of you who are still holding onto that shred of hope, I'm sorry to report: "We haven't and wont add achievements to xbox originals" says Managing Director Michael Patcher of Wedbush Morgan Securities. Sorry boys and girls.

-----
So I figured I would let you all in on a few games I've been playing the hell out of; First Up is:

1. GRAW 2 (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter)


This by far blows away the first installment of GRAW which first made its debut on the 360 back in 2006. Its a tactical 3rd person shooter that focuses on the choices you make rather than bombarding you with Rambo Techniques and the ohh so favorite tactic known as "The Run and Gun," or as Cliffy B (Lead Designer for EPIC Games) Likes to say
"Stop and Pop." I'm on the last mission right now and have found only one gripe I have with GRAW 2. Sometimes there are extremely over lit sub sections of each map. meaning that its almost hard to see at long rang (hell, even short range sometimes) without having to squint due to brightness of the screen. I know I know, I'm being picky, however with the new SOCOM game coming out for the PS3 in the next few months which is the direct nemeses of the GRAW Series, these are things to look at when making GRAW 3, if they wanna keep competing! 4.0 out of 5.

2. LOST ODYSSEY


This game is, simply put: The best RPG I have played in a very long time. I have no idea what the reviewers of this game (Kevin Van Ord especially of gamespot.com) were talking about when they slammed the game with a universal 7.5 out of 10. Yes the game, developed by Mistwalker (Famous for working on the Final Fantasy Series) has some tech issues like a slight slow down/frame rate when hi res textures appear (i.e. panning landscapes and huge boss battles) but its nothing to the point where you find your self actually noticing the hiccup. In my experience thus far I haven't even encountered such problems; or at least noticed it enough to be pissed off. The graphics are beautiful and the game play is great. Theres nothing like a good turn based RPG for the hardcore role player in all of us. Yes, the game is knee deep in old school mechanics and doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it sure as hell is fun, looks great and plays even better. This game gets a well deserved 4.0 out of 5 for me.

Well, thats it for now. Check back here on a regular basis for up to date news, event coverage and personal rants and raves from yours truly.

ON A SIDE NOTE: I'm looking for contributors to Warp 9 Gaming. hit me up on the comments section and let me know if your interested.

A Noob To The Blog Scene

First Post! Ok, yes this may (at first) seem like a low grade gaming blog. Well, it is. But this is where to come for overviews, reviews, news and other assorted nerd stuff having to do with non other than gaming. Look back here tomorrow for the real first post!