The games we play, the choices we make

Since Locke posted yesterday about that game with dumb ads that he has been playing lately, I figured I'd do the same! I can't let that guy outdo me. So, I've been playing Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins. I still am, in fact, playing both of them.

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Posted in Gaming by Kilu on November 10th 2009 at 10:29am 2 Comments

Evony: The Free Forever MMO Real Time Strategy Game

In the last few weeks I have been playing a web game that a friend recommended to me called Evony. It is a browser based game, which I especially like since I can sign on and check on my cities from just about anywhere. The game may not have flashy graphics like Diablo or Grand Theft Auto, but its simplistic game play, introductory quests and cooperative environment are welcoming, while its fast paced challenges and battles still provide a challenge for even the most seasoned veterans of the game. It is a war game, where you build up a city and train troops to defend yourself from everyone else. As you progress you can control up to 10 separate cities, and can upgrade them to become mighty fortresses!

It is foolish to fight alone however, so you will want to seek out assistance from an alliance. Alliances are groups of players who work together and protect each other. Some alliances choose to ally with others, while others do not believe in peaceful play and wage war right down to the last troop! Whatever way you like to play, there is bound to be an alliance on here for your flavour. With over 5 million registered players across almost 100 game servers, you are bound to find a place to fit in!

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Posted in Gaming by Locke on November 09th 2009 at 1:41am 1 Comment

Harvest Moon, Re-releases, and ...more?

It's November and it already feels like Christmas! Well...we all know why. What's so special about November again other than the good ol' turkeys? Well not much...other than video games.

There's really not much going on with the world of video games as far as I know, but hey! What's another reason for November? Take a wild guess...Harvest...and that means Harvest Moon: Sunshine Island on the Nintendo DS!

The Sunshine Islands are in peril by a powerful earthquake and it's up to you to raise these islands by finding the magical Sun Stones!

Oh and also if you pre-ordered this game, you will receive a lovable piglet plushie.

Okay...Sunshine Islands wasn't enough for you if you are fan? How about ANOTHER Harvest Moon release?
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Posted in Gaming by Marona on November 02nd 2009 at 9:00pm 0 Comments

Dragon Age: Origins character creator is out

Hey! Remember me?! There hasn't been a lot of news lately because... there hasn't been a lot of news. It's that time of the year when games are coming out instead of news, and since we don't really have any actual game coverage, we lack things to post. But here's something some of you may be interested in.

I bet you knew that you can create your own character in Dragon Age: Origins. Well, did you also know that BioWare released a standalone character creator in October 13 (that's yesterday) for the PC? Well, now you know, if you didn't before. Basically, you can download this free application and create your character before the game comes out, and on November 3rd when you have bought your copy, you can just import that character into the game, and dive straight into the meat instead of wasting valuable gaming time in the creator.

Remember Mass Effect and how you could create your own dude in it as well? I bet it's kind of like that. Except, instead of space dude, you are making a medieval dude (or dudette). I'm personally curious about the game and this character creator thing, mostly because I have had very bad experiences with these things before. I can't seem to be able to create a unique looking person in them, without making them look like a caricature or a god damn mutant. So in Mass Effect, for example, I ended up using the default grunt as my dude when I played. In Fallout 3 I downloaded a face someone else made. So, my track record is kind of terrible. Maybe I just lack the patience to tweak the features.

So, maybe I have better luck this time. If I make a great face in the creator, it's pretty much news worthy on its own. So, if you don't see another post about this subject you can conclude that I haven't had much luck with it.

Grab the creator from BioWare's site!

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on October 14th 2009 at 6:39am 0 Comments

PSP Go is released

The PSP Go is now released. Like the PSP, it's a hand-held console with a sleek design and has 16GB of internal storage. It also supports Bluetooth headsets for voice chat as well. The cost of this console is $250 USD (Wow that's near the price of the PS3 Slim!).

Sony has claimed they will launch 225 games to download on the PSP Go via the Playstation Network Online Store, also they will release "Minis" which are bite-sized budget-priced releases. Yes, that means spending money too to download games.

They seem they were aiming for the iPhone-style way. There is one thing however they should have included but they sacrificed anyway.

No UMD disk drive. That means you cannot play your PSP game discs on the PSP Go.

However, Sony did say they will find a way for playing your PSP game discs on the PSP Go but it will only mean you have to buy the game. AGAIN.

So worth it? Depends. If you want an iPhone-style hand-held to download games on the go and you have the money to cough up, get it. Though if you wanted to play mostly PSP game discs on there, it's worthless.

Posted in Gaming by Marona on September 30th 2009 at 11:25pm 3 Comments

Sony Reveals Upcoming Goodies, PS3 FFXIII Bundle, New Controller Colours

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has revealed three 250GB bundles, as well as a special PSP Go Rewards program for Britain only, offering free game downloads.

Sony held an event at the Tokyo Game Show to reveal some of the upcoming goodies! They gave details of a PS3 Final Fantasy XIII bundle, which includes the game and a limited edition 250GB ceramic white PS3 with special FFXIII design, as shown above. The bundle is to be priced at ¥41,600 (Approx $460 USD) and will be coming out on FFXIII's launch date of December 17 in Japan.

For those of you who like more options when you buy accessories for your console, you will be happy to hear that the PS3 will be adding more color options when it comes to the DualShock 3 controllers. Currently only available in black, white and silver, Sony plans to soon be offering the wireless controllers in two new colours: Metallic Blue and Deep Red. These new colours will be available first in Japan starting October 29th for ¥5,500 (Approx $61 USD).

The upcoming PSP Go has also been gaining hype. Sony has been preparing its online content and has a few new goodies to add to the line-up. First is the announcement of the online community for PSP Go users called RooM. After users install a system update coming sometime this winter in Japan, gamers will find a new icon on their PSP menu which will allow them to try out this new free online service. They will be able to create 3D avatars and rooms, post blogs and create albums to share with other PSP users. You can visit other gamers rooms and check out their content, as well as participate in online chatrooms.

Sony is also expanding the PS3 and PSP offerings for the PlayStation Store. They will be offering over 300 new video titles including the Harry Potter series and Terminator: Salvation. The full details on this new line-up are still to come.

Posted in Gaming by Locke on September 25th 2009 at 7:22pm 0 Comments

Runaway: A Twist of Fate teaser trailer is out

Remember Runaway: The Road Adventure or Runaway 2: The Dream of The Turtle? You don't? Shame on you! Oh you do? Well so do I, and loved them both, especially the first one (the second one was mean because it ended in a cliffhanger). So, that makes me extremely pleased to post this little news bit about a first Teaser Trailer for the third game in the series, Runaway: A Twist of Fate. It's set to release on PC and the Nintendo DS on the 4th quarter of 2009, so you know, pretty soon. I have no idea if that's global release or not, by the way. It may be that the retail box will be available in Europe before it lands in North America, but I would expect the PC version to be globally available on your favourite digital game store. But yes, Teaser Trailer, check it out.

It looks pretty, awesome and pretty awesome. If the gameplay, voice acting and the quality of puzzles is as good as the previous games, this title seems like an instant winner.

I like point & click adventure games, by the way, it's no secret really. The recent re-emergence of Monkey Island as a "remastered" Special Edition, the new Tales of Monkey Island episodic adventure from TellTale Games, LucasArts' decision to bring their back catalog to Steam and sites like GOG.com that bring other classic adventure games back to life, has really made me a happy camper this year. And while TellTale and some other developers made some adventure games within the past few years, it's nothing really compared to this full-blown genre comeback that seems to be happening this year. It's certainly interesting to see where this all leads, come next year.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on September 23rd 2009 at 10:36am 0 Comments

Streets of Fury Released on Xbox Live Arcade

Streets of Fury, the next-gen Beat ’em up finalist of the Microsoft Dream-Build-Play 2008 contest is now available on the Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade.

The game takes place in a Paris devastated by suburban gangs. The army is on strike, so the President calls for the best privateer brawlers of Los Angeles streets to restore order and security.

Streets of Fury features a cooperative mode allowing up to 4 players to fight simultaneously on the same Xbox 360, two different solo campaigns offering 30 stages and more than 60 types of opponents, a team or free-for-all versus mode, a versus AI survival coop mode and 5 levels of difficulty. The player can choose between 9 characters available, each offering a wide range of combos. You will love to unleash the fury thanks to devastating special attacks as well as unlocking new characters, playing modes and in-game videos as he increases the security level of the city.

Quote: “We’ve been completely fond of the beat ‘em up genre since early childhood and played most of its classic games. To create Streets of Fury, we took inspiration from games like Streets of Rage, Fatal Fury or also Guardian Heroes” said Cyrille Lagarigue, one of the game creators. “We’re very excited to see our game released on the Xbox Live Arcade and to have succeeded in mixing some of the best gameplay mechanics from classic 2D fighting games into Streets of Fury,” declared Jordi Asensio, the games' other creator.

Both demo and full game are now available on the Xbox Live Arcade in the Indie Games section. For more information, visit the official website.

Posted in Gaming by Locke on September 23rd 2009 at 9:56am 0 Comments

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy Concert Dates

Square Enix has just announced the upcoming concert dates for Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy. They have quite an interesting song listing for these concerts, and Nobuo Uematsu himself is even playing at the shows! The upcoming shows are as follows:

October 8th, 2009: Vancouver, Canada
This performance is the Canadian Debut of the concert series, and will feature the Vancouver Symphony and UBC Opera Ensemble at the Orpheum Theatre. The show will include the North American premiere performance of the Final Fantasy VII: Main Theme! Details and tickets can be obtained at vancouversymphony.ca.

December 12th, 2009: Rosemont, IL, USA (Dubbed as the Chicago Show)
This exciting show is to feature the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, Elmhurst College Concert Choir, and Susan Calloway, conducted by maestro Arnie Roth. Best of all, Nobuo Uematsu will play the B3 organ with the Chicago Mages! The show will contain North American Premieres, World Premieres, and works never heard outside of Japan! New arrangements of Dancing Mad and J-E-N-O-V-A will be debuted at this show. Details and tickets can be found at ticketmaster.com.

February 5th/6th, 2010: Seoul, South Korea
This one includes the Korean Symphony. South Korea's spectacular Seoul Arts Center will be the host of these performances, with Nobuo Uematsu in attendance for both shows. For more information visit ffdistantworlds.com/seoul.

Posted in Gaming by Locke on September 20th 2009 at 6:26am 2 Comments

Console Hardware and Price Updates

The console wars continue and gamers can expect more good news as the holiday season approaches and companies work to get the sales. The first noteworthy mention is for the Nintendo Wii. Rumors and flyer previews have been floating around the internet for about a week now, giving us a fairly solid idea that a decent price cut is about to occur. Retailers in the United States including Walmart, Toys R Us and Target all have had clippings of upcoming flyers leaked that show the console at its new price of $199 sometime before the end of September.

Also worth mentioning, both Microsoft and Sony have larger hard drives on the way for their consoles. Both companies have revealed 250gb models of each console coming very soon in various bundles.

Microsoft and the Xbox 360 have the Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition bundle currently available for pre-order at Amazon, to be shipped in November of this year. This includes an Elite 360 with a 250gb hard drive and 2 black wireless controllers. Unfortunately, this bundle is currently only being made available to North America.

There is also a Forza 3 bundle for the Xbox 360 which is more Europe-friendly, slated for October 23rd, 2009. Includes a 250gb console, a headset, two wireless controllers, and of course a copy of the game. Not too bad of a deal if the price is right.

Finally, Sony and the PlayStation 3 Slim are also rumored to be offering 250gb bundles soon, however this information has not yet been confirmed. A leak from a Swedish retailer shows inventory for four 250gb PS3 Slim bundles: Uncharted 2, FIFA 10, Need for Speed: Shift, and Ratchet & Clank Future. We will have to wait and see if there is some truth to the rumors!

Posted in Gaming by Locke on September 18th 2009 at 9:48am 3 Comments