Somethings were talked about and somethings were babbled on and giggling ensues

The boys discover that their favorite ranga has a really odd side…

So if you don’t know anything about Uncharted or if you are ravenous about it, enjoy this trailer from Gametrailers.com and feel the anticipation.

The guys invite Chris (aka @Aggie_CEO ) and he proceeds to cause technical glitches everywhere!

In the meantime they discussed:

The gang has a little too much to drink and Josh is tired which leads to a deep heated conversation concerning COD and the Vita,

they also discuss other things but these are the best… trust me!

Also we would like your input on this question:

Omer, Josh, and Johnny team up with a special Guest to talk about the Good,Bad and the Ugly of Deus Ex:Human Revolution.  And as if it weren’t already obvious MAJOR GODDAMN SPOILERS!

This Ep. Johnny1051 returns to discuss the joys of PC gaming with Robby, Omer and Jamal.

They also discuss topics such as:

Robby, Omer, Nick, Josh and Trev discuss games played,
news of interest such as:

Prices for Playstation tablets announced
Square Enix responds to Deus Ex racial controversy
The Next Duke Nukem Game will be Better and will be Revealed ‘Soon’

and Trev admits how much he loves the crew, especially Robby...

The team adds a new member and polite conversation ensues!

Articles discussed:

Newell Confirms CS:GO Is Cross Platform
EA’s Origin may be glorified Spyware, causes mass upset

GameStop intentionally removing Deus Ex OnLive coupons from retail PC copies (update: GameStop statement and legal outlook)

Hello everybody!

Nick the Rat reporting in.

Brink, a game set in the future on an island with no women. This has lead to the men on the island to go crazy and now they are trying to blow it all up for no good reason. What happens after that? Who cares!

To start, you create a character. This part disappointed me. Splash Damage was touting how customizable the character creation is. It is not. Sure, there are a bunch of options, but nothing near as interesting or open as other games. It is a fast paced FPS though, so looking at character models isn’t very important anyway. You can customize weapons as well, but only when you aren’t in game, so you better choose wisely and take note of how the weapons preform in game with certain add-ons! I like the variety of weapons and how they feel in the game. The guns have a nice kick, are varied and shoot where you aim them. Some guns seem VERY weak compared to others, so make sure you try them all out to see what suits your play style best.

Once you join a game (do not get this unless you plan on playing multiplayer) you are shown a crappy cut scene that is supposed to build a story. Again, this is just a multiplayer FPS so story does’t matter to me anyways. You are added to a team, either being offensive or defensive and given objectives. You must select an objective and be near it to gain a lot of XP and actually help your team out, otherwise you will get very little XP. This is where the game can fail. If your team is NOT doing objectives and just running around solo thinking they are playing Call of Dooty, your team will eventually be spawn camped and massively dominated by the team playing the game correctly. You can select 3 different classes on the fly and level them up in any way you see fit. To max level each class you will need to create more than one character though. Soldier gets ammo resupply and a variety of grenade. Medic can revive people and boost health/speed. Engineer can make turrets (ONLY PLACE TURRETS DOWN LONG HALLS, they do not aim quickly, but they can pack a punch) place mines and buff armor. Spy can drop caltrops and disguise themselves as fallen enemies.

The maps are varied but lacking. Each map is split into 4/5 missions with a different layout for each mission, but depending on what team wins, you may only play the first area of each map. The maps are well made, pretty and well balanced. The missions themselves are all pretty similar, but the action always remains hot. The parkour system in the game helps you get around faster and is interesting, but isn’t as open as I would like it to be. You can not use parkour EVERYWHERE and can be sometimes frustrating. Overall, i like sliding over chest high walls and under chest high pipes.

The graphics are pretty amazing even for my old and ageing rig. i play it on medium quality and they are very impressive. It sort of makes me want to build a new PC, but not as much as a game like Rage will. The sound is…good. The guns sound great and it always sounds like a small war is going on close by, but the voice acting is HORRIBLE… “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING”… (if you played the game, you might get what I am referring to with that)

Overall, if you like team based FPS and you don’t RAGE if you get put on a crappy team occasionally, I would suggest picking it you. I’ve maxed out one character already and almost done maxing out a second. Hopefully Splash Damage keeps supporting it and releasing more maps. If they do, I see myself continuing playing Brink for many more hours.

Nintendo is currently the 5th largest software manufacturer in the world.  The sales of their handheld console, the DS have grown almost consistantly by 50% from year to year with about 128.89 million units sold so far.  The 3DS seems to be selling at a brisk pace as well.  The Wii has seen some slowdown in sales, but is still a major player in the console game.  The real cash cow for Nintendo has always been their software.  Most of their software is produced in-house with almost an 80% profit margin.  All in all, it seems that Nintendo should be doing quite well. 

Why is it that their stock has dropped to near historic low levels lately then?  As of this report the stock price is currently at 23.15.  Down almost 40% from it’s 52-week high of 38.6.  Granted, the markets are fluid and seek their own levels, but Nintendo seems to be bringing itself down.  Financial executives at Nintendo seem to be carrying a lot of cash on their books lately.  As of their last Balance Sheet (March 31, 2011) Nintendo had 1,171bn in Cash and Short Term investments.  This is a huge amount of money that could be utilized.  This is detrimental to a corporation as that cash is not earning any interest.  It is just sitting there.  While this leads to a stable corporation it also leads to stagnation. 

Another reason for the decline in the stock price is a reduction in Revenues.  From year to year revenues fell almost 30% from 1.43t to 1.01t.  Add in increases in selling and administrative costs and net income dropped 66% from 228.64bn to 77.62bn. 

So, what is the solution for Nintendo’s ailing balance sheet?  Investment.  Most businesses tend to hold onto cash reserves during a decline.  This is not necessarily a bad idea, but it tends to drag the price of the stock down which, in turn, will bring the value of the company down.  If they shift the cash to an investment, either in the company or externally, the asset (cash) becomes liabilty in the form of an expense as well a depreciable asset, which will offset any future gains via taxes.  What that means is that the company has turned cash that is just sitting there into a means for growth.  Investing in new technology would translate to innovation and would benefit the consumer, gamers.  While the 3DS is a step in the right direction, Nintendo needs to innovate a lot more and shake loose some of that excess cash. 

Nintendo released a Dividend to stockholders recently.  This tends to shift the tax burden onto the investors for the excess cash.  Not a bad idea, but it still may be too little. 

Loosen those purse string a little Nintendo.  Innovate things a little more.

Check out the teaser below picking up where Halo 3 left off only with one very important change to Halo 4 and the future of the Master Chief in general. Halo 4 will mark the first in the main series not developed by Bungie as well as the first installment of a new Halo trilogy, 343 studios (Halo Wars) takes the reigns and is building the dev team as I write this. As a fan I can’t help feeling a bit apprehensive and curious at the same time to see if 343 can breathe new life into the series.

The teaser is exactly that, but whats known is that we’ll be seeing MC on a new world, with a new studio behind the wheel, and for better or worse possibly a whole new Halo.

This E3, Sony showed to the public, their Next Generation Portable or codenamed NGP. While this is the logical successor to the PSP, it is also Sony showing that they listened to the fans by adding some features fans said were missing from the Playstation Portable, such as dual analog sticks and cameras. They also brought in a touch screen, touch back interface and full network functionality including voice chat and full network play via 3g powered by AT&T or WIFI.

Its called the Playstation VITA and its here to melt your face:

Witcher 2

A lot has been said about this title, and it does warrant a discussion on it’s place in the gaming industry, and how I feel it’s a game changer. First, I’d like to give my review of the game, as my followers on twitter have seen me hashtag and generally spew about this title like mad.

Background -

I used to hate RPG’s. With passion. If I saw so much as a hint of a sword or dragon in the game, back on the shelf it went. Last year, for reasons still unknown for me, I picked up a used version of Dragon Age Origins for 360. After hearing so much about the game and it’s rewards and reviews, I decided to put away my prejudice and give it a shot. All I can say is wow. Origins was immersive, written well, huge, quest heavy and never boring. Loot and upgrades of weapons and armors pushed me forward in the game. After finishing that and all the expansions, I was a changed man. I would give RPG’s a chance from now on. I had found a new genre I truly enjoyed.

Review -

So, as a new convert to Sword and Sorcery RPG’s I was naturally attracted to the Witcher 2. There was much buzz about it in the community , and according to the meta scores, the first one was very well received. I decided to take a chance and pre-order from GOG.com who was promising the game sans-DRM. I was not disappointed. Here is a rich, immersive game with absolutely stunning graphics and interesting consequences for decisions made. The fighting mechanics were very streamlined, and the preference of using a controller becomes obvious after playing for a while. One of the more interesting aspects of the game is it’s emphasis on preparation. You are forced to take potions BEFORE combat. Once an encounter starts, there is no breaking for health potions. In the beginning of the game this becomes quite frustrating to those of us not blessed with clairvoyance. After the first few encounters however, you start to develop the sixth sense needed to foresee when such actions are needed before you find yourself surrounded by monsters /bandits / bad guys. There is no control or inventory management over your NPC companions, and the reason is that most of the time you are operating alone. There are some stealth levels, and some QTE’s (Surprising for a PC based RPG). Overall there is a healthy mix of gameplay and it’s never boring. Side quests are handled well and never feel forced or non important to the overall story line. Inventory management is well done, and very accessible using a 360 controller (Which, once again, I highly recommend for use). The learning curve and overall difficulty is a bit bizarre. Early levels are difficult to the point of almost being off-putting, but by the second act it seems the world does not level up with you and things become almost too easy. This is offset by the fact that this gives you room to experiment with your fighting / spell technique using newly unlocked abilities. The boss battles wavier between ingenious and thought provoking to standard hack and slash. Overall I was impressed with the product but disappointed in it’s length. I can understand that there is a definite story here with a beginning middle and end, and I did appreciate that it wasn’t padded with nonsense quests to be used as filler just to clock in 80 hours or so. I can honestly recommend this game to RPG fans both new and old, and I only hope a console release is in it’s future to expand it’s fan base of loyal followers.

What the Witcher 2 means for the industry-

Lets look at the Witcher 2 from a industry standpoint. Here is a small, independent company releasing a game that is critically acclaimed and promoted using word of mouth and internet. There are no TV commercials. There is no big budgeted marketing magic going on here. All of the reviews are from people that sought this game out, it was not constantly in their face like a COD release. CD Projeckt listened to their fans and developed and released a game for the gamers. With the game design and execution they put to shame EA and Dragon Age 2, Something the DA developers are aware of and somewhat eluded to in a recent post on the developers website, promising a better experience in Dragon Age 3. The bar has been raised. The Witcher 2 represents a unique departure in gaming design. Here is a PC game that is as accessible as a console game, but with the graphics and story cranked to 11. Gone is the pausing and micro-management of Dragon Age Origins. Combat is fast and fluid and more suited to a generation of gamers raised on consoles. Dragon Age 2 seems like it was dumbed down too much for consoles, delivering a bland blend of graphics and combat as well as story. CD Projeckt has taken a risk, by utilizing the best of both worlds into a fantastic, entertaining game. Just like in football, I can see the losing team here paying real close attention to that last game. Watching hours upon hours of videotape to analyze their opponent. You can be pretty sure that the most avid players of the WItcher 2 are going to be the developers of Dragon Age 3, as they study and learn and come to grips how they were upstaged by a small Polish start up in a arena they once owned. No EA bashing is intended here, but I think the gamers will be the real winners here as a new era of competition has been started in the RPG genre.

The squad based shooter bearing the Clancy name aims to breach and clear the tactical shooting category on the IOS platform, but does it hit the mark clean or leave too much collateral damage?

Your first mission after joining Rainbow has you tasked with making them look good by rescuing hostages being held in a hotel. You and your two squad-mates must sneak in and eliminate all the armed guards and rescue the hostages safely using a number of weapons and gadgets that will be familiar to fans of the R6 series, such as snake-cam for under door viewing and a pocket sized drone used to peer around corners. All the gadgets, weapons, and commands are represented by touch points and therein lies one of the major issues with the game; there are moments when the screen is almost completely filled with icons and buttons to press. Time and time again I found myself trying to turn my view to the right or left just a little and accidentally hitting the trigger firing a few rounds into nearby walls. The touch setup really reminded me why controllers with multiple buttons are a GOOD thing for gaming, particularly with a tactical squad shooter.

There are also clear attempts to compensate for the control issues and screen clutter. The targeting uses an auto-lock and gyroscopic system, but unfortunately it just adds to the confusion during a firefight; you can’t help but move your hands while trying to press buttons to stick to walls for cover or using the virtual d-pad to run and fire simultaneously. Unfortunately the developers also tried to make the game more playable by dumbing down the enemy AI. At one point I killed a terrorist standing in a room full of people with headshot and his buddies just continued to hang around waiting for me to pick them off one at a time! The sad part about it is that it feels like a necessary evil to compensate for the sloppy controls but it also made the game feel devoid of any strategic merit, it actually kind of felt like cheating. To top it off the only balance to the crappy enemy AI is your own squads’ AI, several times I’d be sneaking around sniping enemies one at a time and my squad would blaze in weapons free and even manage to alert the brain dead AI terrorists to my presence.

All-in-all the game did manage to feel epic and true to the Clancy series at times, but the game-play is full of sloppy mechanics that make it tolerable at best. The controls and the AI hinder the experience so much that this game will likely only be enjoyed by the most rabid of R6 fans. I can’t recommend this game for purchase even at the easy to buy price of $6.99 unless a future update cuts some of the screen clutter and after my experience with the single player, I decided that trying my hand at multiplayer would be a project for another day.

I had high hopes when this series showed up on IOS, but hostages be damned – the world of Rainbow Six will need to remain on consoles and PC for now.

May 7th 2009 a day that many will remember as the day Duke Nukem almost died.  After 12 years of highs and lows the news that 3D Realms and Duke Nukem Forever were in dire trouble trickled across the Internet.   Many met the news by succumbing to the gnawing feelings of apathy that had every so slowly built up after heartbreak after heartbreak.

The faithful few Duke fans left lamented the death of their hero and his fall from grace.   Seemingly being labeled as forever as the joke of the video game industry.  No matter what side of the coin you were on that day it seemed as if Duke was gone forever.  Fast forward to  May 2011 and since then Gearbox Software helmed by Randy Pitchford coming off the outstanding success of  Borderlands snatches up the Duke franchise and as of this writing the game has gone gold and  we are exactly 17 days away from an actual retail release.

So whats the whole point of this diatribe you say?  Well, lately I’ve heard numerous people both in the press and amongst the unwashed masses of gamers themselves making off the cuff remarks on how  Duke Nukem Forever is going to be horrible.Don’t get me wrong everyone has a definite right to have an opinion.  In this case however I just feel that people are barking about something that they would have hated regardless.   Gearbox has been pretty transparent that they are finishing Duke Nukem Forever for exactly two reasons.

The largest of the reasons being all the hard working men and women that worked at 3D realms that worked on this game for so long.   Randy Pitchford of Gearbox got his start at none other than 3D realms and Duke 3D was in fact his first project.   It goes without saying that for many there are seemingly deep emotional ties to  the Duke franchise.

I’ve heard phrases like “this game is so 1999” being used in conjunction  with describing the games design.   And quite honestly… they are right.   Duke Nukem Forever is a 2011 game with the soul of a 1999 game.   This fact alone is what makes the game so seemingly polarizing.   I’m sure many will look at the game as being archaic and badly designed.   Especially after coming off of games like  Call of Duty Black ops and Halo Reach both games that are good in their own rights.

Duke however isn’t from that ilk of game.   Modern shooters strive to be big budget and cinematic and have progression in multiplayer and huge set peices and the biggest baddest graphic engines.   Duke however is about the game.Oddly enough, 1999 was the first time I got my hands on Duke Nukem and I was 14yrs old.  Now yes, looking back at 14 I really shouldn’t have been playing Duke and it wasn’t from lack of my mother trying to stop me from playing it either.Regardless, I was fascinated by the game.  It was’nt the first FPS game I had played those honors go to Goldeneye 007.  However, it was the first FPS game captured my attention so readily.   A good portion of what attracted my 14yr old mind to the game is the obvious gratuitous boobs and violence.  I never proper owned a copy of the game and honestly never even played the PC version as I was only ever able to play the  N64 version of the game.   I had wondered for years afterward if my attraction and fond memories for the game were simply as shallow as  the violence and the overt sexuality the game pushes.

Luckily Microsoft released  Duke Nukem 3D on XBLA a wonderfully adapted PC port that seemingly kept the original PC game in tact.   About this same time i was shelved in bed for about a week as I was recovering  from a surgery to repair a hernia.    I was excited to try the game out again and see if my childhood fascination with the game held up a good 9 years later.I suprisingly tore into the game with a intense vigor with a smile on my face eager to get to the next level.    What hit me in the days to come is exactly why I like Duke Nukem and why the game has stuck with me as a seminal game.I think first and foremost the level design is  what really sets Duke Nukem over the top for me.   Unlike modern shooters that keep pushing you forward to see “the next  big set peice”  many FPS games of this era like Duke and Doom before it were surprisingly as much about exploration as they were shooting baddies.

Having a huge playground with tons of secrets to explore was always one of the joys of the shooters of the era.   I remember watching my cousin play the game  and showing me  secret doors and switches that I would have never found otherwise.    The back and forth  of finding secrets and sharing them was a staple of gaming at that time.No matter  if it was impressing your friends in Mortal Kombat with the secret fatality you found or finding a secret room in Duke Nukem the community mind share of the local gaming scene  was a fun thing to be part of.The other part of Duke Nukem that I find holds up for me at least that separates it from Doom and other games of that generation that had similar exploration parts is that Duke Nukem was and still is funny.The literal take of some of the jokes like mutant pigs that just happen to be “cops”  were honestly pretty funny.   Duke himself is a parody unto a parody of every 80’s action star  conglomerated into a single person.  His lines are intentionally cheesy and completely and overtly ripped from other movies.   Being so mired in 80’s and 90’s movies like Army of Darkness,They Live and Die Hard among others its obvious that Duke’s largest fan base most likely wasn’t born anytime after 1990.

In the 15 years since Duke 3D was released game design has obviously and significantly progressed and for the better.  Among the shuffle  into true 3D and the arms race to have the most realistic graphics with the most features I think some of the  elegant parts of video games were lost.  Games that are not afraid to be nothing more than  just a game.   Epic games alongside People Can Fly recently released Bulletstorm to much fan fare.  Now while I don’t know if  the guys at Epic or PCF are Duke fans I can say I think they felt much the same about the state of games.  Bulletstorm was a fantastic game and while it still has many of the modern game tropes it also felt like a distinct callback to games like Duke Nukem that were’nt afraid to be silly and fun for the sake of being fun.

The obvious reality is that games are never going to be the way they used to be.  That’s quite alright in my book.  All mediums progress and grow and change is good.   And since we’ve spent the last 15 years playing games like Halo, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six and others its no surprise that a game like Duke Nukem feels lost in time.   I can’t speak for every Duke fan out there but I can say that I don’t expect Duke Nukem Forever to go toe to toe with the other big games this year.   Hell, I don’t expect it to even sell all that well.

I’m just glad that this game exists, period.   If all I get is a 5-8hr journey down memory lane this time in splendid HD I’ll be pretty content.    Duke Nukem Forever is the embodiment of 1999 game design and thats all it really needs to be.  A quick hello to the yesteryear of what games used to be.   All the fanfare glitz and glamor will be gone as soon as the salvo of big hitters start banging down the proverbial floodgates.   I will be glad I had my time with Duke.   He is like the friend I drifted away from.  Sure, we might not have much in common  anymore and we don’t hang out  but its good to say hello to an old friend that you used to know.

And that’s why Duke Nukem Forever (probably) isn’t for you.  You might have just moved on or  you might have just never been around when Duke was and that’s okay.   For us that do well, we’re all ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum and well… you know the rest or maybe you don’t and that’s okay.

Infamous 2 is on the way to stores, then your console!

After enjoying the Infamous so much, this is a day one purchase for me… even with the changes they made to Cole, the core gameplay was enough to keep my interests up and to want me to come back to his world of mutants and other super powered beings.

…and it comes with beta invite for Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception multiplayer beta!!!

Heres a trailer provided by Gametrailers, enjoy!

Created as a mobile version of the PC title, Majesty loses little of its appeal moving to the small screen.  As King, you are tasked with different quests in the grand RTS style of the game’s namesake.  I must admit I was hesitant to play a RTS on my phone.  I have a hard enough time trying to play one on a PC.

The gameplay is similar to most RTSs in which you have to build up resources (in this case gold) by providing protection to your kingdom.  Each quest requires that you start with little to nothing built on each map, so you have some flexibility in where you place buildings.  The troop types are pretty standard fare for a fantasy game.  In order to hire warriors, wizards, rangers, or priests you have to build the corresponding guild.  There are combination units as well, such as Paladins, if you have the appropriate temple and a warrior’s guild.  You can also build other structures such as marketplaces that increase gold as well as supply healing potions, rings of protection, etc. to your units.  One of my favorites is the library where you can research spells that your wizards can cast and ones that you can cast yourself.  There is nothing like smiting a troll with some lightning because you don’t like his face.

The controls are a little awkward at first and depending on your device, a little inconsistent.  To build a guild, for example, you have to select your castle, click on buildings, click the corresponding guild, and then comes the hard part…placing it.  The interface to place a building is simple, but not too effective.  After selecting the building, you have to double click where you want it, provided, that the area is clear enough.  Often I found that I placed other buildings awkwardly and had to put the new building further than I wanted to from my castle.  Placing buildings further from the castle means that it takes longer for it to get built.

Apparently there are numerous ways to complete some missions.  A fact I wasn’t privy to until I read the instructions a bit.  The decisions made on how you complete the missions then affect future missions and the development of your kingdom.  This makes for a deeper game and keeps you coming back for more.

The graphics are pretty good for a mobile game.  The models aren’t that detailed but you really don’t see any kind of slow-down although there are multiple units in play at any given time.  The sound is really well done for a little game like this.  The music is pretty good and the sound effects are comparable to the PC version.

All in all Majesty The Fantasy Kingdom Sim is well worth the price, which is $1.99 on Amazon’s Android Marketplace.  For those strategy nuts who need a mobile fix, look no further.  The lack of multiplayer does hinder it a bit and a skirmish mode would have been nice, but still this game is addictive and fun to play.

DC Universe Online for the PC is an Action MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment and the Warner Bros. Group.  It should be specified as an action MMO because the character development is a little too Action driven and not much else.  Let’s start from the beginnning…

In the future, the heroes and villains wipe each-other out, until only a few remain.  Just then, Brainiac comes to earth and takes over the joint.  Lex Luthor goes back in time to save earth and unleashes one of Brainiac’s weapons called Exobites.  These little critters bestow powers stolen from earth’s heroes and villians upon the rest of the humans.  They are supposed to help fight Brainiac in the future.

As with most MMOs you create your character with a set of very customizable tools for your hero or villain.  You can take the easy route and base your character on one of the main DC characters such as Batman or Lex Luthor or you can take a whack at making a completely original character.  The choices for your powers may seem a bit limiting at first.  You can create either a hero or a villain with Fire, Ice, Gadgets, Mental, Nature or Sorcery powers.  Each of which has two subdivisions that you will see later in the game.  You also get to select your main means of combat through a weapons choice.  The weapons you can choose are One-Handed, Hand Blasters, Bow, Brawling, Dual-pistols, Dual-wield, Martial Arts, Rifle, Staff and Two-Handed.  These weapons all have short and long range attacks.  The power sets are a little confusing at first and like me, the first character you make will probably not be your last.  Which is not entirely good.  I feel like they gave us the tools without the instructions.  Really liking a certain type of power may not translate how you think it might in game.  Before embarking on creating your character, you really should read the entire website and maybe a few guides.  While the depth of the powers are pretty impressive, it takes a good long while to get used to the progression.

Speaking of progression, since this is an “action” MMORPG, expect to grind.  Most of the quests involve beating a certain number of enemies or destroying X number of containers, collecting X number of whoosits, etc.  As with most other MMOs the time between levels as you get higher up become longer and longer.  The good news is that you usually get a pretty new power as the dangling carrot.  There are even “iconic” powers that you can pick after level 10.  Powers like Superman’s freeze breath and Wonder Woman’s bracelet deflections are just 2.

The base areas are pretty expansive and as your character progresses, you’ll find that teaming up is essential.  There are open instances of really super powerful baddies/goodies (depending on your alignment) that will require help from other players.  Clayface, for instance, is almost impossible to take down alone unless you are up there in level.  The problem here is that there are a lot of servers and not that many players.  Besides DCU, there is City of Heroes and Champions Online (which just went free to play) to quench your superhero thirst.  Unless DCU really jazzes itself up I just don’t see this happening any time soon, which is a shame.  I think with the DC license they could go pretty deep in the writing of missions and quests.

The world is also pretty blah compared to COH or Champions Online.  The comic style only goes so far and since they concentrated on that so much, there are clipping and popping issues.  While you can interact with your environment to a limited degree (you can’t pickup a mailbox, but you can destroy a red barrel) there are times where you will find yourself hating the environment.  Like getting pushed off a building and having to climb all the way back up if you can’t fly.  At one point I felt like I was playing Donkey Kong as I was fighting some of Gorilla Grod’s henchmen and kept getting knocked down.

Question is should you buy this?  If your are a DC fan-boy I give it an emphatic YES.  If you are more of a Marvel fan or just don’t like comics, you should take a look at it when the price drops, otherwise, look elsewhere.  There just isn’t enough juice here.  That is to say that with a bit of polish and more players the game could really take off.  The PC version the game is currently $49.99 with 30 days free.  Maybe if they dropped that initial investment a bit, they could get more players.  Just a suggestion.

As a MMO that is playable on the PS3, I give it a BUY.  I have not tried the control scheme for the PS3, but I hear that it is really solid and the since you can voice chat, there is little need for a keyboard.  Which is good because the PC control scheme with a keyboard is a little awkward.  Since it is an action MMO, there is a lot of button presses and clicking a mouse just doesn’t give you the same feel.  The price might be slightly higher, but it really is more of a console MMO anyway.  You could get a controller for your PC, which might help.

The pricing structure for DCU is the same as most other MMOs:

$14.99 monthly

$41.99 – 3 month

$77.99 – 6 month

$134.99 – 1 year

$199.99 – lifetime

So, if you find yourself in Metropolis, look me up.  As usual, my name is Adventurene and I’m on the “Last Laugh” server.

I went into Thor knowing the mythos about the character and his involvement with the Avengers but really was not prepared for what I was about to witness. What I got was a two hour power of awesomeness and a damn good flick…

I loved the fact that Kenneth Branagh directed it and loved his past work and couldn’t think of a better person  to head this movie. I didn’t know who Chris Hemsworth was going in, I just knew he played James T. Kirk’s father in Star Trek, yet I felt he did an awesome job as Thor, selling the character as someone that is actually alive and not just a 2 dimensional, 4 color comic book, he plays it as someone you could see being a true hero in our day and age.

The movie itself was great and fantastic ride. It hit all my emotional buttons in the right way and was very well paced and didnt even make me feel like it was a two hour race to the end. The story kept me on my seat and let me really get to know the characters and all that is the world of Thor. I understand there is a ton of CGI but everything was so rich and beautiful coupled with the music added to the realism and I was swept away and didnt even feel it wasn’t real. All the actors and crew did a wonderous job on this movie and and set it up excellently for what is to come next. I implore you to go see it, it makes you laugh, cry, and brings joy to you and should not be missed.

In summation, Thor is truly a must-see movie for any die hard Marvel fan and even if your not, it is a fantastic movie from beginning to end and brings what a night out at the movies is all about.

Mini Review: Solid A

As a network admin, when the PSN was first reported down and even after the 6 days when they reported that it was due to a hack, I commended them for the investigative period that went on. I have dealt with hacks in the past and it appears to me, they followed the steps exactly as we did… then released this statement, saying what I had been saying to anyone that would listen to me.

I posted this note earlier to point out that what I was saying was being echoed:

Security experts: Companies that are attacked remain silent most of the time

The news keeps saying 77 million accounts were stolen,: http://bit.ly/lH4U1m, yet Sony says “While all credit card information stored in our systems is encrypted and there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility.”: http://bit.ly/lGalyK

A rumor I can’t seem to find the source of says Sony kept credit card info in plain text, I am not sure why this persists as a news item and in response:

Sony: “The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken.” http://bit.ly/lGalyK

They also go on to say: “The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack” : http://bit.ly/lGalyK

Which makes it less of a hack then the Epsilon hack that no one seems to remember.: http://bit.ly/kDPFK1

Someone is trying to steal your data all the time and there are lots of men and women combatting them the best they can, to assume they are negligent without direct proof and based on complete hearsay is insulting to them all.

…but what do I know, I am just a network admin…

…and thats my final words on this subject… going to go play single player Shift 2 now.

Telltale Games has taken one of my favorite movie franchises, “Back to the Future” and turned into an episodic point and click adventure game. Since recently watching the BTTF trilogy on Blu-ray helped rekindle my love for the franchise and I’m familiar with Telltale’s work, I wanted to give this game a shot. After playing the first episode, this game leaves me wanting more and more of this good, wonderful stuff!

“Episode One: It’s About Time,” basically acts like the fourth film. Months after the events of “Back to the Future 3,” Marty Mcfly attempts to live his life without his good friend Doc Brown while trying to protect Doc’s assets from the bank which the bank is selling from his estate. All of a sudden, the DeLorean appears in front of Doc’s lab with a tape recorder inside saying he’s in trouble somewhere in time and you need to find him. This is where the adventure begins. Telltale knows how to make good episodic games and this one is no exception. The very good story telling got me hooked until the end of the first episode and the unexpected cliffhanger makes me anxious to play episode two when it’s released.

As I said earlier, this is an adventure game. You search for clues and solve puzzles in order to find out what happens next. At first, the puzzles can be a bit of a head scratcher, but you will figure it out eventually. If you get stuck on a puzzle, there is a hint system that does not penalize you. And there are different dialog choices, but I wish that if you choose a different dialog it would change the overall story but unfortunately it does not.

I am loving the cinematic feel to this game. Most of the soundtrack from the original trilogy is included. Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Doc Brown and newcomer, A.J. Locascio’s impression of Michael J Fox is so good it’s scary. The visuals and cartoonish feel of the game is also a nice touch, but it does have some technical problems such as frame rate issues, lip-syncing problems and bad controls when the camera switch. These are minor gripes and don’t hinder the overall gameplay experience.

Telltale did a lot right with episode one and the series is a great addition to Playstation Network. The cost is $19.99 and includes all five episodes. Each episode is around 2-3 hours of gameplay which is one hell of a value. I highly recommend this awesome game. Be warned, once the start button is pressed on your PS3 controller, you gonna see some serious shit.

Fellow GNT drunkard Robby1051 mentioned Game Dev Story was on sale for $.99 so I figured what the hell, thats my basic policy on iPhone games so far; If its $.99 or free its OK with me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Game Dev Story was not only worth every penny but it was actually damn good. Its a simple concept with an 8-bit art style and any game that allows you to hire bears, wrestlers, and oil barons to virtually write, design, score, and program your game gets my vote.

Game Dev Story is actually a port of Gēmuhatsu Tenkoku and was developed by Kairosoft, GDS was their first western release and there are aspects of the game that show its roots, which only seems to add to its charm despite being a bit confusing at times…What the hell is a poncho game anyway?

The gameplay is sort of Sim style and is based around how well you can pair genres with game types that are a good fit and you can also unlock new game types and genres by training your employees. Starting with a matching genre and game type will increase the effectiveness of those game types and get you better sales but you also need to consider which consoles you want to Dev for. In order to develop games for newer consoles with a larger market share you’ll need to buy a license and dev-kit, developing for the most popular consoles will get you higher sales numbers but also cost you more and there will be more of a chance of releasing your game to a competitive market. On the other hand developing for a more obscure platform will be cheaper allowing you to spend more on the actual development but you run the risk of releasing to a limited fan-base and your console being discontinued – theres a really great balance to it all and although it sounds like a true Sim its all delivered in a very entertaining and manageable way. Watching code-monkeys tap away on their keyboards and burst into flames when they’re hit with inspiration or getting the staff jacked-up on dead-bull to bring their energy levels back up will have you hooked in no time.

As the head of the Game Dev company you will also need to oversee marketing, hiring & training employees, keeping them motivated, keeping an eye on the budget, etc. It starts out really simply and does a good job of providing some tips and tricks along the way, the more you play the more you realize there is a decent amount of depth despite its quirky exterior and you just want to keep digging. There are a lot of elements and stats to factor in with each decision you make in addition to refining your timing and sequence of actions over the course of the year, it all makes for a game you get better at with each play-through as you learn more tricks of the trade. It all boils down to trying hit that perfect storm of appreciation for the games you release – perfect review scores, breaking sales records, and winning GOTY. You can even go so far as to develop your your own console which may seem out of reach on your first play-through, by the second or third you’ll probably figure it out. All-in-all running the company right will get you fame, fortune, and a huge fan-base in Game Dev Story.

Your sales stats top out at year 20 and you have the option of continuing to play or starting a new play-through. There are also unlocks and level-ups that will carry-over to consecutive play-through’s so the tendency is to jump right back in and start another studio when you’re done. By the time I reached my third play-through I had figured out how to crank out award winning titles non-stop and develop a huge following rather quickly, the challenge does fade a bit but reaching goals you could not before does hold a few surprises and the simple act of coming up with titles for your games just doesn’t seem to get old.

Overall the game is definitely worth a look to anyone who’s ever thought about what it’d be like to bring a game to life or really anyone who’s ever critiqued a game and thought of ways to make it better, if you’re reading this chances are thats you. It allows you to play as you like, if you want to be the AAA game developer that only releases huge titles and sequels you can work towards that, or you can play the mad scientist indie developer that couples odd genres and game types with a heavy focus on creativity. Game Dev Story is available on IOS and Android devices and it needs to be played to be fully appreciated, its every bit worth the asking price so go pick it up.

We first met Isaac Clarke in 2008 and man has the guy had a rough couple of years.  He barely survived an outbreak of freakish monsters, insane cultists AND his girlfriend is dead.  Fast forward to 2011 we join Isaac again this time with Isaac waking up in a mental hospital inside a space colony “The Sprawl”

After what could be described as one of the most intense opening scenes in recent memory you’re quickly thrust into another adventure with Isaac.  The controls are still tight as ever and Dead space fans will feel instantly at home as the controls are largely unchanged.  A few minor improvements to the controls like adding a button to quickly recharge your stasis energy makes the controls fluid and allow you to quickly adapt to your battle situation.

One of the main complaints and also a personal complaint of the first game is that you were for all intents and purposes an errand boy.  While this moved the story along it didn’t make for compelling characterization of Isaac or of any other characters.

In Dead space 2 Isaac is on his own journey.  There is no guy jabbering in your ear set telling you to “Isaac fix that” and “Fetch this”.    Along the way Isaac struggles with are personal demons and struggles as his dementia blurs the lines between his realities.

The locales in Dead space 2 are much more varied than the bland industrial corridors of the Ishimura space station.   Isaac will trudge through Malls, Hospitals and even a child’s day care center.  The sprawl constantly oppresses you with grisly images of the death and suffering the outbreak of necromorphs has caused.  This plays to the game’s strength as you constantly feel a genuine sense of tension.

Helping you on your way through the sprawl are tons of new guns.  The Javelin gun what essentially amounts to a harpoon gun is among the crazier of the new weapons.  You can use your new found arsenal to shoot at the myriad of new necromorph types that are infecting the sprawl.   Nice little added touches like shooting windows and causing the room to decompress and suck everything into space give you quite a few tactical options when dispatching your decaying flesh craving foes.

A few other changes include the inventory system.  You quickly acquire your old engineering suit.  However, rather than upgrade this suit as you did in the previous game this time upgrading your inventory  and armor rating requires  you to find suit schematics and buy them at the store.

The upgrade system remains unchanged.  As in the previous game you will find power nodes that you will use to upgrade the guns.  The bright side of this system is it allows you to pick the upgrade path to your weapons.  The downside is like the previous game you are going to most likely want to focus on about 3 weapons to get the most out of the upgrades.

Visceral games went out of the way to make sure they keep you coming back for yet another adventure.  The game features 4 difficulties with the new ability to do a New Game +.   This allows you to take all of your previously earned gear and tackle a new difficulty level.    The masochistic players will enjoy the newly added “Hardcore” mode.

Hardcore mode plunks you into the hardest difficulty with only 3 saves for the entire game.   Only the most dedicated players will ever attempt this but it’s a nice gesture for the people who want to attempt it.  Anyway you look at it most players will most likely take at least 2 runs through the game.    The game itself is about 7-10 hours depending on your play style.  It should also be mentioned that the Xbox 360 version is 2 discs.

Extending your playtime is the newly added multiplayer mode.  Many people groaned at the thought of Dead space multiplayer when so many games add in throw-away multiplayer at the last second.   Dead space’s multiplayer is for better or worse very comparable to Valve’s Left 4 Dead.

On the 4 -5 maps on the disc the two sides of the Humans and Necromorphs will clash.  The Humans objective is to complete a number of objectives in a set amount of time.  Playing as a human will unlock you new guns and cosmetic upgrades with new suits.  The progression is very comparable to the “Call of Duty” model.

The Necromoph side could easily be argued to be the more interesting of the two.  You get access to 4 types of Necromorphs.  Everything from the small child-looking “Pack” with razor sharp claws to the ranged “Puker” who spits corrosive acid on your foes.

The Necromorphs are in a constant war of attrition with the humans.   Necromoprhs are easily dispatched and require team work to take down and delay the humans’ progress.

If you buy Dead space 2 you should at the very least check out the multiplayer.  It may be a sideshow attraction to Isaac Clarke’s adventure but with more polish Dead space’s multiplayer mode could blossom into something that people come back to constantly.

In the end Dead space 2 polishes up the brick work that the original laid.   Old fans will embrace the new changes wholeheartedly.  If you were on the fence about the first game the new changes and polish might just change your mind.   This is one adventure into space that I can fully recommend.

This is pretty hilarious. Lawls.
So any dark skinned people out there having trouble with Kinect?
I am the whitest person in the world and Kinect doesnt work for me… maybe I will have to buy an Xbox360 and a Kinect. Oh well.

Can someone out there pick up Dungeon Defenders for their Android phone? My Optimus M only has 600 mhz of processing power

To all those who happen t have this gem of a game and a decent computer, I bring you Morrowind 2011 Mod Compendium. Released today it will bring a huge graphical / audio overhaul and weighs in at about 4gbs! This might be the reason you gave the game another play though. Word on the internets is that many people enjoyed Murrowind over Oblivion, what was your opinion?

I have come upon this story this week, and it intrigued me so much, I am actually making a post about it! I highly suggest you play the following Youtube clip while you read along!

During the first few days of the release of Pokemon Red and Green in Japan, back in February 27, 1996, a peak of deaths appeared in the age group of 10-15.

The children were usually found dead through suicide, usually by hanging or jumping from heights. However, some were more odd. A few cases recorded children who had began sawing off their limbs, others sticking their faces inside the oven, and chocked themselves on their own fist, shoving their own arms down their throat.

The few children who were saved before killing themselves showed sporadic behavior. When asked why they were going to hurt themselves they only answered in chaotic screams and scratched at their own eyes. When showed what seemed to be the connection to this attitude, the gameboy, they had no response, but when combined with either Pokemon Red or Green, the screams would continue, and they would do their best to leave the room it was located in.

This confirmed the authorities suspicion that the games, somehow, had a connection to these children and the deaths. It was a strange case, because many children who had the same games did not show this behavior, but only a few. The police had no choice but to pursue this, since they had no other leads.

Collecting all the cartridges these children had purchased, they kept them sealed away as strong evidence to look over later. They decided the first thing to do was to talk to the programmers themselves. The first person they met was the director of the original games, Satoshi Tajiri. When told about the deaths surrounding his games, he seemed slightly uneasy, but admitted nothing. He lead them to the main programmers of the game, the people responsible for the actual content.

The detectives met Takenori Oota, one of the main programmers of the game. Unlike Satoshi, he did not seem uneasy, but very kept. Explaining that it was impossible to use something like a game to cause such deaths, and also bringing up the point that not all the children were affected, he brushed it off as some kind of odd coincidence or mass hysteria. It seemed like he was hiding something, but he wasn’t giving way. Finally, he did say something interesting.

Takenori had heard a rumor going around that the music for Lavender Town, one of the locations in the game, had caused some children to go ill. It was only a rumor, and had no real definite back up, but it was still something to look into.

He directed the detectives to Junichi Masuda, the music composer of the series. Masuda had also heard of these rumors, but again said they had no evidence that his music was the cause. Even to prove a point he played the exact song from the game completely through with no effects to anyone, the detectives nor Masuda himself, feeling anything different or odd. Although they still had their suspicions of Masuda and the music of Lavender town, it seemed they had reached another dead end.

Going back to the cartridges they had seized from the homes of the children, they decided to take a slightly more direct look at the games. They knew that it was these games that gave the children the ill effects, so they took extreme caution. Popping in the cartridge and turning the console on, the game screen booted. The title screen appeared, and the option to continue or create a new game appeared.

When they chose to continue the game, stats of that game appeared. They saw the names of the children who had played, usually “Red” or another simple name. However, the interesting thing was the time played and the number of Pokemon they owned. On every game, the time was very low, and all of them had only a single Pokemon in their inventory. They came to the stunning reality that it could not have been the music from Lavender town that had caused such ill effects in the children, since it was impossible to reach that part of the game in such small amount of time and with only one Pokemon in their inventory. This brought them to the conclusion that something early on in the game had to be the cause.

If it wasn’t the music, nor the title screen, it had to be something within the first few minutes of the game itself. They had no choice but to turn off the game now and go back to the programmers. Asking for a list of all the programmers from Takenori, they found, surprisingly, that one of the programmers had committed suicide shortly after the game was released. His name was Chiro Miura, a very obscure programmer who had provided very little for the game. Even more interestingly, he had requested his name did not appear in the credits of the game, and so it was not.

Looking over the evidence found at Chiro’s apartment, they found many notes written in bold marker. Most of it was crumbled, or marked out, making it very difficult to read. They few words they could find in the mess was “Do not enter”, “Watch out” and “COME FOLLOW ME” in bold. The detectives were unsure what these meant, but knew they had to have a connection. Further searching, they discovered Chiro was good friends with one of the map designers, Kohji Nisino, and this was probably the only reason Chiro had given a part in making the game.

Kohji Nisino, since the release of the game, had locked himself in his apartment, barely leaving in the dark of night to fetch anything he might need. He told his friends and family he was mourning for his dear friend Chiro, but they didn’t believe this, since Nisino had locked himself up the day the game was put in stores, a few days before Chiro had killed himself.

It was troubling, but the authorities finally persuaded Nisnino to sit down and speak with them. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days, dark rings under his eyes. He stunk, his nails had grown black and his hair was greasy, sticking to his forehead and neck. He spoke in stutters and murmurs, but at least he had something to say.

When asked if he knew anything about the children who had died after exposure of the game and if it had any connection to the game, he answered them seemingly carefully, choosing his words thoughtfully before answering. He told them that his friend Chiro had an interesting idea with the game, something he had wanted to try since he heard the project was starting. Nisino himself knew Takenori, the director and main programmer, for a long time, so he could easily get a mediocre programmer in on the project with a little persuasion. It seemed Chiro had convinced Nisino to get him in on the project, and it had worked.

The detectives knew they were on to something. This unknown obscure programmer, Chiro, had to have something to do with it, something… They asked what Chiro’s idea was, why he wanted so badly to have a part in making this children’s game. Nisino told them that Chiro never told him much about it, other than a few details every now and then. He wanted to insert a special Pokemon in the game, one completely different from all the others. It would serve as an extra, a kind of out of place thrill for the player. It wasn’t, however, Missing No. It couldn’t be. With the gameplay time recorded on the cartridges, it was impossible for the children to have time to meet that Pokemon.

Nisino, throughout the entire conversation, seemed to break down even more with every question. The detectives pushed him more and more, searching through his mind for any and every scrap of knowledge this man had no game and Chiro… and Chiro’s intentions…

It was when they asked about the notes found in Chiro’s home that he snapped. From under the couch Nisino was sitting on he whipped out a pistol, pointing it straight at the police while backing away a few steps. Then, just as quickly, he brought the pistol to his face.

“Don’t follow me…” muttered Nisino as he stuck the pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. It was too quick for the police to react. It was done. Nisino had killed himself, repeating slightly differently what was written on one of Chiro’s papers…

It seemed all leads had finally died. The team who had created this original game were splitting up, becoming harder to find. It was as if they were keeping a secret. When the police finally managed to talk with anyone who had parts in the game, even the obscure character designers or monster designers, it seemed they had nothing of interest to say. Most of them didn’t even know Chiro, and the few who did only seen him once or twice working on the game itself. Throughout all of this the only confirmation they had was that Chiro was indeed the one who had worked on the very early parts of the game.

It had been a couple of months after the original children suicides and the death rate had dropped dramatically. It seemed that the game was no longer giving any ill effects to any children. The call back of the games that was planned was canceled, since it seemed the game was no longer harming any children. They had began to think that maybe Takenori was right and it was all just a very odd coincidence or mass hysteria… Until they received the letter.

It was given to one of the detectives himself, quite directly out on the street. It was a woman who gave him the note, a very frail, thin, sick looking thing. She gave him the letter quickly, telling him it was something he needed to see, and without waiting for a response or another word, she disappeared into the crowd. The detective brought it to his office, and calling the others in, he brought it out and read it aloud.

It was a letter written by Chiro himself, but it wasn’t one found at his apartment. They had throughly searched and cleared out the place, so wherever this letter had come from, it wasn’t kept at his home. It was signed to be given to Nisino. It started off quite formal, a hello, how are you, regards to the family, and such. After one or two of these normal paragraphs, they reached a section that requested Nisino to get him into the game team, to get him a programming position in Pokemon Red and Green.

As the letter continued, the handwriting seemed to grow more jittery. He talked about a glorious idea he had, a way to program something unseen in any game before. He said it would certainly revolutionize not only the gaming industry, but everyone. He went on to say that it was a very simple procedure to program this idea into the game. He did not even have to add any foreign programming, but could use what was already given in the game itself. This would, the detectives agreed, make it impossible to notice any obscurities in the programming itself. It was a perfect way to hide whatever this was.

The letter ended abruptly. There was no goodbye, no say hi to the family, no write back, or thank you. Nothing like that. It was just his name, written hard in the letter where the paper almost broke through. It was only his name. “Chiro Miura.”

This was the nail in the coffin for the detectives. They had no more suspicion about the cause. Chiro had programmed something into the early parts of the game, something maddening. To further increase this streak of success, they discovered that the programming team had worked in pairs, even Chiro himself. He had worked with another programmer, Sousuke Tamada.

If anyone knew what the secret in this game was, Sousuke Tamada would be the man. This was their final hope of unraveling this mystery once and for all.

They learned Sousuke had provided a lot of programming to the game, and seemed to be an average, good guy and worker. They were easily allowed into his home, a fair place, and they entered his living room where they sat. Sousuke did not sit, however. He stood by the window of the second story floor, looking out onto the busy street. He was smiling a little.

There is no direct witnesses to the events that followed. The only thing from this conversation that remained was found on a voice recorder sitting on the table in front of the two detectives assigned to talk to Sousuke. What follows is the unedited recording:

“Sousuke Tamada, what part did you have in the games Pokemon Red and Green?” asked the first detective.

“I was a programmer.” His voice was light, friendly, almost too friendly. “That’s all.”

‘Am I right in knowing that the programmers working on the game worked in teams?’ asked the detective.

One could hear the voice of feet moving on the floor slightly. “You would be right,” said Sousuke after a moment of silence.

“And your partner, his name was-” The detective was quickly cut off by Sousuke eerie voice.

“Chiro Miura… That was his name. Chiro Miura.”

Another silence. It seemed the detectives were a little uneasy about this man. “Could you tell us if Muira ever acted strange at all? Any particular behaviors you observed while working with him at all?”

Sousuke answered them. “I don’t know him that well, really. We didn’t meet up frequently, only every once in a while to trade data, or when the entire group was called up for a meeting… That’s the only times I really ever saw him. He acted normal, as far as I could tell. He was a short man, and I think this affected his consciousness.. He acted weaker than any other man I met. He was willing to do a lot of work to gain recognition, this I do know. I think…”

Silence. “Yes?” asked the detective, pushing for him to continue. “You think what?”

“I think he was a very weak man. I think he wanted to prove himself regardless of this point… I think he wanted to make himself known for something special, something that would make people forget about the way he looked and pay attention to the powerful mind that lay inside his skull.. Unfortunately for him, however.. heheh.. He didn’t have much of a mind to back up that reasoning.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the second detective.

“Well it’s the simple truth,” answered Sousuke quickly. His feet could be heard moving across the tiled floor. “He was nothing special, even if he wanted to believe so. You can’t become greatness, even if you believe it. It’s impossible… Somehow, I think Chiro knew this himself, somewhere deep in there, he knew it.”

The detectives were silent again, not sure how to steer the conversation. After a moment, they continued. “Can you tell us what Chiro’s part of the game was? What did he work on exactly?”

Sousuke answered more quickly than before. “Nothing… I mean, nothing important. He worked on some obscure parts of the beginning of the game.” A pause, then a little more information. “It was Oak’s part to be exact. He worked on some of Oak’s parts… When he’s seen first, you see..”

“What else?” pushed the police. They could hear it in Sousuke’s voice. He knew something. “We know you know about the children and the deaths. We know it was Chiro who did it. He programmed something in the game.”

“What are you implying?” asked Sousuke. It sounded like he was trying to maintain his voice.

“We’re implying that since your his partner, if you’re hiding something from us then you could just as much be responsible for those children’s deaths as Chiro is himself!”

“You can’t prove anything!” Sousuke shouted.

“Tell us what Chiro did to the game!” they shouted back.

“WHAT I TOLD HIM TO.”

Silence. Complete silence.

“You want to know, huh?” asked Sousuke finally, breaking the eerie silence, but replacing it with his voice. “You want to know what is this all about? Chiro was an idiot. He’d do anything for a bit of attention, anything at all. He couldn’t program worth a shit either. The one thing he could do, however, was be manipulated. You could tell him what to do, and he’d do it. He wouldn’t even question it, he’d do it. Just to hear that “thank you” when you received the finish product, that was his reasons. That’s all he wanted.”

Two clicks from the detective’s guns could heard.

“I could control his flawlessly. He’s a lot like Takenori… Of course none of you knew this, but I was the one who brought up the idea of the game, the idea of the entire operation. I just told the fellow what to do, and he followed me without doubt. He knows nothing, just like Chiro.”

A sound of a window opening could be heard, follow by the detectives.

“Don’t move or we’ll shoot!”

“Let me tell you about a mechanic in the game,” continued Sousuke. His voice was more rushed, but it still held that slyness. “Consider it a hint, alright? If you walk around in grassy areas enough a Pokemon will appear, and you’ll have the chance to go into battle with it. It’s a necessary part of the game overall, you see?”

“Step away from the window! We won’t warn you again!”

“At the start of the game you have to walk into the grassy area before Oak appears and you receive your first Pokemon, understand me? Under normal circumstances, it was programmed that even though you’re in a grassy area, no Pokemon will spawn… I made it different. I manipulated that Chiro, told him what to put in the program, gave him all the instructions on how to do it, and he did it flawlessly. It’s rare, but it can happen.. Stepping into that grass, one can spawn…”

“Sousuke, we don’t want to shoot!”

“Shoot me?” asked Souske, laughing at the same time. “Shoot ME? You’re as dumb as Chiro was! Once he found out the truth, he had to end it! It was his fault after all! He shot himself because of it! If you’re so determined to finish that case of yours, if you want to know, play the damn game for yourself! Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you’ll learn the secret for yourself!”

A shot could be heard, loud enough to distort the audio. Sounds of screaming, murmuring could be heard. The table the recorder was on crashed. Ear shattering distortions. Silence. Then laughing. Sousuke was laughing, and then words. “Come follow me… Come follow me…” And then nothing.

The recorder continued to record until the tape ran out. There was nothing else on it. The police arrived on the scene quickly, and to their horror they discovered Sousuke and the two detectives dead. They had all been shot, but not after struggling. The detectives had been shot multiple times, at least ten each, before dying after being shot in between their eyes. Sousuke himself had clearly died of two shots to his chest, straight through the heart.

This game was causing a massacre. At least a hundred children were dead. Nisino, the unexpecting friend, dead. Chiro, the manipulated toy, dead. The two detectives, dead. And now, even the creator, the cause of this atrocity, Sousuke, dead. This game was stretching far over it’s original intentions. It was killing anyone and everyone who got involved.

The lead detective had decided to put this case away. He man who committed the crime was dead, so there was no longer any reason to continue the case. All evidence, all the cartridges, all the notes, all the letters, they were locked away, kept in the darkness where they belonged. There were talks about the entire thing, small conversations every now and then, but over the years even these began to fade away. Eventually, the case was only a memory in the minds of those who experienced it first hand.

Ten years passed. February 27, 2006 was the date. The lead detective, the man who locked away the original evidence ten years previous, was reminded of the awful event that occurred. Although he was no longer in the force, he still had access to files and was helped when he could. The reminder of the event caused him to look back, to open the sealed container that held all the evidence collected.

He read through the letters and the notes. He remembered the woman who had appeared to him on the street that one day and handed him that letter that lead to the change of the entire case. He wondered who she was, and where she had come from. Perhaps she was Chiro’s mother… or maybe Sousuke’s. It was far too late to pursue any of this. Far too late..

Sealing the container again, he saw a second one directly behind it. Pulling it out, he read the note on top of it. “Evidence #2104A” He opened it up, and looked inside. Filling the container were exactly 104 Pokemon Red and Green cartridges, each one in perfect condition, untouched since the day they had last checked them ten years ago.

He reached in and pulled one out, Pokemon Red. He hadn’t seen one in a long time. He didn’t know what he thought next, but he reached in his desk and pulled out an old Gameboy. He received it a long time ago, but it still worked. It was his son’s, but he had died a few years ago. His wife was gone too. That was then though. Popping in the cartridge in the back of the Gameboy he turned on the system.

The title screen. Then the option to continue or start a new game. “Tanaka.” That was the child’s name, the one who played it first. He was probably dead, along with all the others. He pressed New Game, and started a new game. It was normal, average. He walked around, talked to his mother, went outside. He started walking towards the grass.

In his head, he could still hear Sousuke’s words. Even though he was not there, even though he had never seen the man in his life, he could still see him, hear him. “Come follow me.”
v He was getting closer and closer, only a step or two away.

“Roll the wheel, and who knows? Maybe you’ll learn the secret for yourself!”

He entered the grass. The screen did nothing at first. Nothing at all. It just sat there, and so did the detective, completely frozen, as if time had stopped just for them. The screen went black. and then lit up again, the iconic green background with black text appearing.

The lead detectives weary eyes grew wide. He couldn’t help but read out what was there in front of him.

“Come follow me, come follow me, come follow me. I miss you dad, I miss you my husband, I miss you so much.”

Tears formed in his eyes, falling down his cheeks. Screens and screens of text appeared and he rapidly clicked the A button to continue it. It was his wife and his child. They were speaking to him, calling to him, crying with him. They wanted to see him, they loved him, he loved them.

“I love you too,” muttered the man in a hoarse, scratching voice.

“Come follow me, become new again. We want to see you and hold you, and be with you forever and ever and ever and ever.”

“AND EVER AND EVER…”

“Don’t stay away. You can see us too.. We miss you.. Come follow me. We love yo–”

A black screen. The detectives eyes grew wide, his jaw dropping. The screen lit back up, and Oak was leading him out of the grass. “Come follow me,” said Oak.

“NO!” shouted the man, dropping the game onto the floor. He quickly fell forward, reaching for it, bringing the screen back to his face. “Bring them back, bring them back to me!” The game continued on as usual, not responding to the detective at all. “My wife, my child, listen to me! Bring them back to me, I said!”

Voices… He heard voices, hundreds of voices. He turned around from his seat, looking behind him, and standing in his small room were children, many children. Some had no eyes, some had rings around their throats, some were burned all across their body. They were screaming, reaching towards him.

“Bring back my mommy, bring back my daddy, bring back my pet!” they all screamed out, reaching for the game, their mouths agape with horror and pain. “I don’t want them to go away, bring them back to me, bring them back to me!”

“No!” shouted the detective. “It’s mine! My family is here, don’t touch it!” Horror was across his face.

“Come follow me…” said a voice. The lead detective looked over, and in the corner of his room, next to an old desk, was Sousuke. He stood in the corner, tall, handsome, clean. A smile was on his face, stretching across his face. “Come follow me…”

The lead detective jumped up, stepping back, trying to force away the children crawling towards him, reaching out for the game held tightly within his hands. “Wh-what’s going on here!? What’s going on!? Where is my family!?”

Sousuke smiled generously. “I’ll show you. I’ll help you get away from them, you see? Just follow me.” Sousuke reached down, and opened a drawer on the old desk. The lead detective, pushing through the crowd of children, trying to get away, looked inside.

Siting there, covered with dust, was his old gun from when he was on the force. He had not used that gun in many years and had put it away, not wanting to remember the things he had to do with it. But right now he didn’t see it as something that caused pain or that killed. It was shining, it was light. It was something that could set him free.

“Just follow me,” said Sousuke, picking up the gun and putting it in the lead detectives hand. He formed his hand to hold the gun, then brought it up to his temple. “Just pull the trigger. That’s all.”

The lead detective turned around. The children were crawling at him, grabbing his legs and pulling at him. They reached for the game. He turned back towards Sousuke, and smiled.

“My family… I’ll follow you.” He pulled the trigger. Bang. His brains spread the wall as he fell to the ground, dead.

It was a few days before the body was discovered. It lay on the floor, blood everywhere. In one hand held an empty gun, and in the other was a classic Gameboy with Pokemon Red on the back. The battery had long died, and only an empty, black screen was left.

This was the final murder that the remaining authorities would allow. The last detective who was ever a part of this case personally carried all 104 cartridges away, and burned them all, making sure not a single one survived. There would taunt no more.

However, this is not the end of the story. The code was said to have survived, and was even passed on to other language versions of the games. If you have an old Pokemon game, you can place the cartridge in the back of the classic Gameboy, turn on the system, and roll the wheel who knows? Maybe you’ll learn the secret for yourself.

Source

The only odd thing I ever found in Pokemon was that Professor Oak lives in a town with only single mothers…
HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!



So you have a young kid or a Nintendo fan on your Christmas list and don’t know what to get them? Let us help!

Let’s start with the hardware itself, you’ve got a few options here. Nintendo recently dropped the price of the Nintendo Wii to $199.99 (formerly $249.99); They didn’t stop there either, the standard bundle now includes a Wii-mote with Motion+ accessory included along with Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort all packed into one box for $199.99.

There are also some new color options for the Wii, you can opt. to get the console in the original white or the new black color. If you have a dedicated Mario fan on your Christmas list you may want to go straight for the newly released Red Wii bundle. This bundle was released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Mario Brothers franchise. It includes a Red Wii-mote with Wii Motion + along with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This is a limited release in a special red so snatch it up.

If you are buying for a serious gamer you also may want to consider buying a Classic controller Pro for them. This controller harkens back to a more classic Nintendo controller design and is also required for some of the Virtual Console games that you can download on the Wii-Ware service.

Speaking of the Wii-ware service stock up on a Nintendo Points card coming in denominations of 2000pts ($20.00). This lets the user redeem the Nintendo Points for Classic games like Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Metroid along with new downloadable games like Cave Story.

Now you’ve bought a system and ready to dig into the games. What should you buy?

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Let’s start with the obvious here. If you have a little kid or are a Mario fan this is one of the best choices on the Wii hands down. The game is kept accessible enough for small children and yet still features really enjoyable game design that will appeal to adults.
Great imaginative level design, tons of variety, great use of physics, and gravity mechanics will have you wondering what is around every corner.

No More Heroes 2
If you have an older gamer on your list No More Heroes 2 is a great pick. You play as Travis Touchdown an all around nerd who just happens to be an assassin; Travis has to make his way through other assassins reclaiming his title of #1. The game has great not only has great gameplay but also features a slick art-style. For
any action game fan on your list this is a must-buy.

Muramasa:The Demon Blade
This is another title for the serious gamer on the Wii. Pulling from Japanese folklore and fairy tales Muramasa tells the story of Momohime and Kisuke. It is a side scrolling action-adventure game with gorgeous 2-d art and stunning music; This is one of the best looking games on the Wii. A brief side-note on this one I would highly recommend using a Classic controller Pro on this game as it plays much better that way.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Here is another one suitable for the kids on your list. You play as that favorite pink puffball Kirby on another adventure. This time however Kirby is sent into an alternate world where everything is made of yarn and cloth. Solve clever puzzles and manipulate the world around you to help Kirby on his quest to get back to the real world. This is another game that is easy enough for kids but still has hooks in it for the adults.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
This is the game you are going to want to buy if you play with friends quite often. Super Smash Bros. Wii is a 3-d fighting game on a 2-d plane. Set in crazy Nintendo themed arenas you’ll play as Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Link or any of the other crazy cast of Nintendo characters. This is a great multi-player and party game as it’s very easy to pick up and play. It also supports up to 4 players at one time so can keep passing the controllers around and have fun.

Sonic Colors
Play as everyone’s favorite blue hedgehog in his latest adventure exclusive to the Wii. Sonic Colors takes a page from previous 3d sonic games of the past and mixes 3-d sections with 2-d platforming sections. This time around though Sonic will meet up with alien beings called “whisps” that will grant him all sorts of crazy powers to help him on his adventures.

Goldeneye: 007
With a return to form Nintendo remakes the classic 1997 shooter that started it all. Updated for the new Bond generation this updated classic sees you play through the original game tweaked with modern sensibilities. Play as like likeness of James Bond (Daniel Craig) battling classic bond villains along the way and after you’re done with that jump online and compete in the multi-player mode or play offline with up to 3 friends.

Monster Hunter:Tri
If you have an RPG nut on your list this game is a very safe bet. Taking place in a far off land where dragons and huge monsters roam; You’ll take the role of a hunter who will forge his or her destiny by taking down the biggest and baddest monsters around. You can also jump into the huge online community and take part in monster hunts online!

Metroid Prime:Trilogy
How would you like to get 3 complete games for $50 all packaged in a nice tin case with extra art-inserts and all? Well, that’s what you’ll get in The Metroid Prime: Trilogy for the Wii. All 3 of the Metroid Prime games are bundled together on one disc. Prime 1&2 have been updated to support the Wii-mote aiming function, this is easily one of the most content rich packages you can find on the Wii. One slight catch on this one-Nintendo stopped doing print runs on this game and while you can still find it in stores once the current stocks are up this game is gone for good so you may want to pick this up early.

“Take that yo!” Get used to hearing that and other annoying quotes over and over again in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, a game that caught my interest by featuring four iterations of Spider-Man but unfortunately falls flat when it comes to execution.

The story is pretty simple and starts with Mysterio breaking into a museum, he’s out to steal a glowing green tablet, until Spider-Man comes along and foils everything in a Spidey-way…story’s over right? nope not quite! Spidey accidentally breaks the tablet and its Shattered into several pieces; Madame Web show up to tell Spidey that some of the fragments he now has to retrieve are in different Dimensions. Madame Web enlists 3 other Spideys to retrieve the fragments in their respective dimensions. The problem is that after a comic style plot setup the actual missions feel a bit bland and repetitive with pretty much the whole game revolving around finding fragments of a tablet.

You play as a different Spider-Man in each dimension:
- Amazing Spider-Man is the traditional Spider-Man that we all know and love.
- Ultimate version which dons the black suit.
- Noir version is a Spider-Man of the 1930’s that uses stealth.
- 2099 version which is a Spider-Man of the future.

Each version has some specific moves but for the most part you have your basic light and heavy attacks, web swing, web zip, and throws. You can also upgrade your moves and abilities by defeating enemies and collecting spider essence. There are also collection missions involving emblems that are scattered on each level, and some challenges to complete along the way through the upgrade tiers. While that sounds good in theory no matter what level you’re playing or which Spider-Man you are, they pretty much play the same way. Noir Spider-Man is pretty much the only exception – he has to do takedowns and stay in the shadows utilizing stealth over web-slinging.

I could accept that every Spidey pretty much plays the same but what made it worse is that every level does as well – you fight some dudes, you fight the boss, fight some more dudes, fight a powerful version of that same boss and to top it all off there is not a lot of variety to the enemies you fight either. It’s not that noticeable during the first couple of levels, but it wears thin pretty fast, it gets to the point where the game feels more like a chore than a game and it becomes pretty evident that the game has no intention of surprising you in any way.

In terms of visuals Shattered Dimension looks pretty good…sometimes, other times it looks bad, and it also has a fair share of bugs. At one point I had to restart a checkpoint several times because I kept getting stuck in the floor or the wall. The voice of Spidey was Neil Patrick Harris this time around and while it was good for a chuckle at first, the repetitive dialog combined with the repetitive gameplay, and enemies quickly reaches critical mass annoying. I know that Spider-Man is a wisecracking superhero but the dialog could have been better lines and it definitely needed more variety.

Despite my problems with Shattered Dimensions I don’t think it’s a bad game, it was enjoyable enough to carry me through it and fans of Spidey should at least consider it as a rental. The sad thing is that although the game had more potential it was just not fully realized. If you really need a superhero fix then by all means pick this up, just try and get it on cheap.

Well, this year I think its time to start mailing chew toys to Naughty Dog again, because they are back,

and they brought Nathan Drake with them:

Video Games | Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception | VGA 10: Exclusive Debut Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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