Fun Friday: E3 is Over Edition

WELL BAM there it is - REMIX from jaroshbarksdale on Vimeo.

Forget the MMO, Just Make This A Movie

Admittedly, there are two things that I am not: a PC gamer nor a MMO player. Therefore, I may not be that excited for The Old Republic MMO. Regardless, Bioware returned the Star Wars franchise to its roots with Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox. Now they plan to release an MMO in the same universe. Sounds cool and this trailer is all kinds of awesome, but we all know, game play will be nothing like this. So, I am suggesting to Bioware that they scrap all of this MMO nonsense, turn this story into a feature film trilogy and rake in the box office sales. It may not make as much money as a WoW but at least give yourself a chance to make back all of the money you are pouring into a potentially volatile market!

Fun Friday: Cultural Differences Edition

The Japanese have some bizarre games but this one is right up there with the best of them. It's not likely that this WiiWare title will make to us in the United States but it's a shame that we don't really get a chance to experience this stuff. It's too bad that even as we move to digital distribution we won't likely to get access to the many game that aren't necessarily intended for us as an audience. One can only hope that one of the buig three see some benefit in opening the gates to worldwide distribution of niche and culturally diverse games.

Fun Friday: More Good Than Evil Edition

Kotaku has unveiled what may or may not be possible game footage from the upcoming sequel to Beyond Good and Evil. I'm guessing that it is not real-time, in-game footage but pre-rendered concept material at the very least. A lot of comparisons have been made to Mirror's Edge, which I can see, but that is probably because that title is lot more fresh in the gaming community's mind. But i think a better comparison would be to Ubisoft's own IP, Asssassin's Creed, as you can clearly see the character brushing NPC's aside and climbing in a similar manner to Altair.

Either way, it looks awesome and I would play this game in a heart beat. Hopefully, they'll release the original game in Xbox originals soon, as I have criminally never played it.

Fun Friday: I Wish I Had Minions Edition

The original Overlord was a blast and it looks like the sequel will be just as much fun, if not more so. I could have a lot of fun with my own minions. They could take out the trash, change my son, do the dishes and much more. Then, I'd have more time to fun stuff, like planning my rise to global domination.

This series is also as close as I will get to an RTS.

Fun Friday: Epic Film Edition

The motion picture had enough to live up too based on the game alone. Now that there's this short film, it doesn't have a chance!

Fun Friday: Not Worth It To Me Edition

While the single player campaign turned out to be pretty darn good, I could not see how it would translate into a multiplayer experience very well. Needless to say, I skipped the $5 DLC and will continue to imagine that this is how it plays.

Fun Friday: This Can't Come Soon Enough Edition

When, I heard about the Big Sister a couple of weeks ago, I thought that it may have been an April Fools Joke. I was wrong and it became known that she was in fact going to be in Bioshock 2. Now that I've seen her in action, this game can't come soon enough.

Fun Friday: April Fools Edition

While I did think Volition's Ostrich Hammer was pretty funny, Microsoft's Alpine Legend announcement made me chuckle just a little bit more.

Fun Friday: Giving In Edition

I've discussed at some length why I hesitate to play Resident Evil 5. However, I broke down and started playing the game today. On one hand, this game creates an absolutely atrocious first impression with frustrating controls combined with an opening sequence that gives the player no time to come to grips with them. Even playing on the easiest difficultly so I am not punished as quickly and so I can try to enjoy the game somewhat, but that initial "boss" with the axe is still ridiculous. On the other, once I finally got past him, I started to get some of the same feelings that I remember Resident Evil 4 evoking.

Yahtzee does have a point about the inventory system; it makes absolutely no sense.

Fun Friday: Real Life Achievements Edition

Life would be some much more exciting if this were real. At the very least, I'd be more motivated. Funny thing about this video, one of the guys in the drinking coffee was an intern when I was there, 5 years ago.

Fun Friday: Time to Dust off the DS Edition

While I have yet to really play through GTAIV proper, this version for the DS, Chinatown Wars, looks more and more fun every time I see a new trailer for it. I like the look and game play style these videos project, it's very "arcade-like" and looks a lot less serious. This may just be what the series needs; a little injection of that old school fun.

Fun Friday: Possible Reason to Finally Get a PS3

Dead Rising 2 Confirmed!

Yes! This is the best gaming news of the year so far. Dead Rising in my top five games of this generation and is up there with my favorite games of all time. I've mentioned before that I loved just about everything that game offered, even the things that most people said ruined the game. I don't want to assume anything yet but I am bummed that Frank West appears to be MIA. Hopefully we'll find out more in the near future. As long as they didn't neuter the gameplay, I will be very happy when this hits the shelves.

Fun Friday: Thrown Under the Car Edition

After reading last months cover story in Play Magazine, Ride to Hell looked very promising based on the description in the article and the accompanying concept art. Than I saw the above footage. I understand that it says "pre-alpha" in the upper corner, but it's still not a good first impression. At least, the video was funny.

Fun Friday: Missed Opportunities Edition

As the year is beginning to come to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what I missed out on. I'm not a huge fan of lists but when I started thinking about the games on my list, it seemed quite substantial.

1. Fallout3 - And I loved Oblivion so much.
   
2. Castle Crashers - Bugs, plus it came out when we were doing a lot of OT.
   
3. Dead Space - Looked cool until I played the demo.
   
4. Prince of Persia - Hadn't been into the Prince since Sands of Time but looked promising until I heard that you could not fail.
   
5. Tomb Raider: Underworld - No rush, I knew it was just another Croft adventure.
   
6. Mirror's Edge - Wasn't convinced by the demo but I'm still intrigued.
   
7. Star Wars: Force Unleashed - Another title that came out while we were in OT.
   
8. Penny Arcade Episode II - No excuse other than I was distracted by other games.
   
9. Condemned 2 - The first is one of my favorite 360 titles. They seemed to lose the plot though.
   
10. Bully - I love Rockstar's work, but I never gave this one a chance.
    

Some Honorable Mentions include LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid IV, both of which I would have played if I owned a PS3. Also, I only scratched the surface of GTAIV (like six hours) so that might as well be on the list as well.

Update: Maybe it wasn't that bad that I missed out as some seem to have ended up being a little disappointing. Oh, and I started playing Force Unleashed this week. So far, it's not bad.

5th Cell Does it Again

I've sung my praises for 5th Cell before and it seems they are unstoppable. With an exclusive reveal last Friday on IGN, I think they've cemented themselves as one of the most creative and daring DS developers out there at the moment (and probably the most sought after).

After watching the video for Scribblenauts, I immediately begin thinking of the possibilities this game has. The concept is simple yet has the potential to very satisfying.

Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka had the following to say about the player's possibilities when faced with a tree puzzle.

You could write "axe", and then cut the tree down using the object you spawned. You could write "shuriken" and throw that at the Starite in the tree and knock it down. It's all based on real physics and interaction, so there's nothing pre-canned. You could write anything though; imagine you write "goldfish" for some reason, well a goldfish would spawn and sit on the ground. It wouldn't help you at all in that puzzle, but you could do it.

Oh, how I can't wait to get my hands on this game.

Fun Friday: Big in Japan Edition

I have no idea what these videos mean but they're awesome in every way. Good luck in Japan, Saint's Row 2!

Fun Friday: Viral Marketing Douchebags Edition

I was originally going to post this video of what looked like some really dedicated Guitar Hero fans and a lot free time on their hands. But then it was revealed that it was a hoax and funded by Activision to be "viral marketing." Boo. I think the video response above successfully captures the sentiment of many. (Although, I will concede that the original video is still pretty cool.)

Fun Friday: Left 4 Dead Edition

Left 4 Dead comes out next week. I wasn't initially excited. Then, I saw this trailer. And then, I played the demo. Wow, was I wrong about not anticipating the enjoyment that comes with mowing down hundreds, if not thousands, of infected with three of your buddies. And yes, I said infected. These are not zombies; they can run. Zombies don't run. And Simon Pegg agrees with me.