say no more.
Posted by .steve
this was released today.
my gamer tag is the correction.
let's go.
smuggled/smothered.
Posted by .steve
for fans of the series, this is will more than likely make you shudder in anticipation. it's coming, and it's coming hard and fast. i still haven't played the second one, but the original is one of the greatest FPS experiences of all time. story, gameplay, innovation... monstrous.
for those not into the series, this is one HELL of a short film. watch it anyway.
also! if you have a ps3, do yourself a huge favor and download the scott pilgrim video game demo. plays JUST like river city ransom which is PHENOMENAL. looks to me like it's going to be a great multiplayer co-op experience, and the subject matter itself holds up tight. punch faces!
paintboarding and snow skating.
Posted by sake the dj
in the battle for last place, aging legend Tony Hawk and budding megastar Shaun White are battling for supremacy over the coveted 'pseudo action-sports/abstract/fringe demographic' genre. Shaun has his paintboarding entry, while Tony has decided to throw more denial money at a violently failed property. i was under the impression that you aren't allowed to do your pet project until you release a few blockbusters, but that is obviously not the case here.
in a piece of hybrid movie/video game news, my friend Russ over at MTV Multiplayer wrote a quick post with a video you should check out. apparently, [edit]Guillermo[edit] Del Toro is making a foray into the world of gaming.
keep checking in for my upcoming interview with Vincent, the lead singer of The Acacia Strain. i wonder if he liked my review?
part well-wisher, all hunter.
Posted by .steve
i'm unsure if we spoke about this game at all. there were a lot of skeptics kind of walking around the outside of it, droning the words, "i heard it was good, it looks sick, i heard it was good, it looks sick..." so on and so forth. i know i played it. dave played it as well. the consensus (WOW i never knew the word was spelled that way; gross) amongst the two of us and anyone else i spoke with who has well-formed opinions is that this game is solid, featuring great game play and a well-written plot. it's quick, gets you from where you are to where you have to be without too many video game cliches, feels uncharted-like in its pacing, and gives you the option of collecting different memoir pieces if you're into heading into every nook and cranny of a game hundred percenting it (like i am currently with infamous).
listen, this summer has been weak for games, so i have a little ray of light for you [the irony for alan wake's main weapon brushes by some of you, and you give it a dirty look]. $30 for the next 48 hours right over here. there's a good amount of PC stuff as well, but check out deals like metro 2033 [i didn't like, dave did] for $20, singularity for $40 [dave approved, mikey as well [[ps, register spaniard]] ], and if you've got a pc mass effect 2 for $20. solid prices guys. get your summer going. especially if you ain't working your way back through something, you are completely uninterested in madden (demo went up by the way; it's very good), and aren't into mafia 2. next big game that's coming up that looks intriguing to me is spider-man: shattered dimensions (here) in september.
GO!
metal slime is defeated!
Posted by sake the dj
just a quick statement of fact - Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies is the best portable rpg ever made. you heard me, pokéfans. wanna fide aboud id?
you might be saying 'how can this be possible?' or you might be saying 'fuck you.' either way, feel free to discuss it right at my face - sake.the.dj@gmail.com
Wings of Liberty
Posted by Rahul
Anyone pickup StarCraft II - Wings of Liberty this past week? I finally picked my copy up and installed it on my MacBook Pro. While it's playable, it certainly doesn't look that great even though the fruit-laptop is pretty beefy. I guess that's OS X's downfall, when it comes to gaming.
My desktop PC has been disconnected for the past few weeks, but I used it for playing the beta and it looked pretty awesome. So I guess I'm going to have to swallow my pride and install it on my PC for a better experience. Oh well. Either way, let's play. Who has it? Who's getting it? Who's on the fence? Hit me up.
unitary reform.
Posted by .steve
limbo.
When i think of my love for any medium, it's often from the point of view of the observer. I don't play an instrument, I've never been published, I've no aesthetic drawing talent to speak of. And now, with Limbo, they once again take a genre that I've grown to love and have made me realize that I will never love it the way THESE GUYS do. Painstaking care has been taken with this game from the physics, the simple controls, and taut puzzle/platforming to the further reaches like the fuzzy soundtrack, the slow hum nightmare artistry, and the jarring impact and breathlessness in each death. This game is linear, almost exclusively left to right platforming, but there are turns at every corner. You build antagonists from the environment just by walking through it. There is little to no story here, and unless I'd read any reviews or previews for it prior, it wouldn't be known to me (I'll leave it to you to do the research if you'd like to know). And that didn't stop me for a heartbeat. The game stares directly into you, as if with wide eyes from beneath the threshold of a frozen lake.
The amount of times that I crossed an imaginary line in this game and shouted varying degrees of "oh my god" from awe, shock, terror, and sheer beauty is innumerable. The puzzles are tasteful. Frustrating but never unfair. As in any puzzler (I'm looking at you Layton) the joy you'll get out of getting through the ins and outs they'll lay ahead for you are much greater than the pain you'll put yourself through figuring it out. the achievements are moderately difficult, with about 8 little glass crystals scattered throughout the 'dream' attainable by going a bit of the extra distance, or taking a chance amidst one of the encounters.
Limbo is a great game and comes in the middle of a fairly DEAD summer for games. $15 (1200 pts) is a perfect price point to declare it UNMISSABLE. You definitely need this game. Unless cod call of duty bro prestige cod cod modern warfare 2.
protonaut.
Posted by .steve
so i know a bunch of you guys are video game fans. that being said, i know many of this generation are pokemon mavens. while i tried my hand at the game and understand its appeal, i still couldn't get down as much as i've seen some of you cats get down. there is a website, though, that is offering minimalist backgrounds for each of the pokemon that exist. some of them are cool, some of them i have no idea if it's cool or not. but check it out if you are into it.
limbo.
this is a game i've had my eyes on for a while. i was completely absorbed by the trailer, blown away by the concept of it... and it's released on the xbox live marketplace as of yesterday. little did i know that it would get game of the month in game informer, and have a ton of buzz going on in all the blogs. i'm pumped. downloading it now, will check back with some feedback once i've played it.
checked out the new norma jean record, meridional. super different. nice chugs, nice riffs. dude's voice is kicked into thrice-gear for most of the record. couldn't really tell what i thought at first but eventually stepped into the shadow of what it could have been for me, and consistently grew. good stuff. there should be a full-on review by dave some time soon. tracks.
some of the only dudes on long island still playing music have a show going on JULY 30TH at the vibe lounge. they'll be releasing their new 6 track EP hellomind to attendees early, and if you're not there you'll have to wait until august. rough, but it's as easy as showing up for the show, my sons and daughters. tracks.
all the more, another band on long island still putting themselves out there on the line, just got back from tour and will be hitting us up with some notes/highlights from the road soon. if you haven't given them a listen yet, pop by over here. i'm still without myspace audio, so i couldn't tell you what songs are what, but i know a bunch of stuff is up there for ingestion.
yeah, i saw knight and day (tom cruise & cameron diaz). it was fine, standard action comedy stuff. fuck it, tom cruise is the man. watching the movie, though, i got the impression that the character he was playing is essentially the same way he is in real life. super saccharin, unflinching to the world exploding around him. just being tom goddamn cruise.
infamous, the ps3 greatest hit title? incredible. if you haven't made it there yet, please do. unreal.
also, not to push the mothership, but if you reserve the sequel to star wars: force unleashed, you get the following dope pre-order bonus (including the silver lightsaber crystal):
as always, if you want us to talk about you or someone else/something else: wrankmusic[at]gmail.com
boat underboard.
Posted by .steve
crackdown 2
if you've played the original crackdown and hated it, stop here. the review is as follows:
"same shit. game blows."
- adam siegel
however if you didn't touch the first one and are curious, or if you were a fan of it and weren't sure if they were going to continue with the open city sprawl of questionable justice, allow me to indulge your fantasies and tell you that YES, you will have the freedom to take crime out at your leisure. my only gripe is there is little to no motivation keeping you tied to the matter at hand. for the hours that i've put into it, a majority of my time was spent checking my HUD, heading into the general direction of some random marker and shooting those that shot at me, or anything with a health bar in general. there is no mission structure, there are no true antagonists, and rarely is there anything out there that can kill you outside of the realistically structured city and its 30 story drops.
this sandbox genre has been my bread and butter since the first mercenaries came in and stole my heart (then crushed it with the sequel). having little to no linear design and no pressure to rush and complete any task or objective works as both a positive and a negative, fueling the fire for time killing when i'm in the mood for this game and this universe, but completely turning me off and losing my intention if i need the kick in the ass. the places i need to destroy, defend, build, or capture are laid out and waiting for me. if i want to race across a rooftop or the streets of the city, then so be it. salvation can wait.
the best part of the game though is the fact that you can mob up with three of your friends (or three random strangers) and do the exact same thing. in fact, microsoft is pushing this feature SO hard that there are certain orbs (power ups) only attainable while playing in an xbox live game. this is a killer for achievement hunters and completionists who aren't comfortable going social with their gaming.
a little soulless but tons of fun, i gotta recommend this game for a casual romp with heavy trigger fingers. +1 for fans of co-op games, +1 for fans of the first game. -1 for anyone who needs a storyline, -1 for anyone looking for a solid solo shooter.
Be The Band
Posted by Brian
This could be a big development for small to mid-level bands.
For better or worse, the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games have been some of the biggest things in music these past few years. While the music industry dies, their sales have gone up and up, promoting existing acts to even higher levels of popularity.
The playing field is about to open up. As soon as next month will see the launch of "Rock Band Network", a way for users to turn their own, original music into fully-playable, fully downloadable Rock Band tracks. This means that bands can program their songs to play in the game, in everything from note placement to difficulty to animation, and then upload them for players to download at a price the band sets, likely between 50 cents and 3 bucks. So not only is this an incredible chance for promotion, but a possible source of revenue.
The only catch is the price, but even that has its upside. I haven't been able to pin it down exactly but from what I gather the software will run $500 and a yearly membership will be $99. That may sound a little pricey, but not only can the money be made back (if the quality is there), I believe this will act as a major bullshit-filter, deterring a good number of armchair musicians and screaming children begging their parents for a machine that lets them scream at the world. Between price-point and the community rating system being put into place, the real acts will have a chance to be seen and, most importantly, heard.
Video and info: http://creators.rockband.com/
I think this could be an incredible opportunity, how about you guys? I've reposted this update in the forums for easier commenting.