Gears of War 3 trailer

The Gears of War team really know how to make good trailers. Cliff Bleszinski, the main game designer for EPIC/Gears was on the Jimmy Fallon late night show last night and revealed this exclusive announcement trailer (that was already leaked) for Gears of War 3.

The Gears series has always been super high quality so I'm sure this will be no different. During the interview last night Bleszinski said it would be out April 8, 2011 so let's hold him to that!

Video Games | Gears of War 3 | Ashes to Ashes Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Jumping on the bandwagon

The success of the Nintendo Wii changed the video game industry in such an incredible way that four years after its release Microsoft and Sony are just now catching up. Now I just have to get this out of the way but I think the Nintendo Wii is a horrible game console mainly because the entire premise is based on the movement gimmick. There are really about four or five good games on the system and the control system leaves a lot to be desired.

You can imagine my response to Microsoft and Sony's decision to implement this new movement oriented control interface into their 360 and PS3. To be fair they are really just trying to cash in on the lucrative cash cow that made the Wii as successful as it is; casual gamers (like your Mom for example). This was an entirely untapped market that Nintendo cleverly marketed to with success and now the other two game makers realize this and are changing their system (sort of) to grab that market share.

So what are they doing? Well they're being a lot more innovative than Nintendo for starters, which I suppose is good. Am I excited? Not in the least. I think what they have planned is interesting but I don't see why they want to shoe horn these new technologies into their old hardware when the people that made Sony and Microsoft so successful are not overly interested in these controls. Yes I suppose it's smart to try and pull some of the Nintenmoms or whatever but is it realistic to assume they will pull them away from their Wiis just because the 360 and PS3 can do what the Wii does? I don't seem to think so.

Here are the two promo ads for the new motion control systems.

Sony's Move


Microsoft's Natal


First I'll talk about Sony's Move. I guess its cool. I like that it has an actual controller and it seems like its pretty responsive. I don't forsee myself jumping around like an idiot shooting or punching dudes. I also don't really see how this makes the games more "fun". Gee look at me Ma it looks like I'm dat der feller in dat video game pew pew. Maybe it's not for me but if thats the case they may have a problem on their hands because I don't really see my mom enjoying pretending to punch some tattooed guy in a streetfight, but I guess I can't speak for all moms.

That leaves us with Microsoft's Natal. The first thing I thought of after I watched it was everything except for the game playing was cool. (During it I thought about how stupid they all looked). I think the part with the facial recognition and live video chatting was pretty incredible as well as the ability to use your hands to move through menus similar to Minority Report. I'm skeptical about how well the scanning will work but that could also be quite cool. That being said, theres a problem with this video game peripheral if I like everything but the video games. Granted the games were very family friendly because they're trying to reach that Nintenmom demographic however what does that mean for the guys like me that made the Xbox what it is today? Am I going to be jumping around my room like an idiot pretending to shoot a gun at some bad guys? I know for a fact that I won't, even if no one is around. I think this is potentially one of the most important tech advancements in the past few years because of the implications it can have on the entertainment industry, however I'm not sure if it will really work as a specific Xbox peripheral.

It will be interesting to see how each one plays out in the coming months and I'm sure you'll see them sold out for Christmas. I think both companies have some interesting technology and an interested consumer base, however they need to ensure that they don't alienate their loyal fans because in the end the casual gamer is fickle. They will move onto the next fad while the die hard fans will support their console to the end.

Get excited for Skate 3

Skate 3 comes out on May 11th and while I'm not a huge skater (or any for that matter) the Skate games have always been super fun. They have completely dominated the Tony Hawk series mostly because they stay pretty grounded. Skate is a lot more toned down and a lot more realistic which makes it challenging and rewarding to play. The biggest difference for those that have never played it is that it uses the two control sticks to do all of the moves and as silly as it sounds it feels a lot more natural than the Tony Hawk button mashing of old.

In honour of the new game coming out in a month I've put together a collection of videos from the first two Skate games. Enjoy!





My favourite one

Nerdiest game of the week

I've been playing Monster's Den: The Book of the Dead a little bit and it's a fun little turn based RPG. It isn't anything fancy but it has a decent rule set and it's quite addictive. The biggest problem is it is kind of difficult and the enemies are lame at times but leveling your guys up and getting new abilities is great.

Give it a shot if you like RPGs and have a little time on your hands.

Monster's Den: The book of the Dead

Concept art

Pretty much all art in a video game from character designs to environments to weapons and items start as concept art. I'm a pretty big fan of this style and usually prefer its dirty, unfinished look compared to the final 3d rendered perfection that ends up in the game. It's too bad that Prince of Persia was the only game that attempted a concept-y art style.

Anyhow here are some pieces of concept art that I like from various games!

Prince of Persia


Halo Wars


Guild Wars 2


Halo: ODST


Fallout 3


Batman Arkham Asylum


Warhammer: Age of Reckoning


Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

The coolest flash games ever made

Do yourself a favour and go here and play some of these games because they are possibly the most original and fun games you've ever seen.

Adult Swim Games

Warning- Some are violent!!!

Should you get an iPad for video games?

The iPad has been unleashed on America this past weekend and with it came a slew of apps, including video games. In my opinion the iPad is a little silly but will it be worth it to get for the games? Well let's take a look!

Good stuff:

Civilization: Revolution


This game was excellent on the Xbox360 and from the looks of things it would be even better on the iPad because of the touch screen and the nice high res display. This would be a first purchase for me if I had an iPad.

Plants vs. Zombies HD

This is yet another tower defence game but its all cute and fun and cool. Plus it's in HD so thats another plus. This is a great game on the PC (and I hope they bring it to the 360 Arcade soon) so it should be even better again with the touch screen and nice iPad display.

Dungeon Hunter HD

I don't know a heck of a lot about this game but it looks pretty fun. It's an action RPG, which is always worth a play in my book, and the graphics look pretty decent for what it is. I'm curious how the controls would play out but if the game isn't crazy quick I'm sure it'll be fun. I just picture a Diablo clone where instead of clicking the mouse i'm tapping on the screen, sounds good to me!

The not so good:

Scrabble

This just seems stupid to me. Why do I want to play this on a little iPad screen instead of on a big board? If you're playing with people you need to put it on a table anyway so why not just bring out the board game? In any case this will be a top seller on the iTunes top 5 list for like 100 weeks.

Pac Man

Who cares? This is a game that everyone will buy because its sooooo cool to be retro and they will play it less than three times. Boooring. Also the controls look frustrating.

Overall I would say that the iPad is not worth it if you're looking for a new gaming platform. That being said the iPad has a LOT of potential, much more than the iPhone, because of its size and processing power. Right now most of the games are just remakes for the iPad but in a few months when then original games start cropping up it may be a legitimate gaming platform.

New Ghost Recon

I've never been a huge fan of the Ghost Recon series but this real life video looks pretty cool. If they can make it as interesting as the video it may be something cool to look forward to. Ubisoft has been on their game as of late so I think this has some potential.

Video Games | Ghost Recon: Future Soldier | Ultranationalist Coup Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Attention all video game media

Please stop giving any attention to Duke Nukem Forever. It's been floating around for over 10 years now and there is no release date in sight. Maybe if everyone stops talking about it and stops posting their horrible, horrible "leaked" game videos it will just go away.

To set an example, I will never post about it again!

Cringe inducing

Sometimes TV shows will do something involving video games and every single time they are horrible. This is probably the worst example I've ever seen and I can barely watch it because it just makes me feel so embarrassed but I can't really explain why. One quick note before you watch it: Nothing in this clip is really even close to reality.

Video Games | | Life: Prince of Persia sequence

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I was going to just leave it there but upon watching it again I'm going to list every single problem I have with it from start to finish. This is the internet after all so it is the perfect place for a guy to complain about useless stuff that has no importance to anyone.

1) Damien Lewis is awesome. That's the only positive I have for this clip/show.
2) Ok I suppose you're right in that a game console has computer components...I'll give you that one, Lewis. However the "computer expert" girl is an idiot. There's no games on a console hard drive! Strike one!
3) Wrong Captain nerd, the object of the game is not saving the princess. Hand in your nerd uniform.
4) This isn't a game complaint but more of a script one. How do they know that they will find what they need when the guy gets to level ten? There are more than ten levels in the game so it's not even like they need to get close to beating it. However I'll give the cops the benefit of the doubt and whatever they need is simply at level ten, not at the end of the game.
5) HAHA video game guy lives with his mom and has STAR TREK THING. This is the point in the clip where I get simultaneously angry and embarrassed at/for the writer(s).
6) Well that's not the beginning of the game at all.
7) Game guru's hands on the controller aren't even matching what is happening on the screen or affecting the character. Note: We are only 48 seconds in at this point.
8) There are no "You Win Advance to Level X" messages in the game.
9) The Game Master sucks. He's messing up on level two. Come on man show some nerd pride.
10) This isn't your neighbourhood arcade circa 1989 - there are no "Play Again?" messages on games anymore and especially not on this specific game.
11) This first "loser" montage that I will refer to is not how the game plays out. It is similar however its just bits and pieces from all of the various LEVELS of the game, not just level two (or whatever he is I'm starting to lose interest).
12) This is now the most cringe worthy moment int he clip. At 1:11 Mr. Lewis see's a GIRL (w-w-w-what?!!!!) for some reason pretending to play the game with an air controller. This is where I can barely take it anymore. WHO would do this? No one! Have you ever seen anyone doing that? I've been around a lot of people playing and watching games and that has never occurred. Why? Because it's stupid. This is the point of no return and whatever happens now is possible. Mario running around with the Prince? Sure why not. The game somehow kills the guy playing it? Yep its a possibility. After this moment you know the writer(s) have never either played a game or watched a game or are even vaguely aware of what a game even abstractly resembles in our physical realm.
13) Side note but doesn't anyone else have anything better to do in the police station? Get to work!
14) The girl owns at the game. This is cool cause you wouldn't see it coming. Oh wait a second everyone did. Stupid "nerd" guy may not have even bothered as soon as he started boasting about his Star Wars or whatever nerd crap he was talking about.
15) "Winner" montage is the same level as "loser" montage but she is supposed to be advancing in levels. They couldn't even show further levels in the game to give it SOME credibility?
16) Gee she is still doing great.
17) The dramatic part where she leaps on the horse and narrowly makes it through the gates is all a cut scene so you don't even control that part when you play it because it's just an in game movie there.
18) Seriously? This is the hardest part to actually put in to words for me. The revelation that this guy's secret excel files were hiding in the game all along has so many problems that I don't even want to explain it all. Just know that its essentially impossible and ridiculous. Even if he spent the entire time hacking the code and rebuilding it to include secret excel documents AS WELL AS modifying his xbox's hard drive it would be a colossal waste of time. In that amount of time he could have gotten a full time job making minimum wage, save like $5,000, printed his excel documents out, bought a shovel, a safe and maybe a shack in the woods and buried it all in the woods and still spent less time than it would have taken (and be more secure) than putting his secret excel docs at the end of level 10 in a video game.

Worst. Episode. Ever.

Spiderman Arkham Asylum

A new Spiderman game! This looks pretty interesting mainly because it appears to be borrowing a bit from Batman Arkham Asylum, which came out with a lot of critical acclaim last year. Evnthough I'm not a big fan of games that rip off others (Dante's Inferno) this might actually be a good thing since Spiderman has been needing a shot in the arm on the video game front for a few years now.

I'm curious to see what the other two dimensions will be!

Play some games!

Here are some neato games to play while wasting time! Be sure to turn your sound down first if you need to be secretive!

Infectonator
In this game you play as a zombie plague trying to take over the world. Its actually really fun and challenging.

SHIFT
This is a neat platformer where you turn the level upside down to complete the objectives. Cool...shift...on typical gameplay.

Red Remover
You have to remove the red blocks and save the green blocks! Those blocks sure are cute!

That's all for now but I'll put some more up when I find them.

Why preorder a game?

Recently a avid reader and loyal fan of my blog asked me to do a post on video game preorders and why they are such a big deal. This was such a great idea because preordering video games is one of the biggest topics in video game business at the moment.

Preordering a video game essentially guarantees you a copy of that game when it comes out on whatever day it is supposed to arrive. You go into a store and ask to preorder Splinter Cell Conviction for example and then give your name and phone number in order for the store to contact you when the game comes out. The most important thing however is you have to put a deposit down on the game, typically a minimum of $5. You can put any amount you want but you have to put something down. It won't end up costing you anything extra either so for example if you put $5 down today and Splinter Cell comes out on April 14th you will just pay the rest when you pick up the game. Pretty simple.

So why do companies do it? Well there are a few reasons but the most obvious is they want to get you to buy the game and when you commit some money down on it you are giving the company a good idea of your intention. This allows them to monitor sales weeks or months in advance which helps them to know how many games to ship to each store on release days. It also helps the publishers know how well their game will sell and if their marketing is working and how they can improve upon it. While thats important, there is a much more interesting motive behind why they push preorders so much.

Lets use Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as an example. In its first week of sales it brought in $550 million. Now of course they were not all preorders, however we can assume that at least half were, which is not perfect but a pretty safe estimate for our example. At ~$60 for each game we can kind of round the numbers to say roughly 9 million games were sold. If we wanted to assume half were preorders you're looking at about 4.5 million. Now if the deposit is at least $5 you are looking at about $22.5 million in the video game retailers bank accounts BEFORE the game is even released. Now lets consider that MANY people put much more than $5 down on their preorders and some even pay them off completely. Also many, many people put their preorder deposit down many, many months in advance. So the incredibly rough estimate of $22.5 million in just preorder dollars could have in fact been much higher as many people would be putting down more than $5. Now the OTHER factor that makes preorders so lucrative to companies is interest. If a massive video game retailer has even a slight portion of that worldwide $22.5 million pie then that money is in their gigantic preorder bank account making even more money for them and they have done literally nothing whatsoever.

So why should I, as a customer, preorder? Well in order to get people to give up their money months in advance a lot of retailers and publishers offer gifts. They might include in game things you can unlock only by preordering at specific retailers. Another reason is sometimes retailers simply can't keep popular games in stock so if you preorder you WILL get the game so if you need to play the game right away preordering really doesn't have many downsides except you might be out $5 for a few weeks.

In the end there really was chaos!

So the God of War trilogy is sorta kinda "finished" at the end of God of War 3...mostly. I won't spoil anything so here is my quick non spoiler synopsis of the game. Kratos is really angry so he goes on his quest to get his revenge on the greek gods and titans and everyone else that did him wrong.

Overall the game was really fun and a lot of people were big whiners saying the second half isn't as good as the first but they are just big babies because the whole game is equally good. That however is kind of the problem. The game is really just "good", not great or awesome even. They do everything right, such as Kratos being really really angry and theres lot of blood and violence and other things associated with a god of war but thats about it. They didn't really raise the bar much with anything. The graphics were fine but I thought they could do a bit better with the PS3's cpu power and blu ray's storage capabilities (however no installation was a nice touch). The story was good but predictable except for the ending which was a nice end for the series, even though more whiner babies didn't like it. The controls were almost the exact same as the previous games in the series which was nice but again it was already done before and mostly just button mashing. This was fine five years ago but isn't it time for a change up?

In the end God of War was good and I recommend everyone with a PS3 to play it but just don't go expecting anything revolutionary. Its a super high quality game with excellent production values and the game truly knows what it is. The trouble just comes from the developers being too scared to evolve the game from what it used to be and change it with the times. I don't blame them for wanting to give the fans the game they expect but it would have just been nice to play something that felt fresh as opposed to "here we go again!".

My recommendation is to play it, but rent it. Once you finish it you've pretty much done everything with it.

The monster you created has returned... to kill you!

God of War 3 is out and I'm playing it. So far it's pretty good but I think it is supposed to get better a little further in than I currently am.

Cool things so far:
-Kratos is perhaps even more angry this time around if that's even possible?
-Controls are tight and responsive. The quick time events (where you press the button on screen) are better now because they show up on the side of the screen according to where the button on the controller is so you can watch the action better.
-Cool story so far. I'm guessing in addition to killing the greek gods I'll be taking out the titans too since I was just betrayed by them. Kratos gets betrayed by everyone in these games sheesh, trusting guy.
-The sense of scale is incredible. The titans really are gigantic and there have never been any bigger "things" in a video game before really.

Not so cool so far:
-A couple of the larger fights, such as Poseidon were more straight forward than I was expecting which was a little disappointing.
-Graphics are good but I thought they would do a little bit better.

That being said I think it's pretty awesome and I hope that this is a satisfying end for the trilogy.

Achievement unlocked

I'm obsessed with Xbox Achievements. You know those things that pop up at the bottom of the screen when you do something and there's that satisfying BA-CLINK sound? They usually reward you with some points for killing a certain bad guy or beating the game or any number of things. That's what I'm talking about.

When I first got my Xbox 360 years ago I couldn't care less about them. I thought they were just silly, forcing you to do dumb things to just get a higher gamer score that you can show off to your friends. That was the old me.

I started working at EB Games and ended up working with a bunch of guys that were the complete opposite of the old me, they were "achievement whores". I thought they were silly, playing the games specifically to unlock more achievements which in turn increase your overall 360 gamer score. The gamer score is tied in with your xbox live online account and is on display for everyone to see. They saw mine and it was pitifully low compared to theirs. I guess I'm kind of a competitive guy by nature and this was my call to arms. I wasn't going to be the loser with the lowest score (or so I thought)!

It didn't take long for me to start playing games and doing the side missions, doing things you normally wouldn't in the game, or beating it on a harder difficulty. The funny thing is that I loved it. They made the games so much better in so many ways. It extended my time with the game, making me feel like I was getting more for my money. It made me do weird things that I normally wouldn't, which was either funny or awesome. It made me test myself and gave me more satisfaction beating the games and achieving more with it.

I was thinking more about it the other day while looking through my old games that I regret not getting more achievements in (damn you Rainbow Six: Vegas) and it occurred to me that this new gamer score idea isn't anything new really. Getting the high score is what games first used to be. It wasn't about beating the level because the levels would just go on until you die, it was all about the high score. The 360 gamer score is now just the extension of that old style of gaming. Despite how far games have come, its kind of funny how the old ideas manage to creep back in and make gaming that much more fun.

So if you haven't been working on achievements (or trophies on the PS3) go and try and get some because you might be surprised at how much fun it is.

Best Videos...again!

Here are some new videos of video game related stuff. I love people getting angry at games. This. Is. SERIOUS!

Warning there is some bad language and it might be loud!

Angry Professional (yes, professional) World of Warcraft players -

Top 10 games of 2010 (part two)

Here is the second half of my top 10 list! The write ups are a little longer because a) I'm bored and b) its the top five!

5. Heavy Rain (PS3)



Heavy Rain, a PS3 exclusive, is billing itself as more of an interactive story than video game per se. The story is told from multiple characters which the player plays however each story is very different and dependent upon the other characters. The player controls various characters all trying to catch a serial killer in a depressing noir setting. The designers are attempting to blur the line between film and game which hasn't been done with much success in the past, however it might be the first serious attempt at it. The designers are responsible for Indigo Prophecy, on the Xbox and PS2 (and can be bought through the 360 Marketplace) which was actually a pretty awesome game right until the end. If anything the game will hopefully tell a decent story like their previous release.

4. Halo: Reach (360)



The new Halo. Bungie has always delivered and this promises to increase the amount of enemies on screen at once, add squad based combat (four other Spartans fighting with you) and also throwing in a graphical overhaul. Everything with Reach is shaping up to be impressive and is giving Halo fans exactly what they've wanted for years now; bigger fights with more allies. So far it looks incredibly fun and if they can capture the fun that was ODST, namely the Firefight multiplayer mode Halo: Reach will be something to look out for. Conversely, if you never liked Halo this really is just more of the same including cliched storytelling...which I think is the franchises' worst problem. However I will be optimistic until I play it!

3. God of War 3 (PS3)



Sony is really starting to turn it around. With big releases in the past few months such as Uncharted 2 and MAG and more PS3 exclusives on the way like Heavy Rain and the big daddy God of War 3 releasing in March, Microsoft needs to keep it's eye out. My prediction is it will blow everyone away but won't stray at all from the usual God of War gameplay that made it famous. Part of me will be happy to go back to playing the familiar Kratos that I've killed millions of bad guys with but part of me was expecting something a little different and a little more fresh. I tried out the demo and it was cool but like I said, didn't bring a heck of a lot of new ideas but it is of course just a demo. The two previous games have been fun as hell and had some good character development with tight controls and gameplay so at least we know we'll be playing a highly polished game. The "moving" levels where you fight on the huuuuuge Greek titans will probably be the most interesting thing so I hope they manage to do something fresh with that. This will be a must buy in March.

2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC)



A MMO in the top two?! Yes! You play either a Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, etc in the Star Wars universe with thousands of other people. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan but I think this game is why the Internet was invented. I can't even decide on what kind of character to be because they all sound amazing. Not to mention that they all have their own storylines (like in a single player game) but you can also play with your best buds fighting tougher guys that require dozens of other Jedis! I should also mention that this is the Knight of the Old Republic universe of Star Wars, which is set before the movies, BUT that's not a bad thing. Its actually the perfect setting for a MMO because it was during the big war between the Jedi and Sith when they almost wiped each other out. I'm probably not exactly correct on that because I'm not a huge Star Wars fanboy but I think it's pretty close. I haven't played an MMO since WoW over a year ago now but this will be the one to bring me back.

1. Splinter Cell: Conviction



This game has been pushed back and delayed more times than I can remember and everytime I hear about it I get a little sadder but the end is near. I feel like Bart at Kamp Krusty when he keeps chanting that "Krusty is coming" and goes crazier and crazier but the thing is Krusty DOES show up! So the moral of the story is this game will eventually be released (they're saying April now) and when it finally arrives it will be the best game to come out that year (lets hope its 2010). The premise is you're a bad ass spy and do bad ass things playing by your own rules. It's the fifth in the Splinter Cell series and if it can improve upon Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory it could be the best game ever made. Cool things in the game - Neat conspiracy theory story, amazing co-op missions which are separate from the main story and the coolest mission briefing thing which projects information onto buildings and walls, it's hard to describe but its impressive looking.

2010 GOTY Prediction



Splinter Cell: Conviction is my prediction for 2010 Game of the Year if there are no surprise releases this year. However I think the most popular pick for Game of the Year will be Bioshock 2 but I don't really care about that game so I didn't even put it on my list! That ends my huge list/post thanks for reading!

Top 10 games to look forward to this year (part one)

There are a crap load of games coming out this year but a lot of them look like they are going to suck. This will be a two parter showing off what I think will be the 10 best games coming out in 2010. Here are the first five

10. Dante's Inferno (360, PS3)



Yes, this is the video game for the poem by Dante. And yes it is as ridiculous as you can imagine. The story is "loosely" based on the poem in the sense that you go to hell (that's their clever marketing slogan by the way) and you save Beatrice and I'm assuming kill Satan. I also hate the design of the main character. That being said I tried the demo and the game is actually pretty fun. Its mostly a God of War clone but there is nothing wrong with that when it's one of the most fun game franchises ever made. I don't think it'll be the biggest of best game of 2010 but it will definitely be something to look out for.

9. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)



The first Super Mario Galaxy was awesome. This one will be awesome as well, possibly even more awesome. Mario is great and everyone loves him and I am calling this as the best Wii game of 2010.

8. Red Dead: Redemption (360, PS3)



There are not enough Wild West games in existence and I really don't know why. The setting is perfect for an open world game and I'm glad it's finally being done. I have a feeling this game will be very hit or miss but I'm putting it on the list simply because the premise is so excellent. Don't let me down!

7. StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC)



I thought this would rank higher on my top 10 list but I'm honestly not super excited about it despite it potentially being the best selling game of 2010. I enjoyed the first one 10 years ago but SC2 still doesn't look like it is enough of an improvement over the original. I still want to play it though and once I get into it I'm sure it will be impressive.

6. Alan Wake (360, PC)



Alan Wake looks like it will be one of the oddest games to come out in 2010. The premise is that Alan is some writer that finds his latest horror book is coming to life all around him. Theres shadowy beings that can possess objects, atmospheric settings and neat light and gun gameplay. This game has been in development for ages so it will be nice to finally get to play it this year and see if the wait was worth it.

I'll post up the next five tomorrow...or the day after. I'll also include my prediction for 2010 Game of the Year!

Weirdest video game news over the weekend

This looks like it would be one of the most awkward things to be involved in.

Andy Garcia (the movie star) was in Japan and his son likes the Sonic the Hedgehog games so Andy got in his stretched SUV limo and visited SEGA to I guess take a look at their new Sonic game. I wish there was a transcript of what everyone said because I imagine it's a lot of awkward pauses and him saying "Oh that's neat".

http://kotaku.com/5459461/about-the-time-andy-garcia-visited-segas-sonic-team

Best videos

There are so many awesome game videos out there. Maybe I'll make this a weekly or bi-weekly thing where I find a bunch of cool ones and post them in a list. Here they are:






EMBED-The Most Amazing MW2 Knife Kill - Watch more free videos

Mass Effect 2: First thoughts

I picked up Mass Effect 2 on Tuesday and have had a chance to play it for about 5 hours or so and while it's still super early in the game, I have to admit that I'm not exactly blown away.

For the most part it's fun and the story is interesting however it doesn't really feel like it's diverging from the standard RPG formula enough. Just like in the first one you spend a good chunk of your time searching the galaxy for new party members to join your squad until you're ready to face the final "bad guy". This wouldn't be such a huge hassle but it just seems awfully familiar to Bioware's last game Dragon Age, which was essentially the exact same except it took place in a fantasy setting. It's not that I dislike that specific Bioware formula because it's still kind of fun, it's just that it's so predictable.



On the plus side there is some great dialogue and just like in the first one, you can be a nice guy and say the right thing, or be a prick and play it Jack Bauer style, which is what I do. I play by my own rules but I get the job done! The gameplay is also pretty solid with good shooting mechanics and level pacing. The only gameplay problem I've had on occasion is that the run button is also the "stick into cover button" so if some bad guy is up in your face and you try to run away (ahem) you might hypothetically press A to run but end up taking cover and getting sliced up by the bad guy.

Overall I'm still excited to get deeper into the game and see how the story develops. All of the super positive reviews can't be wrong so I'm sure things will get much better really soon.

Dream job

Sony's recent PlayStation 3 ad campaign has had a lot of great tv spots but I think this is my favourite, mostly because I wish that job existed.

But I just want to play a game!

Every year video games are becoming more advanced as higher budgets and one-ups-man-ship is delivering new game experiences that I never thought I'd see. This year, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, is a great example of what video games should be like. It has a great story, fun gameplay, terrific voice acting and beautiful visuals. Video game reviewers and critics from around the world are heralding it as the game that is bridging the gap between film and video games because it has so many similarities to film. Another example is Mass Effect 2, due out tomorrow, which reviewers are saying is the Avatar of video games and is again blurring the line between video games and movies.

The entire evolution of video games has been to look more realistic (or "beautiful"), to engage players with real story lines and to create an immersive experience that sucks the player into that world. For some reason, video game developers are resigning themselves to simply being in the shadow of films. They are striving to be considered equals of the Avatars or the Dark Knights and in doing this are creating games that are becoming more movie than game. I actually loved Uncharted 2 and am incredibly excited about Mass Effect 2, however I'm not so sure if I'm all that happy with this shift away from gameplay and toward simply watching.

Video game developers should realize that they do not need to be in the shadow of the movie industry when games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's first week sales are outselling most movies' entire box office numbers.

I don't know what this really means for video games in the next few years however I hope the trend to emulate the big screen slows down in the near future. If I want to watch a movie then I'll do just that. If I want to play a game, then just let me play a game.