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December 12, 2010
Warcraft's latest Expanion, Cataclysm!
World of Warcraft (WoW) isn't a bad thing, it's actually an extremely well designed game. Perhaps too well designed. The problem with WoW is that it's too good at doing it's job. As gamers we tend to forget that gaming is a business. Sure we get the occasional title that's a lot more then that, like our Braids, Portals, and Okamis, but over the course of a two year development window the point of the team is to make a game that's going to make the player feel as though their $60 investment was worth it. With a game like WoW and any MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) is that the game has to be worth it's $15 dollar monthly charge.
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December 11, 2010
Before now there were apps for Black Ops multiplayer that would tell you about stats and basic information. They would run you about 99 cents on average. But if you spend a bit more, you can get an app with more details and advantages for your online play, its called VC for Black Ops.
The VC for Black Ops app has features that are to be the remedy to a lot of headaches to those who stay glued to the game (like a lot of us, myself included). Example, not happy playing with randomly selected people who spend most of the time trying to figure out how a claymore works (or keeps running into their own)? Use the match finder to set appointments with fellow app users. Need to build your clan to dominate online -
December 08, 2010
Games & High Scores
It seems as though the older I get the more I appreciate games where the main objective is to achieve a high score. There's something about trying to out perform your previous attempts that can make a fun game highly addictive.
My first experience with shooting for a high score comes from the days of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). The days when whole groups of socially inept gamers would learn how to interact with one another on Friday and Saturday nights at their local arcade. While it may not have been the golden age of arcade gaming like the 90's was with Street Fighter 2. We did have Soul Caliber, NFL Blitz, and DDR. In those days, waiting for your turn on the stage could take between ten and thirty minutes,
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December 04, 2010
What are the Most loved motion control games out there?
Kinect games are good examples of the specific limbo that motion controlled games are in. Most of them fall into the casual party-game genre. They're sufficient to show the capabilities of the hardware, but never really push them to their limits nor ask the gamer to test them to their full potential. For a pre-Wii generation, this would be acceptable, but we've had a Wii for a few years now, where are our motion controlled Gears of War or non-Nintendo made Mario Galaxies? Where are the triple-A titles with motion controlled gestures.
Warren Spector the guy behind the upcoming Epic Mickey (Wii) and made famous by his PC game
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November 24, 2010
Virtual property with a high marked up price
Back in the year 2009, Jon Jacobs set a world record by making the biggest online purchase. A space station in the online sci-fi game Entropia Universe....this month, someone broke that record with the same game.
In a click of a button, John Foma Kalun, purchased a mall, a stadium, a club, and a number of bio-domes (not the Pauly Shore movie) in the game for the mere price of $335,000. You're probably scratching your head on why would people do such things and spend so much of their earned income for a game
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November 23, 2010
Games - Harry Potter's latest installment!
As of November 16, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Party 1) video game will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, Windows PC, and mobile devices, just in time for the film premiere this upcoming Thursday. According to EA's official press release, the game will feature plays on the run from Death Eaters on a mission to destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes, all while facing dangerous magical creatures and the forces of evil.
"There's no doubt that this
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November 23, 2010
Activision makes sales numbers look easy.
Last year Call of Duty: Mondern Warfare 2 laid waste to day 1 sales records by making an estimated $310 million dollars within 24 hours of release. After Medal of Honor's lukewarm reception it was unclear if people would be willing to fork over more cash to another shooter. Activision proved that that was simply not the case. In a recent press release from Activision, they reveal that after 24 hours of sales Black Ops has not only done well, but that it's outsold Modern Warfare 2 making an estimated $360 million.
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November 18, 2010
Going used, is it a problem or not?
Danny Bilson is the Vice President of core gaming at THQ. THQ has been around since 1989 and some of the popular franchises are Red Faction, Saints Rows and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw. In an interview Bilson was making comments about the next steps for THQ. Ever since he left EA to join THQ in 2008 the company has taken a new turn. For example, Bilson discussed that games need to made as if they were going to be a hits. When Darksiders 1 came out In January 2010, there was already a green light for Darksiders 2. The biggest thing Bilson wants to do is have a blockbuster title per quarter over the next two and half years.
I thought it was interesting listening to a business man talk about what a video game/publisher company needs to do. The most interesting thing Bilson talked about was the problems in the gaming industry. Bilson was asked, "What a big problem with the video game industry?"Â He responded USED GAMES. I've thought about this myself,
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November 12, 2010
Games - Japan's COD: Black Ops to be censored.
Black Ops in Japan will be different. The game was retouched to tone down torture and graphic violence but also some additional details. Square Enix (yes, that company that invented characters like FFX-2's Thief Rikku, another excuse for this blogger to go to anime conventions), who publishes COD games in Japan, has removed the swastikas from the flags in the game's "zombie mode"Â and were instead replaced by the iron cross in all console versions except their subtitled versions.
The reason for the change was because of the difference in culture. A counterclockwise version of the swastika in Japan is known as a manj,
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November 12, 2010
Game News - FPS Training Program for Parents!
If you're reading this, you're probably an Evil Controller fan which means you definitely don't need to learn how to play first-person shooters, but you probably know people that do. People that need a grip of help. Well, whether it's your girlfriend or boyfriend, your parents, or maybe even your older/younger brother, FPS Trainer's purpose is to do just that.
FPS Trainer