Video Games

E3 ’10: The Old Republic Trailer

E3’s hit the ground running and within this marathon of games is another CG trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Once again, absolutely, 100% not representative of how the game will play, but is absolutely, 100% freakin’ amazing to watch. 

It’s 5 minutes of the Star Wars you wished George Lucas could’ve rendered onto the big screen. Until then, we’ll have to depend on BioWare to make it happen, with maybe a little Obsidian on the side for a Knights of the Old Republic III? I digress. Enjoy this:

Gamestop gives us the kinection

You guys better thank God I wasn’t covering the Microsoft event as you would’ve been hearing many amazing puns like the title above. At the Microsoft event, you may have been blinded by the free Xbox’s (Looking at you, Ray!) but they didn’t announce a price for Kinect.

According to Gamestop.com, it will be (as expected and reported on last month) $149.99. I steep price for a thing I wasn’t sold on before the show and now know I will not buy one. The SKU’s go like this:

Natal now called Kinect – Hands-On Impressions

Due to embargoes and time constraints, I have posted a vlog with my first impressions of a personal demo I was given for Kinect.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
                         

Green Day Rock Band Review

They are one of the most popular bands in the world and have been speaking to the youth of a generation for about 20 years now. Their music has even inspired a Broadway play. So it’s no wonder that the folks at Harmonix and MTV Games felt that Green Day deserved their own Rock Band video game. Unfortunately, all this latest edition into the Rock Band library shows is how soft Green Day has become over the years.

Starting-off with the hit album Dookie that launched Green Day into the limelight, Green Day Rock Band features 47 songs that touch upon most of the group’s best hits as well as the near-entirety of their American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown albums. The problem is that by putting in so many newer, and in my opinion, inferior songs, they left out almost the majority of Insomniac, all of Shenanigans, and nearly all of Warning and Nimrod, all of which were far superior to the red-headed stepchild that was 21st Century Breakdown.

Free APB Beta Code Giveaway

The PC, open-world game, APB: All Points Bulletin, is getting closer and closer to its June 29 launch date, but APB’s developer, Realtime Worlds, is giving players a chance to get into the game now by now giving away 20,000 beta codes as part of their “Key to the City” event. I was lucky enough to snag one of these keys, and since my computer can’t run it, I figured I’d give it away to our Player Affinity followers! Or as I like to call them, PlayAffOwers! Rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?!

Alpha Protocol Review

The power of choice – it seems like that’s been one of the biggest selling points for really any game these days. Choices in how you can kill a guy, choices you in how you can go about a level. Those are easy, but what about choices that shift a narrative, change up relationship dynamics between NPCs and affect the world around you in a tangible, convincing way? Harder. Whatever it may be, may it be time constraints, the increased costs of developing a video game, or whatever, when a developer promises choices and consequences these days, they rarely ever consist of nothing more than either a “Hey, this isslightly different now.” or a slap on the wrist for choosing the ass-jock dialogue option.

This is where Alpha Protocol is different and where Obsidian absolutely succeeds in.

Final Fantasy XIII Causes Some Issues

Whenever a Final Fantasy fan boots-up a new game from their favorite franchise, there are many things going through their heads: How is the story, the gameplay, the characters, and of course, the game world? However, for some people one of their first thoughts was