Xbox 360

Crackdown 2 Review

The original Crackdown pushed the limits of non-linear gameplay. You were tasked with creating your own unique brand of justice while taking down the drug lords of Pacific City in whatever way you saw fit with your cybernetically enhanced Agent. So could the boys from Ruffian Games top that original, over-the-top experience with their new sequel?

Crackdown 2 takes place 10 years after the original Crackdown with the end of the first game coming back to haunt the people of Pacific City. A mysterious virus is consuming the city’s residents and turning them into genetic freaks and mutants who stalk the remaining people of the city during the night. The kidnapped citizens in turn morph into freaks themselves and continue to bolster the freaks’ monstrous numbers. Now, the remaining people turn to their longtime protectors, the Agency, to deliver them from this new threat before revolution and chaos overthrows the delicate balance of life in Pacific City.

RISK: Factions Review

If you would’ve told me two weeks before Risk: Factions was released, that I’d be sitting right here, writing about how much I enjoyed playing Risk for hours on end, I would’ve slapped you in the back of the head and forced you to leave my house. But here I am, thinking about Risk, a game that seems seemingly impossible to make fun and exciting, and thinking Risk: Factions, along with Snoopy: Flying Ace, may be the best Xbox Live Arcade game released this year.

Details on the New Xbox 360

The new Xbox 360, which is being released this week for the masses, is now in the hands of several video game editors and reviewers. Here’s all the hardware specs: Touch sensitive on/off buttons and eject , Built in 802.11n Wi-Fi, Ports for optical audio, A/V, HDMI, Ethernet, Kinect, and 5 USB ports.

ESPN on Xbox 360

Among the multitude of features on Xbox Live are Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm and Netflix. Unsurprisingly, all of these features were announced at previous E3’s. Similarly, Microsoft unveiled another non-gaming feature at E3 this year. Now, Xbox Live Gold Members can watch 3500 ESPN events live and on-demand via Xbox Live.

Interestingly, the service is an exclusive partnership between Microsoft and ESPN. Gamers without an Xbox 360 are out of luck if they want to switch between playing as their favorite team and watching their team, which is a surprisingly quick transition. So far, NBA, MLB, college basketball, college football, soccer, and Sports Center have all been named-dropped as included content. NFL and NHL oddly, have not.

The ESPN service will feature support from Kinect. Using Kinect, one will be able to participate in actions such as voting on game outcomes. Unsurprisingly, stats and live tickers will be displayed. Though, in an interesting twist, ESPN and Microsoft have decided to give this feature for free to users who have a Gold status.

With everyone and their mother knowing who the main gaming demographic is, and with exclusivity rights, this partnership not only lends itself to being immensely successful, but quite surprising as well.

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.