Pagoda of Gaming

Man oh man, shit has been happening. E3 is next week, and it seems that some people couldn’t save their load until then. Like always, I won’t be there physically, but there in spirit. But before I get to the news I’ve actually been playing some vidyagames since my last post.

I think I’ve finally gotten over the hump in Red Dead Redemption. Whilst I still can’t play for more than a couple of hours before I get exhausted from it, I do see now what it’s doing so well. The beginning story arc of the game is a rather slow grind, filled in between with activities the game doesn’t quite explain very well or even at all. I had no idea I had a teleporter in my pocket until I listened to the last Giant Bombcast, where it turns out that the “Basic Campfire” you always have in your inventory is actually a fast-travel device that never runs out of steam.

Its a very unique game - you could easily claim that it is the best Western themed game ever made, and I’d probably agree with you. There are so few after all. I’ll endeavour to complete it and I’ll let you know when I do – maybe with one of those review things I’m so bad at writing.

APB’s Keys to the City event (a.k.a. “Open Beta”) is now on and running until the 17th. I played a bit yesterday and was rather surprised. I’ve said before that the game runs like shit with me, but Realtime Worlds must have patched the hell out of that game since then because the game is actually running rather well for me. Ok, that statement might be a bit misleading, “Rather well” is about an average of 10-15 FPS on the games most minimal of graphical settings. But it was enough for me to get in and enjoy the game system despite being unable to accurately kill anyone or drive more than a meter before lagging into a wall.

I created the character you see on the left, and did so within mere minutes, minimal funds and the barest of unlocked content. (FYI – that is the ‘breast slider’ on it’s maximum position). I took her through the tutorial and a little beyond. Did some really awesome grouped missions.

I’m not sure where the NDA is for the Beta and such, so I’m not going to dwell on the finer points of the game right now, I’ll have plenty to say when the game launches. But if I must say something is that I hope they put in proper 360 controller support for the game real soon – because driving is a bitch on an analogue keyboard.

I have a spare Key for the public beta if anyone I know wants it – I got in ‘for free’ since I was in the closed Beta.  just leave a comment in this post – grovelling is encouraged. You can also keep up with the game on the game’s newly launched community site.

You may remember about a year ago that I set myself the task of playing nothing but DS games for a month in celebration of the DSi’s launch. Well I’m thinking about doing the same for the PC once I get my new rig. The DS Experiment was a bit of a flop – I found only one game I truly loved on the console, and at the end I very much regretted buying a DSi. I’m in the same kind of position I was with the DS back then but with PC games – I have the means to play them, but not so much the drive.

Anyway, I’ll talk about that once I figure out how to go about getting this new PC. The official specs for APB are now available, so I really need to hit that at least. I’ve been looking about the internet here and there for PC shops – the place I keep coming back to is Chillblast. I especially like the look of their “Fusion Reactor” build, and it hit’s the price point that I can handle (well, once I take out the Monitor and add in some extras). But I’m still not 100% on it – I’m still open up for suggestions. I’ve got about 2 weeks I reckon before I can order it.

I reckon I should probably get a new Keyboard also. My current wireless one doesn’t seem to like me pressing the “A” key sometimes – and in those sometimes I really need to strafe to the left. I like the look of the new Microsoft Sidewinder X4 keyboard – and the reasonable price for a backlit keyboard.

In the meantime, before I lock myself out of my consoles I’ve got some games to play. I took a look at my Achievements list the other day, and there are a lot, like too many, games that I’ve got to go back and finish or complete to satisfaction. I returned to Battlefield Bad Company 2 and got my SPECACT Achievements from the last DLC Pack. And then in the spur of the moment I’ve moved back to Modern Warfare 2 – intent on completing the single player game on Veteran and collecting all 45 of the Intel collectables. I’m as far as “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday” mission, which is the one on the Oil Rig. The Biggest kick in the balls so far from that difficulty level was “Takedown”, the mission in the Brazilian Favela, and I expect there’s going to be another one right around the corner in “The Gulag”.

In addition to that I really want to go back and play through ODST again in Legendary. Halo in general is at it’s peak enjoyment when it’s played on legendary and I expect ODST to be the same – I did nonchalantly stroll through that game when it first came out, and did so in about 4 hours. There’s also Metro 2033, Darksiders and oh yes, Alan Wake to return to and all before my own personal PC Revolution. I doubt I’ll have time for it all, but I’ll try.

There’s a multiplayer Demo out for Transformers: War for Cybertron. And you know, it’s actually pretty good! I don’t remember much about watching the original show as a kid, but I know enough to know that this is where all of that game is coming from. In a nutshell, the Multiplayer component of that game is basically Modern Warfare 2, but class-based, with Transformers. Though the demo only lets you control two of the 4 classes – neither of which turn into jets, it’s enough to let me know that it has extreme potential. I suggest you check it out if you ever owned an Optimus Prime in your pre-teen years.

I’d say that the best trailer to come out the past weeks, not including the Mortal Kombat Movie kerfuffle, is the new one for Deus Ex: Human Evolution. I only played through the second Deus Ex game (haters gonna hate, but I actually liked it quite a bit) so I don’t really care how far removed it is from it’s predecessors – but you cannot deny the epicness of this trailer:

I’m getting mega Mass Effectey vibes from this, like it collided head on with FF13. I’d really like to see some gameplay though – especially to confirm if it’s going to be a first person or third person game. Maybe we’ll see some next week.

E3 is of course going to be exploding in our faces all of next week, and I’ll be offering the same coverage as I did last year. Though I think I’ll give the Nintendo Press Conference a miss this year – they’re always so depressing. But I’m very much looking forward to what Sony and more so Microsoft bring to the table. I don’t have any predictions for you yet, I’ll put them up in front of the semi-live-blog I’ll do for each of them. If you’d like to follow some professionals covering E3, I’d say that these guys are probably the best equipped.

The best non-gaming news to come out the past fortnight, undoubtedly, was that Patrick Stewart was knighted. About time really, I’ve already been calling him ‘Sir’ for years – he is the captain after all. Anyway, it gives me a great excuse to post this utterly amazing  video:

I caught the Season 1 Finale for Stargate Universe this morning and It was fucking awesome. By the end of it we got a Cliff-hanger for each and every major character overshadowed by a major “Kill Everyone” event. The show finally got round to introducing a threat from the old shows - The Lucian Alliance – which according to the Wikis is a crazy intergalactic Mafia (whom all inexplicably speak English in either British or American accents). But it was done rather well. I’d go as far as saying that it’s my new favourite show left in the power vacuum that Lost and Battlestar has left behind.

On the Anime Front, io9 reports that the creators of the Death Note Anime are making a series based on Supernatural. At first I was really perplexed, but thinking about it, it really makes some sense – it’s going to be based on the earlier seasons of the show, back when it was still very much a monster of the week affair, I think that formula really lends well to a 20-odd minute anime. I’ll be keeping my eye out for it.

Remaining on the Anime front, I recently this last week discovered Crunchyroll when they signed a deal to LEGALLY stream up to date subtitled episodes of Bleach, which unknown to myself they already have set up for Naruto Shippuden and a ton of other shows. And all for free – apart from a one week delay on new content for non-subscribers. It’s pretty damn amazing if you think about it. Anime channels have always had a hard time existing, always being usurped by Fansubbers and bit-torrent. Now we’ve got a service that for free delivers the two most popular anime shows that are currently running. Sure it’s add supported, but a lot less of what you’d put up with on regular TV.

Beyond Naruto and Bleach I’ve taken a liking to “Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao” which I have no Idea what it’s supposed to translate to. My idea of the premise is that it’s basically “what if Japan had made Harry Potter?” – so it’s completely retarded with heaps of weird nudity that occurs too regularly. I’ve also caught a couple episodes of “REBORN!” – which features a baby assassin trainer called Reborn (in that he is a baby, and does not train babies) who has to train a failing high school student how to become the head of a Mafia family – how retarded does that sound?

So that’s all I’ve got for you this week. I’m putting the Magical Ninja Deck Chef on hold for a couple of weeks hiatus – just until this E3 and PC business is taken care of, though I’ll still take suggestions if anyone’s got any. I’m off to play some Red Dead and do some Prep for next week’s E3 blog posts. I’ll leave you with the greatest evolution in Spy Warfare (I totally want one):

not the same without a gun

I just want to do a quick catch up post this weekend – I’ve got next week’s Deck Building Article about 2/3rds finished, and I want to start on next-next-next week’s article a little early too. If you missed what I posted over the past week I put up a little Alan Wake review – where I fail to talk a lot about the general game parts of the game, which I feel better people have already taken care of. And I also posted up the slightly late Deck Building Article focusing on what to do with our shiny new Eldrazi and a little analysis on the state of Pre-Constructed decks. you can find those at their respective links.

After finishing Alan Wake last weekend I moved on to Red Dead Redemption, and I have to say, it hasn’t dug it’s claws into me as I thought it would’ve. I enjoy it, but I can’t ever spend more than about an hour and a half in the game before I just want to turn it off. I think it’s the staple open-world jankyness that puts me off – the controls are less than competent, the combat seems frantic, and a lot of the time when I’m just roaming about things will take a turn for the worst.

For example, this has happened several times – I’m on my way to pick up the next mission and I encounter a shootout, the game generally encourages you to help out with these, so I go in guns blazing only to be told that I just shot a bunch of the wrong guys and now the remaining sides are both after me and I’ve got to deal with a bounty on my head. The game doesn’t really do a good job of pointing out the good and the bad in those situations.

Regardless I’ll soldier on with it, everything else I haven’t mentioned about the game is rather impeccable, scales above GTA4. The Voice Acting in particular continues to astound me between each and every cut-scene. It’s a game that’s worth playing.

News-wise it’s been a slow kind of fortnight. It’s as if there were some kind of massive news worthy event happening in a couple of weeks. Sony managed to mention that Killzone 3 exists and that it’ll be out next year. You would think that this is the sort of thing they’d save for some kind of ridiculously huge press event…. Anyway, I’ve read pretty much nothing about the game, and I have really no opinions other than what I said a year ago about the second instalment. To paraphrase: Multiplayer is pretty fun and somewhat innovative, but the single player makes me want to choke a bitch.

Eve Online, my favourite game to hear about but not actually play released it’s latest expansion, Tyrannis, the main selling points being Eve Gate – their Facebookey way of seeing some of your in game stuff. And the more lucrative “Planetary Interaction”. I watched a little bit of the tutorial, and it seems rather interesting, though not entirely enough for me to re-subscribe at this time. At least I’ve got an opportunity to have a passive way to pay the running costs of my future Space-Bar when I do.

Lost ended last week, and I have to say that I’m very happy with the way it ended. The show was really past the point of answering each and every question the writers have been teasing us with these past 5 years – but they wrapped up what mattered and left some of the more complicated stuff where it was, avoiding having to explain it in some eventually lame-assed way. I’m thinking about doing a best 5 episodes sort of post sometime soon, I think with the recent impetus on the ending, I think alot of people are forgetting about the early days of the show, so yeah, that post might happen.

This weeks “jesus christ that’s a real thing that people do, yes it is” segment comes from… you know, just watch it.

You know, there isn’t really anything bad about this - maybe they should’ve not gone on TV with this. I would’ve figured “Werewolves” would’ve been a bit more stealthy. Thanks again Twilight.

Someone really needs to Twilightize Robots so we can see some dumb teens dress up and act like douchey emo robots all day.

Personally nothing much has been going on as usual. I passed my Driving Theory last weekend, so the end of that shit is in sight with my Practical Test, until I fail that about a bajillion times too – but I’ve taken a little break from lessons, and I kinda want to string that out as long as I can just for the extra cash in the bank. College is also over for the year, and the thing I’ll miss most about that is not going to work on a Wednesday – 4-day work weeks are enough of a pain in the ass as is.

I haven’t put much research into the New PC project lately, I actually missed a week of payments into my jar bank last week (not a piggy bank – it does not look like a pig), but I should still be on some kind of track for the middle of July. Again, any help in the matter is very much appreciated. In theory this PC should last me another 4-5 years as my current PC already has done.

That’s all for today, I’m off to enjoy the last moments of my weekend and get some articles finished a couple of weeks in advance. I must remember and do a E3 predictions post sometime soon also. Toodle-bye.

A chorus of little birds

It hasn’t been a totally interesting couple of weeks since we last caught up. It’s mostly been a haze of work and then holing up for an evening of Movies and Deck Testing. Thankfully things have picked up a little – and the Parents have gone away this weekend, so I’ll get a couple of quiet chillax nights –and there’s nothing more relaxing to me than a parentless house.

Alan Wake

I’m Happy to say that Alan Wake is as awesome as I hoped. I think we all know how you feel when a game has gone so long in development and it comes out to fail in regards to it’s hype train. I had fears that Alan Wake would be just that.

I’m only as far as finishing Episode 2, and I’m happy with taking my time with it, an Episode at a time. The game’s structure near demands it. And I hope to continue that way up until the end.

The Max Payne references so far are abundant, though not to the point that you get a slap in the face every time one appears. And some I think wouldn’t be noticed by the un-core Payne Fan. The ‘This door is locked’ sound in Wake is the same as in both Max Payne’s, which brings a smile to my face every time I encounter it  - where I’m sure some trolls might look down at remedy for reusing an old sound. Fuck those guys, the sound design is AH MAZING.

It was a sound decision getting the collectors edition. There’s a bonus disk that’s loaded with content that chronicles the game’s – for example, there’s a screenshot gallery for every year the game gas been in development. There’s some Dashboard Theme’s and shit on there too, but I’m sure the golden egg is going to be the additional in-game developer commentary. It comes with a soundtrack CD, though unfortunately it doesn’t contain the non-operatic music of the game. And there’s a hard cover book, which seems like it contains extra info on some of the games characters, though written from an in-game perspective. I think I’ll get my worth of all that stuff once I finish the game.

I’ll hopefully have more to talk about next time, but so far it’s been a thumbs up all the way. I really hope they put out a PC version at some point, because sadly there’s some people out there that don’t have a 360. But I’d say that this is another reason on the long list of reasons to own a 360. If you want to see a little of what you’re missing, GiantBomb has an excellent Video Review of the game right HERE.

Halo: Reach Beta

I got the chance to play some of the Halo: Reach Beta over the past couple of weeks. I was almost playing it daily, ensuring I played at least my three required matches to get ranked in the Slayer Arena.

They’ve even got some of the Bungie.net connectivity working too. So you can view stuff like your player profile (mine here), and directly upload  screenshots (that’s 1920×1080 resolution btw), and game replays. And that’s all stuff I w ish other games had, especially MW2 and Bad Company 2.

You know, there’s even a company that’ll take those screenshots and directly print them out all high quality style and frame them and shit. It’s True.

Besides that, the game’s good fun. Still Halo, but with enough new changes to enlighten the experience whilst keeping the solid framework of the old games intact. And now that there’s some proper player progression in the multiplayer experience I’ll definitely stick around this time – especially if the ranking system works as it is intended and lets me play with all the other plebs. Not that’s I’m too plebby - that’s one of my finer moments above – I’m the red guy with the gravity hammer. The guy in blue, well, he’s very dead.

Duels of the Planeswalkers Expansion 2

Wizards continues to fail at videogames, though as a community we’re not really sure if it’s solely the developers fault, or the relationship imposed upon them by wizards. The content of the new expansion was broken for the better part of two days after it’s launch – a period that the paid for expansion was not removed from the live marketplace. Neither was it’s inability to function very well advertised.

The Developers have done a decent job of updating the game – once it got working that is -  with some streamlining of the gameplay and the new content, but I can’t shake the surrounding shell of brokenness, that I could surely, as both a long time Magic The gathering player, and as a gamer in general, devote entire blog posts to.

To sum it up, the game is noticably sluggish in parts, and some of the card abilities don’t work either at all or correctly. What really pissed me off is that in desperate situations, the game chooses what lands you tap to cast a spell, and there are a couple of times where it just straight up taps the wrong basic lands, and you’re left with either an ability I can’t activate or spell I can’t cast.

And some of the decks have a lot of crap in them, considering the huge spectrum they’ve got to choose from – and whilst I understand the need the game has for restricting almost all kinds of deck construction, it would be really great if I could remove some of the base crap from the core deck. Boring crap like Hill Giant and cunt-fucking Goblin Piker.

But the number 1 thing that really really pisses me off about this game is the stream of content. It took them over six months since the last released DLC to get this expansion out, and it took them that time to create 3 new decks, 5 new puzzle challenges, and the AI opponents to use them. Instead of getting that every month or two (which would be really fucking great btw) they’ve started charging micro-payments for stuff like new in game backgrounds and in-game avatars. Now they’re even offering players a fee to unlock additional cards for decks – cards that you get from playing the game anyway.

All of this is reminiscent of the old crap EA used to put out – charging for in game cheats or currency in single player games. I get the feeling that Wizards wants to turn Duels of the Planeswalkers into the closest thing to MTGO they can get – and what Duels’ should be is the furthest fucking thing from MTGO.

Counter Strike: Source Beta

Surprisingly, Valve announced that it’s running a Beta for some new features they’re looking to add to CS:S. It must be about three years since the game had a proper update, probably because all of the attention that Team Fortress 2 has got. Infact it’s all TF2 style improvements they’re making – stuff like lifetime stats, Achievements, the domination and revenge system, and some other good Steam profile integration stuff.

As a lapsed CS:S player, I’m really happy to see the game getting a bit of a modern update – even if it isn’t an announcement of a brand new game. There’ll probably be some pissed off players out there, due to the hardcore nature of the game, but it’s stuff like this that’ll draw me back in.

The Achievement list – which someone posted HERE – look really epic, in a way that it’ll take a long long time to get some of those. But anyway, I hope that this update, and more, make it through the beta. I’d be checking it out myself, but I missed my chance to get in. T_T SADFACE.

Transformers: War for Cybertron

I honestly don’t remember much of Transformers from when I was younger. I think I just understood it as a concept, but never really bought into the story. It’s a long shot that any game could be a Transformers revolution akin to Arkham Asylum levels of success – but War for Cybertron has me intrigued at least. The multiplayer alone appears as if it has depth the likes of Modern Warfare 2, take a look at this video…

OnLive in the UK

Remember OnLive right? That thing that streams games to your PC or telly without the need for decent hardware, only a decent internet connection. Well Kotaku reports that BT have signed a deal to bring OnLive to the UK at some point in the future. That’s kind of cool – if it works that is. Though in general I’m happy to see that this is happening, simply because this is the kind of thing I didn’t think we’d get in the UK due to it’s server restrictions and our generally crappy broadband provisions. I guess we’ll have to see it to believe it, at least now we know we’ll get the chance.

Biting Zingers. Wat.

My favourite ‘wat’ moment of the past weeks has to be Joystiq’s report of a House game (that is - one based on the fucking brilliant TV show starring Hugh Laurie) coming to the DS and PC this August. All you need to know is in the trailer, and it is clearly on the far opposite spectrum as Arkham Asylum when it comes to games based on non game IP’s. You better check it out…

The Great PC Hunt

I talked a little last time about my need for a new PC. I’m well on my way to saving up enough the cash, but I’m still confused when it comes to buying the thing. I’ve come to the understanding that I’m probably going to have to get it online – the ‘Shire doesn’t appear to be equipped, but I’ll take a look in Aberdull next weekend when I’m through. And don’t get me started on our local establishment – who’s only open whenever I’m at work.

THIS is the kind of configuration that I’m aiming for, though I’d go a little higher that that if I got the chance. So now it’s just a case of ‘where’ now that I’ve somewhat figured out the ‘what’. As always I’m taking any suggestions and recommendations, I’ve got about 4-5 weeks to get the thing ordered anyway.

TV And Stuff

The non-leaked version of the new JJ.Abrams thing hut the web a couple of days ago. And going by the name and the trailer, I can’t put my thumb on the genre. It’s either Cloverfieldy meets aliens, or something Superheroey. “Super 8” is a really weird name. I’m sure it’ll be great when it comes out in like a year’s time. You can check that trailer HERE.

The latest season of Supernatural came to a close on Friday, and it was surprisingly satisfying and held well together – not often the case when you bring God, Satan and the armies of heaven and hell together wrapped around a story 5-seasons in the making. But yeah, it was really good, just like the rest of the show. It’s been picked up for a 6th season, but with the lead creative director leaving with this season, I think we can say for sure that this 5th season is the end of this story. Or at least that’s what we can say when th studio milks the show right into pwnblivion.

I leave you today with a final luls. A hilarious video remix of a WoW Freak Out – a rising genre – the original of which I’m sure I posted about a year ago. Prepare to have your happiness stat modified by +5…

Yes, at one point he is trying to sodomise himself with a TV remote through sheer rage. Here’s the original in case you want to make sure.

Next Time on My Life…

Next weekend I’ve got another attempt at passing my Driving Theory, so next weeks deck building post might be a little late unless I finish it before hand – which is a possibility since the Deck list itself is finished, it’s just the explanations I’ve got to put down on blog-paper.

Red Dead Redemption is also out next week, which has unexpectedly been hitting my radar recently. GTA in a dirty western form should be good fun right? Hopefully we’ll get some reviews next week before the game hits on Friday.

Now I’m off to enjoy the rest of my parentless weekend. I know, I should just move out already. I’ll start saving once I get this fucking Driving Test thing out of the way. Anyway, remember to leave a comment! and I’ll catch you on the flipside.

Now a week in the country is just what I need

It hasn’t been a most interesting couple of weeks for gaming. There’s just not much coming out. And whilst I have plenty of Magic decks to build, I’m not feeling the love for WoW and Bad Company 2 at the moment – and there’s not much else coming out or anything I really want to play that’s been stocked up.

I suppose the most interesting news to come out the past couple of days was the APB Release date and Pricing. Surprisingly the game is coming out on the 2nd of July, which is exactly 2 months away. Even though I’m in the beta, Realtime Worlds hasn’t really been great at informing the community as to what’s going on. Most MMO’s these days send out a constant barrage of media running up to a release. Let’s hope that they put their foot down these next two months.

I do like the pricing model they’ve provided – providing a nice middle ground. So you’re either playing for free, relegated to the non-combat Social District. Paying per Hour of game time, which is great if you don’t want to commit or don’t have a lot of time to play. And at the top there’s the usual subscription model. There is also what they’re calling “RTW Points” which are supposedly interchangeable for everything between game time, in-game currency, and special DLC. I have no problem with any of that. The full info, including a video of some of the Pre-order bonuses is all HERE.

It’s a shame that I still can’t talk about the game due to the NDA (not that anyone would really notice in this little dark corner of the internet) but I do have a problem with the game, in that my PC can barely run it. I thought it was the Beta’s fault for a long time, bugs and performance issues and such, or rather hoped. I know now that I need a new PC – and I’m going to try and get one before APB launches.

Whilst the upgrades I did last Christmas did help optimise the system – it’s still stuck with an old-assed 32bit Pentium 4, and that just doesn’t cut it these days. It’s not that it doesn’t just not play APB very well, there’s a whole list of games that deserve to be ran on a better system.

This is the part where I ask for help. I figure I can squeeze out about £800 for a new PC, but I haven’t put much thought into where I should get it. The last time I ordered online, and a year later that company Ninja’d away with my 4-year guarantee, So I wouldn’t really like to do that again. And I utterly refuse to buy from your franchised PC Worlds or John Lewis as the ‘rents have suggested that I should, because they provide about as much useful customer service as their online counterparts when it comes to repairs. So my preferred choice is to go independent.

The LithBro has pointed me towards SA Computers in Fundee. He painted a picture for me that compares that place directly to some kind of PC gaming Mecca, and I’m rather inclined to believe such claims. There’s also 3000RPM in Fundee, who’ve I’ve had dealings with in the past where at the end of the transaction I seriously wanted to Bro-Five the clerk. But the problem is that they are both in Fundee, so I can’t exactly walk in whenever I like whenever I have a problem I can’t fix. I suppose I could check out the local PC shop, but I’ve had off-dealings with them in the past.

So does anyone have any pointers or recommendations for me? I would easily buy online if anyone could point me in a safe direction.

Anyway, I am actually having some fun with my PC despite it’s odd crashes and inability to run the most modern of games. I started playing Torchlight for a couple of hours yesterday, and I’ve played some already today – it’s pretty freaking good. I’ve never played a Diablo-esque type of dungeoneering game before, so it’s pretty fresh for me. My dude’s about level 10, and he’s an Alchemist (Basically a Mage/Warlock – See the dude on the left here). If I have two complaints so far is that I haven’t quite figured out what kind of gear I want to optimise my guy, and there’s a lack of a “world map” so I’m not sure how deep the mines of Torchlight go, or if I need to, how to find my way out. But other than that it’s a wonderful game, and it runs beautifully as it demands next to nothing from my PC.

The other thing I did yesterday was sit down some with Left 4 Dead 2, which I’m never really in the mood for, but I’m starting to finally feel the attraction. I played through the new “The Passing” campaign, featuring the survivors from the first game. It’s good stuff, and it’s pretty hard too, especially when you’re left to collect 16 barrels of gas across an open level and the game starts sending multiple tanks your way, good thing the original survivors are pew-pewing from the rooftops and periodically dropping peels.

Another thing that should keep me busy for the next couple of weeks is the Halo Reach Beta. It’s supposed to be launching today, though when today is an unanswered question. Let’s hope soon so I can enjoy the last of my 3-day weekend poppin’ fools and armour locking like a motherfucker.

Oh yeah! Did you hear the fucked up news about Bungie? I can’t believe they got stuck in a 10 month contract with Activision. I’ve got no hate for Bungie for their decision – If they want to make something that’s not Halo, going with a big publisher is probably the best way to go. But I am worried for their well being. I can’t help but think of all the Infinity Ward butt rape that Activision has been handing out recently, and you know, how Bobby Kotick demands the soul of a game designer every morning for breakfast, and their children and pets for lunch. Giantbomb has got all the deets HERE.

Haha! remember when EA used to be the Evil publisher? Good times, good times.

In non-gaming news, I saw Iron Man 2 yesterday. It wasn’t really what I was expecting, and it wasn’t really as good as the first one – but it was enjoyable. I suggest that if you want to go see it, leave it for a couple of weeks. It was the first time I’ve seen a cinema packed like that in a long while.

TV is looking like it’s winding down again for the summer. My favourite show of the season continues to be Stargate Universe. It’s such a different show than previous Stargate shows, very much darker in tone. And they haven’t introduced an alien race yet that through farfetched or unexplained reasons, look exactly human and speak English. Basically they’ve done an epic Cheese Dissection of the shows established universe, whilst still leaving that stuff story-wise intact. I’m watching through Criminal Minds too, and I’m at the part where Gideon just left the show. I was worried that it was going to suffer because of that, but it continues to go strong.

For blog news, I’m still working, and on schedule for fortnightly Magical Ninja Deck Chef articles – I’ve honestly got about three I’m writing at the moment, and next weekend I’ll be bringing my sweet vampire deck tech into the world. But to mitigate the overall domination of MTG related posts, and it’s personal impact on myself, I think I’ll throw up a proper gaming post every other fortnight, just to catch up.

So that’s all for now. I’m off to go camp X-Box Live, and play some Torchlight at the same time. Happy May Day Holiday everyone! Remember to drop some comments (preferably like they’re hot)!

As she walks me through the nicest parts of hell.

I think I remember writing somewhere that this website is about Videogames, and the worship of such. And yet all that I seem to be able to talk about is Deckbuilding and whatnot. So consider this post somewhat overdue, and you’ve probably heard about half the shit here by since it’s had enought time to make its way round the web. So as to not appear spiteful to my soul embued Deckbuilding Articles HERE is the link to this week’s offering, or you could just scroll down. The point is I’d really like it to be read since they each take about a week of planning and writing to accomplish… but I’d totally understand if you just straight up didn’t want to look at it.

Where was I? Oh yes, videogames. I haven’t really played much since my last non-TCG post. I did hop into the new Left4Dead campaign, dubbed “Crash Course”. Whilst I was somewhat dissapointed with the Length (only two chapters) I was delighted with a new piece of Vavle-made content for the game. I also hopped into a couple of games of Survival and I was blown away. I had to pry myself away from the Nintop, else I would’ve kept going all night. The relentless death that game mode throws at you is amazing.

I’m really happy to hear that Realtime Worlds is launching the APB Beta next week - maybe then the veil will be lifted and we’ll finally know what the hell is going on with that game. They continue to drip-feed their gameplay videos via their Podcast Feed. I just hope that there’ll be a spot in the Beta for me, and I’ll find a Key sitting in my inbox sometime next week. If that happens, not only will Christmas have come early, but also it will confirm that Dave Jones is infact Santa Clause. (Dave, dude, you really need to get a better picture into Wikipedia, srsly)

An amazing new look at Heavy Rain was released last week, and it continues to blow my mind. The sheer detail in that game astounds me. There were points in that trailer, where I glanced at the video and for a moment I thought it was all real. Check it out HERE, and I urge you to watch it in the highest quality possible.

The following is a trailer for Gyromancer. Tycho described it as something like Pokemon + Puzzle Quest * Final Fantasy, that alone is an interesting concept. What is moreso fascinating is that the game is being joint developed by Square-Enix and PopCap and is being published on Xbox Live Arcade. I don’t know how to continue this paragraph, that just fills me with so much reverence and excitement. To get Square Enix to even touch an Xbox is an amazing feat in itself, but knowing that the makers of Peggle…. Fucking Peggle is sharing a table with the Final Fantasy guys is just…. I don’t know what to say. Watch the trailer:

I felt kinda bad about missing Battlefield Bad Company, I contemplated getting it the other day via the XBLM Direct Download thingy. But then I rememberd that there’s a sequal coming out and MW2 is just round the corner. The Sequal is hitting sometime next March and I figure that’s enough time to extract most of the joy from Modern Warfare 2, and is a nice time to be getting a new shooter in time for the summer. Some would bring up the similarities between Modern Warfare and Battlefield, but for me they are completely different games. Simply involving Vehicles and sprawling environments is enough to differentiate it. Bad Company 2, with additional environmental Destruction should be a blast when it hits. Check out the following Trailer:

THIS looks amazing.

On the non-gaming front I’m happy to be submerged in the american fall TV schedule. Out of all the shows, this new season of House has been a joy to watch - especially the opening dual-episode with House in the Asylum - which left me feeling rather emotionally fulfilled. Fringe is off to a nice start too, as is the Mentalist. On the opposite of the spectrum, Heroes seems to be epically failing. Noah and Peter seem to be the last surviving grounded characters of the show, and hopefully we’ll see alot of them in the rest of the season. Also, the ink thing, with the carnival people, is pretty retarded.

Musically, I’m happy that the new Dethklok album is finally out, and it’s blacker and brutaller than the last offering, and whilst still being utterly a treat to listen to, it has lost some of the comedic quirks that the first album had. I still aim to have Mermaider II to the top of my most listened playlist by the end of the weekend. Lost Prophets have a new Single out soon - and I’m not sure where I stand on it - I’ll wait for the album to save my judgement.

Finally, Electric Six are making a mark on Rock Band next week with three songs. The somewhat Expected Gay Bar will be available along with “Dance Epidemic” and “I Don’t Like You”. It is listed as “Track Pack 01″ which leads me to believe, and hope, that there will be more from the band to come soon, hopefully from their more recent albums. All of this music game business, with DJ Hero and all the talk about Rock Bands upcoming improvements, is really stoking my game-boner. So much that I’m considering grabbing those extra plastic instrument monstrosities sometime.

Genuflecting with a torch