Video Games

Can You Hear Me Now?

Have you ever been playing on Xbox Live, and had to listen to people’s crackly rapping during Call of Duty? Well soon it’ll be a little less crackly. Xbox Live’s audio chat has always been a bit weak. It’s a fact that Microsoft has come to see as something that should be improved, and have already set it in motion. When Xbox Live receives it’s update for the Xbox Kinect this fall Microsoft will be upgrading the codec used for voice chat to something a bit more bandwidth intensive. This not saying much since the current codec uses only 64kb of your connection when you talk.

PC Digital Download Sales 8/29/10

Maybe you know, and maybe you don’t, but at Player Affinity, there was a feature called the Steam Sales Report every Friday. This week, and from each week from now on, however, I’m not only going to track Steam sales, but I’ll look at Direct2Drive as well, despite my affection for all things Valve. There are some limitations associated with the sales tracking for Direct2Drive though, such as the fact that users can’t tell what games are coming to it ahead of release, so predictions may be effected as a result. Also, because of Direct2Drive, this feature will be on Player Affinity on Sunday with sales from 3:00 PM instead of Friday. Enough about the digital download services though, let’s look at the sales.

The Guide To Make Better Of You In Call of Duty: Rifles

My god… Call of Duty Black Ops is coming out soon and yet no one has yet to prepare you for the one thing that you’ll probably find most frustrating about the game… the multiplayer. Don’t be modest; if you think your pretty f’ing awesome at the game, think again as you are probably either just lucky, or you’re just shitting out the right answers every time you enter a lobby. There are several basics I’m going to run by you in this little guide I decided to do for the upcoming Black Ops game, and I will take you around and about with the basics of how to be better at Call of Duty in general. Follow these simple rules and you actually may live to see to getting that UAV. This first part is a general overview of the game…

Before I even start, I have to run the basics over with you on how to play the game… left sticks to move, right sticks to aim… etc, I’m tired so I’m not going to explain all of that to you. I mean, honestly… I ain’t no tutor, I’m just here to make you better—not to have you learn everything from scratch, that’ll be silly. After you get all that done and out of the way, you must decide what guns you want to use… here are the basic designs you have to keep in mind when you pick your classes and set them up for later.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World the Game Review

Scott Pilgrim is doing pretty well right now for a story that is based on an independent comic book series. The final book in the series came out recently, it has a great and entertaining film (go see it by the way!), and now we have Scott Pilgrim vs the World the Game! However is this just another cheap buck, or is this a trifecta of awesomeness?

Starcraft II Getting Update- Your Favorite Unit Getting Nerfed

Do you know why your favorite unit always gets nerfed in the update?  It’s because you like using unbalanced units! That said, Starcraft II, just a month old, is getting it’s first update intended to address balancing issues among other things. The less controversial changes are support for left-handed hotkeys (Which also means that bad players can no longer claim they lost a match because they’re left-handed).  Support is also being added for Nvidia 3d Vision. As for what’s getting nerfed…

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days (PS3) Review

The initial Kane and Lynch: Dead Men failed in a number of categories. Most detrimental to its existence was imprecise and incoherent gameplay that felt muddled from the start. Having to tell your computer-controlled ally what to do and where to go made the entire game into a bad escort mission, but developer lo-Interactive has taken some big risks in order to create the game they had originally envisioned and that meant embracing the franchise’s theatrical roots.

Shank Review

Stab, run, shoot. I just described Shank in three words. Shank revolves solely around these three things and these three things alone. How does a game that is four hours long and only features three main core components deserve your fifteen dollars you may ask. Read on to find out, dear reader.

In Shank, you play as a man, named Shank (quite clever if I must say so myself) on a mission to get revenge on a bunch of people for doing God knows what to your beloved wifey. It’s a simple, forgettable story that throughout the game only takes a backseat to the ridiculous and hyper-violent action. The only positive thing I can say about the story is it allows them to show off their creative juices with the cutscenes as they all looked fairly great and extremely similar to anime’s such as Afro Samurai.