March Games

March is quickly coming upon us. There were a lot of great releases this April and it's really unfortunate I couldn't play all of them. I'm still looking forward to playing games like Heavy Rain and Borderland's new DLC. The beginning of 2010 has given the year a really strong start and it doesn't seem like the momentum is going to be dying down anytime soon.

What are you looking forward to this month?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Review)

I'm going to be honest with most of you. I've never played Modern Warfare. I heard a lot of positive stuff about it, but I was on the other side of the world. In the land of the rising sun, FPS are not really popular. Plus, until recently I didn't have a good enough PC to even run a game like L4D in it's normal settings. I'm pretty much jumping on the band wagon because a lot of people have been saying that MW2 is just plain awesome.

Final Fantasy (and FF II) for iPhone

According to IGN, the first two installments of Final Fantasy will hit the iPhone app store this Thursday (25 Feb).

I can't tell you how much this game changed my life. I rented it so much the store finally gave it to me because I basically 'bought' it. It changed hands with all of my friends. I still have the cartridge to this day. My love of RPG really started with this, though I guess you could throw Link in there sort of, though he's more Adventure than RPG.

Setsubun Festival

This is gaming related because I learned about this on Cheapy D's latest podcast.

Apparently, there is an annual festival in Japan where the children, according their age, throw the corresponding number of roasted soybeans at their father, or other person, dressed as Oni (Demon from Japanese folklore) to drive away the demon spirits.

You have to listen to at least the first 5 or 10 minutes of his podcast to really appreciate it, but seriously, wtf? That is a wicked cultural difference.

Gaicha, is this celebrated where you are? Interested on your insights here.

Secret Armory of General Knoxx

For you Borderlands Fans

They finally made available some actually game footage of the new DLC and there walkthroughs to boot.

Lvl cap up to 61
New Cars
New enemy types
New Zones

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/t-bone-junction-borderlands-general/62090
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/crimson-tollway-borderlands-general/62092
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/lakebed-walkthrough-borderlands-general/62094

Hand-held Consoles

About a year and a half ago, before my vacation in Cabo San Lucas, I finally made the plunge and bought a PSP. I was so excited! One of the first things I did was rip my DVD of "Transformers" onto a format the PSP could play, and then loaded it onto the Memory Stick Duo card. My wife and I watched the movie on the plane rides over, and it was great. But then it all went wrong.

Real Treasure

I'm a avid fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd. His latest review as of writing, Sworquest, was such an awesome concept. A game series where you can win REAL prizes. Not just money, but a real, one of a kind treasure! Real swords. The trophies and achievements you get with games today are fine, but man, getting a real gold encrusted sword with a silver blade is beyond words.

Blast From the Past! (Half-life 2)

Blast From the Past, (BFTP), Half-life 2. I'm really late in joining the millions of fans that have already beaten Half-life 2 and to be honest I'm still not completely finish. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think the picture to the right says everything I pretty much want to say about this game. 
 

Who wants to go for a ride for $7.50

Sony has gone and blog that there Capcom games will be going on sale including Marvel vs. Capcom 2 =D. MvC2 is on sale for $7.50 (down from $15) until Fed 25. I'm in!

Source

Shattered Horizon Free to play for the weekend

Shattered Horizon is a death match style online game that you play in outer space. Its developed by Future Mark Studio, sound familiar? Same studio that makes the GPU benchmark programs.

Note: trying to add a pic but the button does not work =-(

Update: already pre-loading

No More...WKC (You were expecting "Hero's"?)

Can't do it anymore. The fun is gone. I guess I just so desperately wanted this to work. But alas, despite all the coolness of this game, I just couldn't keep it. If I want MMO gameplay, I'm getting an MMO (Hellooo, FFXIV). A little sad, yes, but I've replaced it with CoD: MW2 (PC), so I'll be looking for you online! MUH HA HA!

Fan Made Megaman Deathmatch FPS

Cutstuff has released a trailer for for their upcoming Megaman 8-bit Deathmatch. It's a mod for Skulltag, which brings the classic Doom engine to the online world.

Excited for Halo: Reach?

I am by no means an Xbox fan boy. But I bought a 360 for two reasons. Gears of War and Halo. Halo 3 wasn't even close to next gen in my opinion. It is what I call Halo 2 complete. Halo 2 lacked a fun campaign mode and Halo 3 came in and made it better. Playing 4 player co-op was really fun but does more people players equal next gen. Halo 3 I felt was disappointing because the graphics were just a little bit shinier than Halo 2's. What about REACH?

Facebook games: Social?

Nine months ago, I joined the modern world and setup a Facebook account. In many ways, I think Facebook is pretty great. I've gotten in touch with so many friends that I probably would have lost all touch with, and my life is better for it. One of those friends quickly sent me an invite to 'play' Mafia Wars. Game? about Mafia? Sounds intriguing enough...

February the 14th!

One of the most romantic and depressing holidays is coming up this weekend. Will you and your significant other be gaming?

New WoW content in 2010?

Kinto will be lost again...

WKC: Update

Since I think I'm one of the few that actually goes back and reviews posts on older blogs (because I subscribe to be emailed on them all), I'll post my update on the game in this new post.

Fallout: New Vegas - Hopeful or Full of Hype?

First, I'm a Fallout 3 fan. I poured nearly one hundred hours into the first play-through (I like to be stealthy and do EVERYTHING). I also went back and played another 20 hours as a Renegade just to try it out. So I can't believe I was authentically surprised when I saw the trailer for a new Fallout game by Bethesda!

We are Francis

The true definition of what a WoW player is...

I give you... Francis

Do I Still Want to Play JRPG? (Final Fantasy XIII Japanese Review)

Final Fanatasy XIII is creeping closer and closer to it's international release. However, some lucky consumers, ahem me, bought the Japanese version last Decemeber. The question in my head before buying the game was, "Is this game going to be just another JRPG?"

Heavy Rain Demo Impression

Do you remember when you were a kid and you read 'Choose your own adventure books'? Sometimes you would read so far into the book only to find out that whatever choice you make ends in travesty. Quantic Dream's "Heavy Rain," may take interactive story telling to a new level.

RunMan: Race Around the World

RunMan: Race Around the World is a spastic 2d platformer from Tom Sennett and Matt Thorson. The emphasis on blazing through levels is reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog, but more satisfyingly bouncy. With bright, primary colors, and ironic MS Paint-style art design, RunMan is cute and memorable.

Gameplay vid after the jump.

Precinct 52 (Heavy Rain: Demo)

For those of you with a PS3 and are anticipating Heavy Rain, click at the bottom to head on over to Precinct 52. Upon completing the users can get a chance to play a demo of Heavy Rain. What are you waiting for gumshoe? Click away!!!!

Precinct 52

(Update:If you have a US PSN account first you have to register here then go to the above link.)

Knytt Stories Design Tour

These design tours are old news, but the uninitiated should check them out. Courtesy of the most excellent Wolfire Games Blog. They provide a rich, sophisticated analysis of some lesser-known gems. This design tour is about Knytt Stories, an atmospheric 2d platformer with clever art and tight controls.

Wolfire Games are also behind Overgrowth, and have posted fascinating development articles about their engine's use of triangle mesh voxelization, among other things.

White Knight Chronicles: Review

I just picked up the international release on opening day. I have currently played exactly...one hour...so this is to kick off my on-going review. I want to be detailed, so I'll chronicle a lot. Check back to this post often for updates.

30 Commercial Games Released For Free

GamesRadar has a post on 30 commercial games that are, in one way or another, now playable for free. If you never played the original Grand Theft Auto (pictured), you should give it a play. This was probably one of the first violent, subversive games that I ever experienced. You get mega bonus points for running over an entire group of Hare Krishnas.

Steam down for Maintenance Thursday, the 4th

Heads up. Just read that Steam will be down for maintenance tomorrow starting at 1800h PST. No downloads, updates, online play, etc. Off-line Steam games will still work though. So no Borderlands co-op tomorrow. :( However, that works out well for me, because I pick up White Knight Chronicles today, so I'll be able to play it tomorrow :)

What will you play without Steam online?

Project Natal vs. PS3 Wand

Gaming has entered the waggle generation. The Wii has probably changed gaming forever and Microsoft was calling the system a gimick. Sony on other hand tried to jump on the band wagon with a last minute add of the SIXAXIS to the PS3 controller. Micosoft was kind of right because the SIXAXIS became a cheap gimick. The Wii-mote was beyound a gimick to some extent. Many complained about the lack of one to one controls. Two years later that has been fixed with an add-on called the Wii Motion Plus.

Borderlands: PC version update (and PC specs)

Just a quick post to say I got it, so co-op is now possible. Also let me say that the Unreal engine is incredible on the PC. I didn't think it would look better on my PC than the PS3, but damn, it looks AWESOME! I guess it uses the graphics card heavily, which is not where the PS3 shines. Games built exclusively for PS3 look incredible because they've learned how to write the code to utilize the cell processor. As games on PC start writing their code to multi-thread, I can't wait to see what graphics are pushed out (because the CPU will be able to take over all non-graphic specific functions like physics, background rendering, etc). Also, I'm not on an SLI machine. I built this one back in November on a tight budget and used some existing parts I had, so my PC specs are:

CPU: Quad-Core Intel 8200 (2.3 ghz stock, overclocked to 3 ghz)
Video: Nvidia GTS 250 (Software overclock a bit for a 15% boost)
Case: Cooler Master (How I get away with keeping temps low)
MB: Gigabyte (Don't remember exact model, but great for tweaking overclocks)
HDD: 7200 RPM Samsung, 500 gb. Next will be a SSD for the Operating System only.

Only thing I need to get now is a mic so I can chat in our games! I'll try to get one before this weekend.

How about y'all? What kind of rig are you playing on?

Look into the future of 2010

What games are you looking forward to this year? I know the two games for the first quarter of 2010 are Heavy Rain for the PS3 and No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise! I've really been jealous of Wii owners for this one and will be happy to get my hands on it when it gets released this year. With no American release date in sight, I might have to import this one.

What are we going to co-op next?

Alright. Have we assembled? Check. Are we actively posting and communicating? Check (Well, three out of five :P). Are we gaming? Like it needs to be said. Check.

Sooooo, what do we all need to get for some great co-op play together? I've heard rumors of L4D2 arriving at Gaicha's and Kinto's for...PC? Is that confirmed? Unfortunately my Borderlands is for PS3, so I can't hook up with your PC version.