The Collectors Editon Box

Opening the box – reveals that the packaging is cooler than I thought

Replica of Jim Raynors Dog tags is pretty sweet – Actually a 2GB USB Stick with the original game and the Brood Wars Expansion

Another image of the dog tags plugged into the system

From left to right – StarCraft 2 Game, Soundtrack and Making of Video

4 Guest Passes 2 x StarCraft 2 for 7hrs of game time or 14 Days whichever comes first and 2x 10 Day guest passes for World of Warcraft
Comic Book Issue #0 and the unbelieveable Hardcover art book – A must have for anyone who appreciates game art.

Today the team over at Epic announced that the fate of Clayton Carmine, the third brother, in the upcoming “Gears of War 3” title. Control Carmine’s future by purchasing avatar gear on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, fans and gaming communities around the globe will decide the destiny of the newest Carmine brother set to appear in “Gears of War 3,” with all the proceeds going to the Child’s Play Charity.

The Carmine family is an unfortunate bunch, Loosing a bother in each of the previous titles makes the family the proverbial ‘redshirt’ of the Gears world – see below for definition. Take Clayton’s life in your hands, and support a good cause while your at it, by purchasing one of these two shirt the first reads “Save Carmine” and the other reads “Carmine Must Die.” I saw on twitter you can get these shirts at the Xbox Booth at the San Diago Comic Com… If you get one – send us a pic!

I’m sorry Clayton, third time is not the Charm #CarmineMustDie.

P.S. Proceeds from Avatar t-shirt purchases go to Child’s Play.

According to the Wikipedia – Redshirt is a slang term for a minor stock character of an adventure drama who dies violently soon after being introduced in order to dramatize the dangerous situation experienced by the main characters. The term originated with fans of the science fiction television series Star Trek, from the red shirts worn by Starfleet security officers and engineers, who frequently meet their demise during the episodes. Sometimes, the character is a sacrificial lamb.

Select GameStop/EB Games locations across Canada are hosting exclusive Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies events on Saturday, July 31. Join other players and start trading maps and download an exclusive map from the EB store. Attendees will also be eligible to to win a Midnight Blue Nintendo DSi XL.

No idea what Dragon Quest IX is? Well don’t fret we have you covered…

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies combines game play with social fun, setting players out on an epic adventure. Explore special dungeons, called grottoes, to find rare items and enemies. Or fire up Tag Mode, when you can exchange maps and greetings with other players who come within range of each other.

Find your nearest GameStop/EB Games locations hosting events by visiting: www.gamestop.ca/dragonquest

Level Pack includes:

• 4 Brand new Marvel themed Levels
• 3 New music tracks
• A New level background
• 6 Materials
• 12 Decorations
• 5 Objects
• 155 Stickers

Pricing US $4.99
Compatible with LBP and LBP2

Character Pack Includes:

• Iron Man’s Rocket Boots, Iron Man’s Gauntlets, Iron Man’s Helmet, Iron Man Skin, Iron Man’s Armour
• The Thing Skin
• Mystique Mask, Mystique’s Goggles, Mystique’s Hair, Mystique Skin, Mystique’s Belt, Mystique’s Eyes
• Daredevil’s Boots, Daredevil’s Mask, Daredevil’s Gloves, Daredevil’s Horns, Daredevil’s Trousers, Daredevil Skin, Daredevil’s Shirt
• Doctor Octopus Claw, Doctor Octopus’s Goggles, Doctor Octopus’s Hair, Doctor Octopus Skin, Doctor Octopus’s Tentacle Arms

Pricing US $5.99
Compatible with LBP and LBP2

When you think of Disney, you don’t normally think..producers of a kick ass, highly addicting racing game keeping you up way too late into the wee hours. Well that’s exactly what what happened to me. I clearly underestimated Disney’s ability to turn it up a notch and completely take hold of senses with Split/Second. This game rocks! It has such a pick up & go pace about it. I found myself compelled to finish the solo-campaign as well as constantly go back for more in the multi-player arena.

Split/Second’s premise is that you’re a contestant on a reality show of sorts called coincidentally, ‘Split/Second’. Through a variety of different kind of races (elimination, position based, time challenged, and a few others). Each awarding you more credits the better you do. Additionally, unlocking new cars rather easily and new ‘episodes’ are they are referred to throughout (remember, think a tv show were you’re racing to keep your viewers glued to their set(s) by the destruction being caused to the tracks and other racers by your skills). With earned powerups while racing from successful drifting, jumps, and from what I’d like to call it tailgating – you have the ability use powerups that trigger various environment hazards to try and take out your opponents. If done too soon or too late, you may even wreck yourself…something I’ve done oh too many times. Regardless, you’ll wind up going back for more over and over. In my first sit down I thought I’d play a race a two..2.5 hr later lol…well, you get the point.

Graphics are top notch, no complaints there and I never witnessed any slow down even with alot going on on-screen, in the race and in the background. One of the things that I particularly like about Split/Second, is its choice of music. Gone are the ‘drill it in your brain’ – just plain loud rock type tracks that after a while just never seemed to fit IMHO in fast paced driving games. Instead, they opted to go the pulse route, with pumping instrumentals to get your heart beat..umm…racing! Great game, quick menus and very little load times..with a hot soundtrack to boot? It’s why I’m still jonesing for a race or two before I even get home some days.

Multi-player breaks down like so, you can battle against a friend in 2 player split screen co-op, or go online to play in 8 player match-ups. What’s really worth the bucks is that its not just straight racing. You get 1st to choose what type or racing you’re up for: head to head against 7, survival mode, among some others. At last count I think there were about 12-16 different locales to choose from as well. Cars unlocked in the solo campaign are eligible for use in multi-player (unlike in Blur) as well. Coolness.

Pros:

• Fast paced, and highly addicting gameplay
• Well thought out and gorgeous looking levels
• Driving feel just right, not too over sensitive – nor stiff (with enough variety between cars)

Cons:
• Havng to wait at times to join a multi-player game in a lobby instead of simply spectating
• No mention of new tracks via DLC yet (at time this was written)

Feed Your Console gives Split/Second a score of 8.5/10.

In a complete reversal from Nintendo’s now infamous 2008 E3 press conference, where core Nintendo gamers were not the target audience, 2010’s E3 line-up is the complete opposite.  This fall and holiday season, Nintendo is bringing back the classics with broad appeal and loyal fan followings.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn presents a unique medium for what is sure to be anothertimelessside-scrolling platformer.  Pop Star has literally been transformed into a sprawling tapestry and its denizens have been converted into bits of yarn.  In the new environment, Kirby can pull, swing on and unzip various objects to reveal new paths.  Living in a world made of yarn has its benefits as Kirby can drastically change his shape to confront enemies on a larger scale.  In co-operative mode, players work together to battle enemies, collect gems and reach new heights.  The difficulty level is nearly non-existent which ensures that young and casual gamers will have ample opportunity to explore the world with little in the way of frustration.  Kirby’s Epic Yarn is scheduled to be released for the Wii in Fall of 2010.

Donkey Kong Country returns in the aptly named Donkey Kong Country Returns.  Retro Studios revitalizes the series through clever usage of the Wii motion controls.  Elements and actions from previous Donkey Kong games are present but new features have also been added such as the ability to move from foreground to background in certain levels.Once again, Donkey Kong provides the brute muscle, preferring to attack his enemies at close range with ground pound and barrel roll moves while Diddy attacks from afar, gliding on his jetpack and firing his peanut gun.  Players can traverse DK Island alone or with a friend in co-operative play.   Donkey Kong Country Returns should hit shelves in time for 2010’s Holiday season.

GoldenEye 007 is a reboot of the N64 classic.  The story has been re-imagined and updated to modern day by Bruce Feirstein, the original author of the GoldenEye film.  The single player campaign will provide new challenges and objectives to fans of the original game.  Daniel Craig lends his voice to James Bond while Mr. Craig’s stunt double performs for the motion capture.  In all regards, this is the Bond people know and love today.  Characters and weapons remain the same but there have been great improvements to graphics, control and playability.  The result is a first person shooter that stands up to today’s standards.  Up to four players can compete in split-screen deathmatches as well as battle online against others around the world.  GoldenEye 007 is slated for a Holiday 2010 release.

Disney Epic Mickey represented one of the few brand newfranchises at the event.  Mickey Mouse, through events untold at present, has found himself in a dark world called the Cartoon Wasteland, whichacts as the antithesis of Disney’s Magic Kingdom.  Cartoon Wasteland is home to characters and locations that have been forgotten or rejected over time from the world of Disney.  Mickey must use paint or paint thinner to create or destroy the environment as per his needs; an element that forces gamers to keep an eye out for new or hidden paths.  When transitioning between regions, Mickey travels via 2 dimensional platforming events set in classic Mickey Mouse cartoons such as Steamboat Willie.  Quests can be solved in a multitude of ways and some can be skipped altogether.  Developers have also implemented a morality system wherein the game will track Mickey’s actions and change his appearance accordingly.  Disney Epic Mickey is due to be out by the 2010 Holiday season.

Sadly lacking from the event were the revolutionary new 3DS, a handheld system with glasses-free 3d effects, and the new Legend of Zelda title.  Both of these products will not be released before 2011.  That said, many other games were available to play, with most of them being sequels of previous titles.Names and projected release dates are as follows:

Wii

DS

Gamers asked and Nintendo listened.  With a strong showing of titles, both new and old, the end of 2010 is sure to be filled with gaming delight for both the Wii and the DS. 

Thanks to Nintendo for hosting the event and for inviting Feed Your Console to attend.

Ever wanted to Dance the Time warp? Or maybe you couldn’t get the song Aquarius out of your head? Or what about finding a way to use the ridiculously long word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Do you even know any of these songs?! (If your my age you do )

Ubisoft’s newest dance title “Dance on Broadway” lets you shake a tail feather to more than 20 of the best Broadway show songs to ever see the stage.

The simplicity of this game will make it appealing to all ages – there is really not a whole lot to it… Simply hold the Wiimote in your hand and your off and ready to Dance the night away. So get your friends together and live out your fantasy of dancing on a Broadway stage. As easy as you think this game will be without Rhythm your going to have some serious challenge with this game.

Graphically your presented with a stage, much like the show would have, four dancer and a series of dance moves you follow along with. I recommend the tutorial to first timers – It’ll probably help you get the hang of things quicker. This is a true party game for adults and will likely appeal to a younger female demographic.

Pros:

• Easy Game play
• Playing with friends is ultimately the best way to enjoy this game.
• Kid friendly Game

Cons:

• Not easy for the Rhythmically Challenged
• Limited number of songs
• Limited Replay value

Feed Your Console gives: Dance on Broadway: 8 out of 10

* Thanks to Ubisoft for supplying the review copy.

The people have spoken and they can’t get enough of the Wii top 10 – for a forth straight month the Wii titles have held strong and the Top 10 seems locked in.

WII

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Wii Sports Resort
• Mario Kart Wii
• Wii Fit Plus
• Endless Ocean: Blue World
• Punch-Out!!
• New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
• Excitebots: Trick Racing
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
• Animal Crossing: City Folk

From the DS side after months we finaly have a newcomer to the group – Making it’s DS debut in the Number 5 spot Picross 3D, a puzzle challenge sequel with enough oomph to push “Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky” right off the list!

NINTENDO DS

• Pokémon HeartGold Version
• Pokémon SoulSilver Version
• Glory of Heracles
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
• Picross 3D
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
• Style Savvy
• Fossil Fighters
• WarioWare: D.I.Y.

Ok folks, I’ve been busting my ass off to get all this info into one nice and tidy location to give you an update on all the news that’s come out of E3. Today I bring you the Big 3 Press Conference Roundup.

Microsoft
- Xbox Slim revealed, on its way to retail and I pout for the rest of the day because I don’t like the design
- UK launch date of July 16th for Xbox 360 Slim
- “Natal” is now known as “Kinect” gets November 4th launch date in North America but still no firm pricing details aside from Gamestop accepting pre-orders at a price of $149.99
- Call of Duty DLC to get times Xbox exclusivity until 2012
- Metal Gear Solid Rising gets Kinect support
- Crytek reveals Xbox 360 exclusive Codename Kingdoms. Very little is shown at this point
- Star Wars Kinect feels the Force in what could be a pretty cool game
- Fable III takes to the stage and makes me think that this could well be the best game in the series by far from the looks of it alone. Fable 3 is due out on October 26th
- Ubisoft reveals Kinect fitness title and my wife tells me she has to have this (Anyone from Ubisoft able to help us out)
- Gears of War 3 gets demoed and Cliffy B mentions “Beast Mode” but they don’t show it at the press event; upon further investigation Beast is like Horde Mode but you use the Locusts (Sign me up)
- Forza 4 announced, gets Kinect support
- Microsoft reveals controller-less Video Kinect software and 5 of the launch titles which all appear to have their own level of fun
- Total Halo series sales reach 34m worldwide
- Kinectimals gives Xbox 360 the cute factor and I sigh heavily with complete indifference
- ESPN signs free content deal for Gold subscribers and this is awesome news with 3500 live and pre-recorded events
- Kinect Sports revealed
- Kinect gets lenghty demo
- Dance Central eyes big audience – Blech
- Doubters silenced by impressive Kinect demonstration – Kinect is available on November 4th 2010
- Microsoft eyes 100m userbase
- 2010 “a year of transformation” for Xbox

All in All it was a decent showing by MS but I felt a little underwhelmed by the amount of software they showed off. There really isn’t all that much in the way of “HOLY CRAP” software titles coming exclusive to MS this year or next that they showed. Kinect looks like it has the potential to be alot of fun and extremely innovative. It’s like the future is appearing before our very eyes with this new technology so here’s hoping that the developers are working hard on Killer Apps for this thing and we hear about them sooner than later. While we’re still on the topic of Kinect, MS failed to deliver a concrete price – EBGames and GameStop are accepting pre-orders at $149 which may be a little high for some people who still haven’t seen any proper titles aside from the minigame apps they showed at E3. The nice thing is that you can still do up to 4 people with Kinect with no extra hardware.

I give Microsoft a B-

Nintendo

- Zelda: Skyward Sword announced by Miyamoto and demoed by them man himself only to experience “Interference” when trying to show the game’s “1:1 accuracy”
- Zelda the Skyward Sword is due out sometime in 2011 (if the past is any indicator, this is negotiable)
- Nintendo 3DS announced officially
- No launch date for 3DS
- Wide publisher support for 3DS praised
- Kid Icarus to front 3DS march and the crowd erupts in cheers for the little guy (I admit that I was kinda excited to see him too)
- Dragon Quest 9 for the DS is coming Stateside in 26 days
- Donkey Kong Country Returns and everyone who owned a SNES wiped a small tear from their face
- 3D move support for 3DS
- Mario Sports Mix debuts but won’t be available until 2011
- Epic Mickey due this Q4 and it looks effin sweet man. I must play this game.
- NBA Jam takes to the stage
- Just Dance 2 dated for Christmas – any male over the age of 11 yawns
- Wii Party dated
- Reggie refutes ‘Wii slump claims’
- Goldeneye gets officially unveiled and every fanboy who still claims that N64 was a great system in part to the original title sheds tears of joy and checks their shorts
- Kirby’s Epic Yarn debuts and is due out this Fall – Looks pretty but not my cup of tea
- Metroid Other M gets US date of August 31 2010
- Nintendo’s & Cats heading to 3DS – Yawn

Nintendo came out swinging for the fence this year – They started off with a bang by announcing the new Zelda game and the fun didn’t stop there. Seems that Big N is feeling nostalgic these days with the re-emergence of Donkey Kong Country, Kid Icarus, Metroid and Kirby. The official unveiling of 3DS was exciting and I can’t wait to get my hands on it to see just how awesome the 3D looks without the glasses. They lost the heart rate sensor this year and no more idiotic looking music games on the stage either. This is what the Nintendo fans have been waiting for – A solid showing by Nintendo showing off nothing but awesome 1st party titles but where are the killer 3rd party titles?

I give Nintendo a B

Sony
- Move given price, launch date; Sept 19th in the USA and Sept 15th is Europe at a bundle price with the PS Eye, a move controller and game for $99
- Gran Turismo 5 gets release date and supports 3D on Nov 2, 2010
- Valve connects Steam to PS3 and Gabe Newell finally sells out and removes foot from mouth; Portal 2 coming to PS3
- PSN subscription service on the way at a price of $49.99 for the year and includes a variety of cool extras including free games; Service to start the end of June 2010
- PS3 gets exclusive content for Mafia 2, Medal of Honor and Dead Space 2
- Medal of Honor Beta exclusive to PS3 of June 21st and release date of Oct 12, 2010
- Current PS3 titles get Move update (Tiger Woods 2011 and Heavy Rain to name a few)
- New game Sorcery revealed – Looks like this could be an awesome game; Due out in 2011
- Killzone 3 dated; Feb 2011 and demoed in 3D; I am green with envy of anyone with 3D TV
- Twisted Metal PS3 closes show and I drool and get whisked back to my high school years and late nights killing my buddies on split screen until the wee hours of the morning
- Final Fantasy XIV showcased
- Third parties show big 3D support; 20 3D titles to be available by March 2011
- Sony ‘fronting 3D movement’ with over 35 million installed PS3s that are already 3D ready by a small software update
- 70 new PSP games promised by Christmas
- 40 publishers working on Move games
- Sly Cooper coming to PS3 in 3D
- Heroes on the Move announced
- Move ties massive Coca-Cola promo deal
- New PSP ad drive kicks off
- LittleBigPlanet 2 gets demoed and it looks so sweet
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood gets PS3-only content
- Infamous 2 coming in 2011 and I really love the new art direction and character designs.

This was a good event – It had some surprises, comedy all thanks in part to the man Kevin Butler who everyone loves and it showcased some awesome titles. Move looks to be nothing more than Wii HD as many have dubbed it but the accuracy appeared to be incredible and golf looked to be just amazing. I love 3D and have been a huge supporter of it for years. To know that my PS3 is already to go is exciting to me regardless of my lack of proper 3D hardware (Christmas is coming). In general I think Sony had more titles that interested me despite the fact that they showed much of their hand in the weeks precluding to E3.

I give Sony a B+

All in all we all win as gamers but I would have to give the slight edge to Sony as the big winner with Nintendo close behind and Microsoft in the caboose at 3rd place.