Xbox 360

Dead Space 2 Xbox 360 Review

Dead Space released a little over 2 years ago and was well-regarded in many ways, the biggest being its unique take on combat where instead of just shooting enemies, you have to strategically dismember their limbs until they go down. When I played Dead Space, I never did get enraptured into the experience like everyone else seemed to do. I thought it was interesting and at rare times, scary. But I also felt that the pacing slightly dragged and the story was slowly becoming a bit too predictable for my taste.

I did pick Dead Space back up last December and finally played through it all. My opinions never changed, the combat remained great throughout but the story was nothing special, and a good story is what I itch for in horror games. Dead Space 2 has finally arrived and can it deliver the horror experience the first one promised?

Scott Pilgrim Vs. Duke Nukem Mashup

The new Duke Nukem Forever trailer is pretty badass, and so is Scott Pilgrim. What happens when you combine the two is magic beyond your wildest dreams. The mashup is made by Youtube user Crocodude and is easily the best Duke Nukem crossover I’ve ever seen. 

 Here’s the awesome video:

The Future of DLC

If you’ve bought a new game within the last couple of years, odds are you’ve been miffed by the almost instantaneous announcement of DLC that is priced at one sixth of the game you just bought. Due to the way games are made nowadays is largely the reason for the surge of DLC being released so soon after the release of a game. We’ve all heard the official statements that state x section of x game was developed by a different team and therefore was held back, or certain parts were developed under a separate budget. Both of which are true in some cases but it’s simply the price of the DLC that carries the sting. When you’ve gone out and paid £40/$60 for a game and then content that is already on the disc is announced as DLC, customers have a right to be annoyed. How would you feel if you bought a car and then found out you had to pay for your doors separately?

The rules for DLC have changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Pricing has always been roughly the same, but in the beginning you were actually paying for new content, not something that was simply locked at the release of the game. Now it’s almost expected that a game will release some sort of DLC to try and milk more money out of the people that bought the game at full price. Surely companies should be thinking of ways to reward people for buying their games on launch day, not thinking up ways to rip them off. This will simply eliminate any desire to buy a game at launch, when you can just wait a few months and pick up a used copy and then buy the DLC anyway. By that time, you’re paying what you normally would at launch.

Mass Effect 2 Vs. My Pile of Shame

A lot of great games came out in 2010, apparently. I wouldn’t know because I was replaying, replaying, then once more replaying Mass Effect 2. Every time a new game came out, I always end up putting it to the side in favor of Bioware’s sci-fi sequel. Earlier this week – while removing a barely-touched Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood from my 360 – I realized that ME2 came out a year ago and I’m still playing it. Taking this as a cue, I though I’d dive into some of my backlog to at least experience all those other games I’ve been hearing so much about.

Mindjack (X360) Review

Let’s face it Western companies, at least for the moment, have the market cornered on first person shooters. Japanese developer Feelplus does little to change that with this uninspired, lackluster effort. The problems are abundant, the concepts are poorly implemented, and the story is lacking in variety.

Carnival Games is Coming to Xbox 360

2K Play has announced the next installment in the Carnival Games franchise, called Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do. This installment in the franchise will use the Kinect for Xbox. The game is being developed by 2K Cat Daddy Games, who are the original creators of Carnival Games. The game is being re-imagined to take full control of the Kinect hardware and will be out this April. The game will feature some of the original Carnival Games mini-games plus a number of new ones.

Anarchy Abound In Platinum’s New Title

Platinum Games, the developers of titles such as Bayonetta and Vanquish, are teaming up once again with Sega to present “Max Anarchy,” as they continue their trend of excellent names. Something they won’t continue is the standard singleplayer action, as Max Anarchy will be an “online combat game,” along the lines of titles such as Breach and Section 8, I would suppose.

The oddest thing about this announcement is that Jack, the main character from Platinum Games’ largely forgotten hyper-violent third person action game, Madworld, will be a playable character in Max Anarchy. Leading me to believe there may be some tie-in between the two games’ setting(s). Another odd thing is that Jack will be in full color, though in Madworld
he was purely black and white, apart from the occasional red blood splatter that would fly on him.