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E3 Microsoft Bringing It Home

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend E3 this year – instead, I’m on vacation in Cape Cod, using awful hotel Wi-Fi to watch streamed press conferences. Not the most glamorous way to take it all in, but exciting announcements, great games and new details are welcome no matter how you hear about them.

Here’s my personal transcription (in very brief form) of all the announcements and showings, along with some reflection on what Microsoft had to show.

Click to continue reading E3 2007: Microsoft’s Press Conference Recap And Impressions


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DescriptionFor all of you out there that HAVEN’T been furiously searching through the Xbox Live Marketplace for new content, the fact that the Blue Dragon demo is now live may have passed you by. Well, that’s why we’re here. Don’t you love us?

Downloads seem to be a little slow right now (I’m at about 11%), and the fact that tons of new video content from Disney is also available now probably isn’t helping. Speaking of which, on an aside rant, how in the HELL did Microsoft convince Disney to allow HD Disney content on Xbox Live? I mean, Disney is staunchly pro-Blu-Ray, putting them in the camp of top Microsoft competitors Sony and Apple. And Steve Jobs is on the board of directors of Disney for chrissake! I guess all that D Conference “Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sittin’ in a tree” stuff wasn’t just for show.

Anyway, yeah… go downlad the Blue Dragon demo now!

Read More | Xbox.com

Blue Dragon boxIf you’re a JRPG fan with access to nothing more than an Xbox 360, then things have been a bit slow going. That’s an understatement… since release, you’ve gotten nothing more than Enchanted Arms, which is arguably not all that good. But worry not, because a JRPG is coming to the U.S. next month in the form of Blue Dragon. Originally released in Japan late last year, Blue Dragon has gotten a tremendous amount of attention due to Hironobu Sakaguchi –creator of the Final Fantasy series.

Those wanting to give Blue Dragon a try before plopping down the cash for a copy will have that opportunity, as a 1.1GB demo is going to be available for download from July 20 – August 3.


Guitar Hero II 80s EncoreThe list of songs that will appear in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the ‘80s has been fully revealed with the announcement of the final eight, making for a total of 30 songs. Overall, the list isn’t terrible; it’s got a mixture of everything, from A Flock of Seagulls to The Vapors to Dio, but it just seems to be lacking any true flavor. It feels like a completely random selection of ‘80s songs, as opposed to, say, a really sweet group of ‘80s songs or one that captures a particular aspect of ‘80s music.. We still don’t have any official word on why Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy” disappeared after being seen in earlier builds of the game.

The game is set for release on PlayStation 2 on July 24 at a full retail price of $49.99. Nothing has been announced, but 360 Guitar Hero II owners might be seeing a downloadable content package (read: lots of microtransactions) later this year containing these songs.

The newly announced songs:

  • Anthrax’s “Caught In A Mosh”
  • Accept’s “Balls to the Wall”
  • Judas Priest’s “Electric Eye”
  • Dead Kennedy’s “Police Truck”
  • X’s “Los Angeles”
  • The Go Gos’ “We Got the Beat”
  • The Vapors’ “Turning Japanese”
  • Winger’s “Seventeen”
  • Limozeen’s “Because, it’s Midnite”

Click to continue reading Guitar Hero ‘80s Final Tracks Unveiled


Yes, 100 percent less Andy this episode, as he’s in L.A. for a CoD4 event. Instead, Edie and Hawkes cover the week’s gaming news and go off on wild tangents. On the plus side, this episode may be Andy-free, but it has 100 percent MORE of Hawkes’ cat.

Topics discussed:

- The unusually large amount of games released this week, including The Darkness and The Bigs.

- Toys ‘R Us is holding a 3-for-2 sale on Nintendo DS games until this Saturday. U Bai Now!

- Microsoft sues Immersion back. If you can’t take it, don’t deal it!

- New York Times reporter plays Manhunt 2 and deems it less violent than R-rated horror movies. Hypocracy much?

- The new Hitman movie trailer… and yes, we blew it. It’s Agent 47. Stoopid internets.

- Square Enix says on one hand that it’s not releasing any games for PS3 until April 2008 at the very earliest. Then it says, baby, I’m sorry. The PS3 really is the only console it could ever love. Why does watching these two feel like family-night at Ike and Tina Turner’s place.

- A group of psychologists want to label video games as an addictive substance. Someone’s been sucking on the lead popsicles again….

- Larry Flint had hoped to fire the entire staff of Tips and Tricks magazine while they were all at E3. Too bad he fired the freelancers a week early and they told the staff. Don’t you hate when being a nice guy blows a really great evil plan? And isn’t it ironic that the guy who built his empire on other people s*cking c*ocks turns out to the the biggest c*cks*ucker of them all?

- Shadowrun for Vista has been cracked to run on XP. And there was much rejoicing. (yaaay!)

- Lyndon LaRouch, notorious conspiracy theorist and gay hater, and his merry band of crazy geezers are ticked because the final report on the Virginia Tech massacre doesn’t mention video games—despite the fact there’s been no evidence the shooter ever played games. LaRouch figures it’s… wait for it… A CONSPIRACY!!
Ed. Note: Edie apologizes to for mistaking LaRouche as a guy who was notorious for anti-gay legislation. Actually, he is the freak who tried to get anti-gay legislation passed by California voters back in the 1980s that would have quarentined gays to prevent AIDS. I knew he smelled crazy…

- The 100th episode of Red vs. Blue! Gratz, guys!

Off-topic hits include Paris Hilton, porn (again), the iPhone, how to properly prepare for a night of binge drinking, Andy’s impending move, and… did we mention Hawkes’ cat?

If you want to hear it? Go get subscibe on iTunes already… ya slacker.


Pokemon Battle Revolution

Some big name titles are hitting this week, including the much anticipated The Darkness for both Xbox 360 and PS3. Transformers is bound to be a big seller by virtue of its name and the number of platforms that it’s coming out on. And Pokemon Battle Revolution for Wii is going to sell a scientifically accurate 1,432,345^100, or in other words, a metric crapton.

Click to continue reading Game Releases For The Week Of 6/25: The Darkness, Pokemon, And Transformers

Read More | Gamasutra

Carcassonne screenshot

Unless you’re from Europe, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the board game Carcassonne before. I sure haven’t, but after giving it a look – and keeping in mind the success of Catan – it looks like we’re getting another solid XBLA release this week. And finally we get another game that makes use of the Vision camera. It still doesn’t quite feel like it was worth $40, though.

The official word on Carcassonne:

Using strategic tactics and a little luck, one to five players take turns selecting from 72 tiles displaying various features of a city including roads, the walls of a castle or fields. The medieval countryside thrives as players and their opponents place tiles and complete towns, roads, and farms while competing to accumulate the most points.

Game Features

  • Special AI settings to challenge any skill level
  • Challenge your friends – Up to five players can play over Xbox LIVE or up to four players can play on the same Xbox 360
  • Interact with new and old friends alike over Xbox LIVE while you play “Carcassonne” with the Xbox LIVE Vision camera
  • Helpful step-by-step tutorial to teach you the game in minutes
  • Skill-based matchmaking for ranked games
  • The complete “Carcassonne” includes 72 tiles and all rule sets
  • “Carcassonne” includes the “Rivers II” expansion set - 12 additional tiles
  • Earn up to 200 Gamerscore and 12 Achievements

The game goes live this Wednesday, June 27, for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).


Halo 3 logo

Oh, Halo 3 beta, how I will miss you. We had such good times together. Whether it was VIP on Snowbound, Territories on Valhalla or 1 Flag CTF on High Ground, you never failed to entertain me. The countless kills with the Spartan Laser were never any less satisfying than my very first one. Headshots, ohhh the headshots; the way you would fling the recipient’s body backwards. The satisfying noise spike grenades would make when sticking to someone. Intense firefights, bubble shields, endless bouts of profanity-filled gaming – you were only a beta, a simple beta, yet few things could measure up to the experience you served up each and every time I played a game.

In fact, you mean so much to me, I’ve written you a Haiku. I hope it has the correct number of syllables, because I’m far too depressed to do the appropriate research.

Oh Halo 3 beta
Man cannons are so so silly
Please don’t change their sweet names

RIP Halo 3 beta. September 25 cannot possibly come soon enough.


Assassin's Creed

The highly anticipated Prince of Persia-like Assassin’s Creed has finally been given a timeframe for release; the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions will all be released in November. Naturally, a limited edition will be available for what is becoming the standard price of $69.99 (unless your name happens to be Grand Theft Auto or Halo), and includes the following:

  • Tin box
  • Penny Arcade comics
  • Altair figure
  • Mini strategy guide
  • Trailers, documentaries, other videos

Normally I’m ready to pounce on the fact that every single game nowadays has some sort of Limited Special Collector’s Edition, but Assassin’s Creed is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year; this one looks like it deserves an LE.


It’s a veritable cornucopia of co-hosts, as Andy, Hawkes, Edie and Steve519 (from XBLRadio) initially intend to talk up this week’s gaming news but instead delve deep into what we think is a growing plague on the landscape of podcasting: Corporate Lapdoggery. Yes, this is the episode where we pretty much rip apart Microsoft’s MVP program and pretty much expect we’ll be banned from all Microsoft events from now on.

We didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done. What can I say, kids, after months and months of everyone thinking it, someone had to pipe up and say the emperor has no clothes.

Just be warned, we’ll say a lot of stuff that will make us enemies, but we believe we are firmly on the side of truth, fairness, and the open exchange of information. We believe that you should be able to trust podcasts—any podcast—as much as you trust your local newspaper. Is that too much to ask? And even though we’ll probably take a lot of heat for this, we’d rather be dead right than alive and wrong.

AND!! There’s a contest for Halo2 and Shadowrun for Vista and Stalker for the PC (XP or Vista). Just listen before the first break and the end of the show to find out how to win!


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