I was just sent this song from Jason Lytle himself, singer of the now-defunct band Grandaddy. We're not buddies or anything, I'm just subscribed to his newsletter. The video you see above is an ultra-rare Grandaddy song called "Wonder Why In LA", and it's great.
Earlier today, developers Bizarre Creations - the devs behind the PGR games - were giving away free beta codes for their upcoming game, Blur. Courtesy of CVG, I managed to get my hands on a code, and as of next Monday, should have early access to the multiplayer beta.
For those who aren't familiar with the game, it's an arcade-style racer, that centers around giving the player power-ups to take out rival racers. The game is often described by the mainstream media as being "Mario Kart with real cars". As that description doesn't sound too promising, and because I want to stay open-minded about the game, I'm going to look at it more positively, and describe it as Burnout (which I love) with weapons.
Whilst I honestly couldn't say if the game is going to be any good or not, I'm going to reserve judgement until I've played the beta. Either way, though, you can rest assured that I'll post my opinions here when I do make my mind up.
I just watched MSNBC's video review of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and I'm about to drop everything at work to go pick up my copy. It literally got my blood pumping, and gave me a tingly feeling...down there.
Is anyone else picking it up tonight? Friend up with TheJesusZombie on Xbox 360 if you want to make some Battlefield love.
Now this is what we're talking about. Reader Moray_G had a chance to play a game we haven't yet, Darksiders, and humbly submitted a review for us to feast on with our eager eyes. Thanks Moray_G, for doing our work for us!
So I was taking a quick look around my local game store, looking at the PS3 games and trying to see if any of them were worth dropping some cash on. Then an overeager young sales assistant came bounding up to me and proceeded to interrogate me about what games I like to play, what the last game I bought was, and what game I was looking at. Now I’ve been in this situation many times before and a quick reply of “I’m just browsing, thanks” is normally enough to end the conversation and give myself enough time to decide to buy or not; however, this guy was not at all discouraged and continued to ask questions and managed to extract the fact that Dragon Age: Origins was the last game I bought. This then led to a series of question about whether or not I like swords and magic, which I really don’t know how to answer. How does one really answer that question?! I then got to the point that I was uncomfortable enough to grab the first game which I recognised by title, which happened to be Darksiders. With a quick shout of, “I think I’ll take this one!” and a sprint to the cash desk, then out the door I was free.
As the first release in Microsoft's XBLA Block Party, which runs all the way through March, Toy Soldiers is set to release on XBLA this Wednesday. However, given that a lot of people probably haven't heard much about this game, check out the video below to get an idea as to what it's all about; hopefully you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was:
Confused? Intrigued? Well, the game is essentially a tower defence game, but one that lets you take control of the units you command, to let you snipe, strafe, and bomb your way to victory. Personally, I think this sounds like fun, and is certainly a neat twist for those who feel a little burnt out on tower defence games.
If you want to check it out, the game releases on XBLA this Wednesday, and will retail for 1200 MSP. As of yet, there is still no word as to this weeks PSN releases, but we'll be sure to let you know if anything neat catches our eye.
You are probably going to be reading this tomorrow morning, long after the incident is over, but just in case you haven't heard, strange things are afoot at the Infinity Ward headquarters. Apparently, as I read on G4TV's blog, some beefy security-looking dudes showed up unannounced at the office, and no one knows why. The plot thickens when it is learned that no one has seen or heard from studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West since they had a meeting at Activision this morning. One source even described the relationship between IW and Activision as "tense."
It is now 8pm PST, and this news started to break about 20 minutes ago, which leads me to the most important question: why are you guys still at work at 7:40 at night? Jesus, go home already. Management has to pay for that overtime, you know.
The IW office is in Encino, CA, which is only about 20 minutes away from my house. I briefly contemplated driving over there to see if I could find out any deets, but then I though, "Who am I, Anderson Fucking Cooper? I wish."
All joking aside, I hope everything is cool over there.
Everybody, quick! If you have an iPhone of iPod Touch, go download the new Assassin's Creed 2 mulitplayer game. I got it and haven't played it yet, but I did read the description and the tutorial, and it sounds like something that could be fun. Of course, we have all been burned by crappy apps that have cool descriptions before *cough*KrazyKart*cough*, but this one won't cost you any more than just a few moments of your time. It's only free for a limited time, though, and will soon bump up to $2.99. So if you pass on it now and it turns out to be awesome and you have to pay for it, you will be known as the greatest chump known to man.
I've set up my account, and my username is Mark66. Friend me and maybe we can stab each other with our hidden blades.
I'll admit it; March is one of my top twelve favorite months. And I don't know about you, but I've heard "March 2010" so many times when it comes to game releases that I haven't been able to keep them straight in my head. Luckily, GameTrailers.com made the handy video you see above, with some pretty awesome gameplay footage to boot.
Whilst I enjoyed my time with Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the game is only around ten hours long, and as such, I managed to beat it in around two days. However, I'm now left wondering what I should play next.
I'm really intrigued by Heavy Rain, but I don't know if I'll like it enough to warrant paying full price for it. Right now, I can't decide whether I should just leave it, or give in and buy it in a sweaty, heavy-breathing-impulse-buy-frenzy.
If I don't buy it, I also have a number of options: wait until Friday for Battlefield: Bad company 2 to come out, play Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood, which I've had from my rental service since October (!), and haven't even started yet, or I could finish my second play-through of Bayonetta and Bioshock 2.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the more recent games in a long-standing series of movie tie-ins. And truth be told, we all know how those games usually fare: from Friday the 13th to Enter the Matrix, 99.8% of movie games are pretty garbage. The other .2% can be counted on one hand - Aladdin (Genesis FTW!), Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Goldeneye, and two of the Lord of the Rings games, for starters - and as much as I had initially thought otherwise, Wolverine just doesn't deserve to be in the .2% list.
The game had a fairly decent demo that dropped in May of last year, which actually compelled me to buy the game in the first place. On first impression, the game impresses: it's full of gore, lunging, slashing, and more lunging, and in the first few minutes you rip a helicopter pilot out of his seat and decapitate him with his own chopper's rotors. You then leap from the crashing helicopter, only to plummet towards the ground at a million miles an hour, turning an unsuspecting soldier on the ground into a mist of blood as you make your landing. It's a great start. Unfortunately, poor storytelling, poor combat desicions, and even poorer pacing made me eagerly awaiting the end of the game hours before it was through.
The Easy Mode Podcast #5: This week is all about Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Heroes of Gaia, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, FEAR 2, and Prince of Persia.
Russ Crandall Senior Editor Mark Hill Associate Editor, Podcast Host Tyler Miller Associate Editor, Artistic Director Steve McKay Contributor, United Kingdom Giang Cao Contributor, Australia
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!