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onCAST Episode 26 - FastCAST

2010-02-06T23:23:00.001-08:00

On this weeks episode of the onCAST Ronnie and Andreas talk about the leaked Duke Nukem Forever gameplay, Fallout New Vegas teaser, LA Noire coming to 360, and Xbox LIVE being discontinued for original Xbox games. And for what they have been playing its Heavy Rain demo, Mass Effect 2 and AvP.

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Aliens vs Predator Demo Available now

2010-02-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

A multiplayer demo for Aliens vs Predator is now available on Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Steam. The demo has one level and three different race to play as (Aliens, Predators and Humans.) You can check out what I thought of the demo here, and on the next episode of onCAST, episode 26.

Deals | Cheap Xbox 360 Games at Gamefly

2010-02-02T21:19:00.000-08:00

Gamefly is having another one of their amazing sales going on right now, they have 40+ titles under $20 bucks, some to note are Ghostbusters for $10, Call of Juarez for $10 and Red Faction for $13. Check the sale out at this link.

Three new Splinter Cell Conviction Screens Released

2010-02-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

Ubisoft has released three new screenshots of the upcoming Splinter Cell: Conviction that releases sometime in April. These new images show one spy kicking butt in what looks to be a horde type mode. You can check them out after the jump!

onCAST Episode 25 - iPad & Mass Effect 2

2010-01-30T19:54:00.001-08:00

This week Andreas and Ronnie discuss Apple's latest announcement the iPad along with GTA DLC coming to PS3 and PC, patch released for Darksiders, Monster Hunter Frontier announced for 360 and Red Steel 2 coming March 23rd in the news section. And for what they have been playing its Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2.

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onCAST Episode 24 - It Would Have Been Awesome if it was Good

2010-01-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

This week the trio discuss Uncharted 2 & Assassins Creed 2 DLC, PlayStation Motion Controller to be named Arc, Crysis 2 to be in NYC, Duke Nukem Forever might still be alive, and much more in the news section. For what they have been playing its Mass Effect, Kane and Lynch, Section 8 and ExciteBots.

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onCAST Episode 23

2010-01-17T05:54:00.000-08:00

For the news section this week we take a look at NPDs, Splinter Cell and RUSE delay, Sonic Adventure coming to XBLA rumor and much more. And for what we have been playing its infamous for Ronnie, Might and Magic DS for Craig and Darksiders for Andreas.

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onCAST Episode 22 - Game of the Year Edition

2010-01-09T20:58:00.000-08:00

On this week's episode Ronnie and Andreas are joined by Craig from TVandLust.net again to talk about what their favorite games of 2009 are. They also do a 2 minute lighting round section.

Please excuse my poor audio quality, should be fixed for next week's podcast.

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onCAST Episode 21 - Milk it Hard

2009-12-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

On this weeks episode Ronnie and Andreas are joined by special guest Craig from TVandLust.net. In news they discuss 2009 VGA's, Sony Considering Premium Subscriptions, Left 4 Dead 2 & Assassins Creed 2 DLC, and New Battlefield Heroes map. For what we have been gaming its Arkham Asylum, Zelda: ST, MW2, Modnation Racers and much, much more!

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The Second Christmas

2009-12-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

How have you been doing with this year’s heavy hitting line up of fall and Christmas block buster games? 2009 has been another amazing year in the video game industry to say the least. Words like ‘compelling’ or ‘visceral’ have been used in many reviews which should tell us that 2009’s games were nothing short of amazing (even though some reviewers used them a bit too freely).

Let’s quickly recap some of the titles we have seen this time around. There were finally some great PS3 exclusives like Killzone 2, InFamous and of course Uncharted 2, VGA’s Game of the Year. The Xbox 360 wasn’t too shabby either. Microsoft’s console had Halo 3: ODST, Forza 3 and Left 4 Dead 2. Nintendo’s Wii has seen more of what it does best; the New Super Mario Brothers Wii and Wii Sports Resort had soccer moms all across America throwing their Wii-motes into Plasma and LCD TVs. Then there was of course the juggernaut that is Modern Warfare 2, great RPG’s like Dragon Age: Origins and Demon’s Souls along with some of the best DLC and indie games we have seen in a long time. Stories from Liberty City, World of Goo, Shadow Complex and Flower come to mind. Read full post here

If you have gotten through most of Q4 2009 you might not want to hold your breath while trying to read the list of games coming up in 2010. I have compiled a list of upcoming confirmed and dated titles along with a few recently announced titles which will be hitting sometime this year. Q1 2010 has quickly become a second Christmas for gamers due to the many ‘delays’ which just might be a tiny excuse to get the hell out of MW2’s way. Remember the push-backs of Mafia II, BioShock 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction? Yea, those are all hitting in Q1. Better finish off whatever leftovers you have from the holidays before the avalanche of Q1 2010 buries you until the new Prince of Persia rewinds time. Check the list below, some of the unconfirmed release dates were taken from Amazon.com.

January

• Beyonetta - 1/5
• Darksiders - 1/5
• Army of Two: The 40th Day - 1/12
• Dark Void - 1/19
• MAG - 1/26
• Mass Effect 2 - 1/26
• No More Heroes 2 - 1/28

February

• RUSE - 2/1
• Lost Planet 2 - 2/2
• White Knight Chronicles - 2/2
• BioShock 2 - 2/9
• Dante's Inferno - 2/9
• Dead Rising 2 - 2/10
• Splinter Cell: Conviction - 2/23
• ModNation Racers - 2/24
• Heavy Rain - 2/26
• Mafia 2 - 2/28
• Red Steel 2 - ?

March

• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 3/2
• Final Fantasy 13 - 3/9
• Metro 2033 - 3/9
• Just Cause 2 - 3/23
• Yakuza 3 (Subtitles) - est 3/31
• God of War III - 3/31
• Gran Turismo 5 - 3/31
• Singularity - 3/31
• Monster Hunter 3 - ?

April and Beyond

• Red Dead Redemption - 4/27
• Split/Second - 5/1
• Alan Wake - 5/31
• Max Payne 3 - 6/30
• Alpha Protocol - 6/?
• Medal of Honor - 10/31
• Crackdown - 2 ?
• Halo Reach - ?
• Call of Duty 7 (Treyarch) - ?
• Fallout New Vegas - ?
• I Am Alive - ?
• Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands - ?
• Spec Ops: The Line - ?
• True Crime - ?
• Dead Space 2 - ?
• Crysis 2 - ?
• Ghost Recon 4 - ?
• No More Heroes - ?
• Starcraft II - ?
• Brink - ?
• …..and more.

I bet you were raising your eyebrows a few times while reading this list; I sure was when putting it together. Time to sell some of those ‘old’ games, it’s a recession!

Feel free to add to this list in the comments, we’ll update it as we get more games and release dates.

onCAST Episode 20 - The Saboteur & Farmville

2009-12-13T00:16:00.000-08:00

Andreas and Ronnie discuss November NPD's, Dead Space 2 Details, Splinter Cell demo coming in January rumor, Javelin glitch fixed and much more in news! And for what we have been gaming its The Saboteur, Modern Warfare 2, NBA 2k10, and Farmville... Yes, Farmville.

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How Gamerscore Changed Everything

2009-12-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

November 22nd, 2005.

That was the date many Xbox 360 owners will remember because it marked the launch day of Microsoft’s, then brand new, ‘Next Generation Video Game Console’. The Xbox 360 did not just start a revolution in console gaming, it gave birth to another novelty in video games - besides the RROD. I am talking about universal In-Game-Achievements which are linked to a specific gamertag - and probably your pride. Video game achievements were not completely new to the medium but keeping a record of your accomplishments across all games gamers have played was unique and changed player’s behavior into what we see today. Weather Microsoft’s games division knew it or not, they were on track to create a brand new term in the gaming community; the ‘Achievement Whore’. View full post

In the early days of these mandatory achievements build into all Xbox 360 games, many developers did not quite get the hang of properly implementing these artificial ‘pat on the back’ in game pop-ups. Examples that come to mind are of course launch titles such as King Kong or Call of Duty 2. All gamers had to do was complete the campaign on a certain difficulty or just beat the game period to unlock all of its achievements and build their gamerscore. Every game has 1000G build in for the player to unlock – that’s when the race started. Many Xbox owners started checking their friends list and saw that their old High School buddy was beating them by a few hundred ‘gamerscore’. For many this was the sign to grab another game and catch up! Believe me when I say, a little competition between friends is great and makes even me, work a little harder. However, when I started seeing ‘Gamerscore Guides’ on magazine shelves around the country, my warning lights started going off. This new thing called Gamerscore began to increase in importance and even overshadowed the true meaning of playing video games. Many gamers began to get unbelievably dedicated to unlocking each achievement of every game, which now started to become more and more difficult thanks to smarter developers. Did you collect all flags in Assassins Creed 1? Not many gamers have this achievement but believe me when I say many players have tried, especially – the achievement whores.

When I first started playing video games I purely did it for enjoyment, the love of playing and immersing myself into the world. There were times when I played a single game for months on end. There was no distraction or completionist behavior in my gaming. My motive for playing games was having fun and loving what I was doing, pure enjoyment – until the day I powered on my Xbox 360 for the first time. After I beat the first part of Gears of War 1 a pop-up on the screen told me I had unlocked an ‘achievement’ worth 25G and over time my gamerscore grew. I started comparing my gamerscore to others on my friends list. It was that time period when I started caring about this totally artificial score which can be a haunting number, begging players to add to it. There was no real point to it – why care about gamerscore? Many gamers however, care so much that it becomes an obsession which goes as far as buying mediocre games just to get gamerscore. Players start tossing each other online games to get the achievement for winning 5 ranked matches in a row and so on. Are they having fun playing NHL Arcade for 5 hours? Probably not but the obsession and satisfaction of increasing their gamerscore is what those gamers really crave.

Are you an achievement whore? Do you care about gameplay and creative level design while unveiling an unbelievable plot or are you simply rushing through the latest crappy game to move up in the leaderboards on 360achievement.com? In my opinion many gamers, people I know personally have changed how they play games. They changed because there is a different underlying reason for them to play games. Many gamers today are going after achievements as their priority. I remember a time when I play a game many times over but now friends ask, “Why aren’t you playing this new game, it has easy achievements?”. That makes me wonder, why are you playing games just to get this artificial score up?

Then I thought, Microsoft – maybe unknowingly – created the best ever marketing decoy this generation. Gamers go after achievement points which are only to be had on the Xbox 360, in turn when they go to the store they get the 360 version of that latest multiplatform blockbuster. This is backed up by monthly NPD’s and personal experience. Check multiplatform sales and go into a GameStop and see what version people buy? Ask for a game at the counter and wait for the sales rep to ask; “You want it for 360 right?”. Now what does that mean for Microsoft? Well, they are mostly outselling the PS3 by close to 2:1 increasing their revenues and licensing fees. If gamers want to grow their gamerscore like teens in the nineties feed their tamagotchi they will need the Xbox 360 version of Assassins Creed 2 and not the PS3 copy. What does the PS3 have, ‘trophies’? “Oh, that’s just a dumb copy of Achievements, 360 is way better!” – Another quote from a GameStop conversation.

What kind of gamer are you?

onCAST Episode 19 - AC2, MW2 & L4D2

2009-12-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

In the news section of this weeks episode of onCAST, Ronnie and Andreas discuss Gran Turismo 5 demo coming in December, Splinter Cell: Conviction to have co-op mode, and New Medal of Honor game coming. And for what we have been gaming its Assassins Creed 2, MW2, L4D2 and much, much more!

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onCAST Episode 18 - AC2 & Bad Company 2

2009-11-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

This week Ronnie and Andreas are bringing the twos with Modern Warfare 2, Assassins Creed 2, Left4Dead2, and Bad Company 2 for what they have been gaming. And in news they discuss October NPD's, Halo Reach at VGA and black Friday deals.

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onCAST Episode 16 - Borderlands and Gay Tony

2009-11-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

On this weeks episode Andreas and Ronnie talk more about Borderlands, give a quick review for GTA: The Ballad of Gay Tony, and tell you how amazing History Channel: Battle for the Pacific is. In news we discuss Bad Company 2 beta coming to PS3, GT5 to feature track editor, MW2 disables XBL party chat, and much more!

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onCAST Episode 15 - The Windy Edition

2009-11-01T12:51:00.000-08:00

For what we have been playing this week we talk about Borderlands, Forza 3, DJ Hero, Demos Souls, and a whole lot more! For news we discuss God of War 3 collectors edition, DSi LL, Borderlands patch, Uncharted 2 Halloween festivities patch and much much more!

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onCAST Episode 14 - Uncharted Territory

2009-10-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

We have an awesome long podcast for everyone this week! In the what we have been gaming section we talk about GTpsp, Raven Squad, FIFA 10 and give our review on Uncharted 2. In news we discuss NPD's, SKY TV, GT5 on 3 discs, Next Xbox coming in 2012 says AMD and a WHOLE lot more!

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onCAST Episode 13 - LUG NUTS

2009-10-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

We have one awesome podcast for all of you this week! ODST, SHIFT, Forza 3, MGS: Peace Walker and more in what we have been playing. In news we discuss FIFA 10 fastest-selling sports game, importing content from Forza 3's second disc, Getaway 3 and Eight Days not canceled, Rock Band for iPhone and much much more!

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onCAST Episode 12 - PSP No Go

2009-10-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

For what we have been playing this week its Halo 3: ODST, Uncharted 2 and Beetles Rock Band, and in the news section we discuss Dead Space 2 entering production, APB beta coming next week, Wii System Update bricking consoles and much much more!

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onCAST Episode 11 - Racing Edition

2009-09-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

This week we talk a lot about the latest racing games that were released, and some ODST and Brutal Legend on the side. In news we discuss L4D2 Demo, Final Fantasy Xiii Bundle, Wii price drop, TGS and much more!

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onCAST Episode 10 - Andreas Loves Bundles

2009-09-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

A brand new episode of the onCAST is now ready for your ears to hear! For games we have been playing its NFS: SHIFT, DiRT 2, Plants vs Zombies and The Conduit. And in the news section we discuss NPDs, Wii price drop rumor, Fallout 3 GOTY edition and much much more!

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Forza 3 Demo Coming Later This Month

2009-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

Turn 10 Studios have announced that a demo for Forza Motorsport 3 will be releasing on to Xbox LIVE Marketplace September 24th. The demo will feature five cars: 2007 Porsche #80 Flying Lizard 911 GT3-RSR, 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro, 2009 Ferrari California, 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR and 2009 Mini John Cooper Works.

Also announced today is that Forza Motorsport 3 has gone gold and will be releasing October 27th.

onCAST Episode 9 - SLIM Pickens

2009-09-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

On this episode we talk about X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Wolfenstein in what we have been gaming. And for news its God of War Collection coming to PS3, Shadow Complex sets week-one sales record and more!

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onCAST Episode 8 - Uncut

2009-08-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

Other then a few cut-outs, a random caller and an angry wife, we have a really awesome onCAST for all of you this week! For what we have been gaming its Shadow Complex for both of the cast members, along with DiRT 2 demo, Batman and a bunch of other games. For news we discuss PS3 Slim, 360 price drop and 250GB Hard-drive coming to PS3 and 360. - Also check out the bet Ronnie and Andreas do!

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DiRT 2 Demo Coming Thursday

2009-08-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

Codemasters have announced that a demo for DiRT 2 will be releasing on Thursday (tomorrow) for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

The most exciting, intense, off-road racing game of the year is almost upon us, with the game hitting shop shelves on September 11th, but if, like most of us, you just can't wait that long to hit the DiRT, then you'll be pumped to hear that the next-gen console versions of the demo are going to be released this week.