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West And Gaga Release Provocative ‘Fame Kills’ Promo

Sara Harowitz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:16:42 +0000

While Kanye West may have claimed to Jay Leno to be keeping a low profile on things after his Taylor Swift-MTV Video Music Awards debacle, the new video clip he posted on his blog begs to differ.

The promo video released on Wednesday, Sept. 23 for his new “Fame Kills” tour with Lady Gaga is anything but low profile, according to MTV News.

The video clip, posted by West under the headline, “What Happened to All the Rock Stars? Fame Killed Them!” is a slow motion film featuring a topless Gaga covering herself and wrapped in the arms of a black man while soft, moody music plays in the background. When 30 seconds of this pass, the name of the tour appears on the screen along with a voice that says, “Fame Kills!” and then “West + Gaga” flashes across.

West first made an announcement about the tour earlier this summer at an appearance on “The View,” but it wasn’t a sealed deal until last week. The “Fame Kills” tour is set to begin on Nov. 10 in Phoenix and wrap up Jan. 24 in Dallas.

Other than the video clip, however, West has managed to keep out of the direct spotlight. He even had his lawyer push back a court date that was scheduled for this month. The pre-trial hearing for West’s 2008 airport scuffle with a photographer has now been pushed back to Oct. 23. Lawyer Blair Berk reportedly went to the judge in the case and requested for the trial to be pushed back.

The scuffle took place on Sept. 11, 2008 at the Los Angeles International Airport. West and his road manager, Don C. Crowley, allegedly wrestled a camera out of the hands of a TMZ photographer who was trying to take the rapper’s picture. Crowley is then said to have thrown the photographer’s $10,000 camera to the ground and West is said to have smashed the flash. The debacle ended in an arrest. West has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor counts of vandalism, theft, and battery.

However, the pushed-back date still allows West lots of time to work on the new tour with Gaga. And no matter how you look at it, Gaga and West are sure to blow the top off this one.

Fame Kills from kwest on Vimeo.

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Infinite Ammo

Brett.Caron — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:33:44 +0000

Spider-Man has an equal opportunity costume in Web of Shadows.

Ok, so for the past week or so I’ve been on a Spider-Man: Web of Shadows binge. Nothing but web-slinging through New York, symbiotes and ass-kickery. It has been awesome – definitely the best “comic-book superhero” game I’ve played in some time, if not ever (I wasn’t going to include comic-book just now, but then I remembered inFAMOUS and Prototype). So that got me thinking how many bad superhero games I’ve played. That got me thinking about how much worse those games could have been if they were about even crappier superheroes – I mean, even Spider-Man 3 had Spider-Man in it, right? So, with that in mind, I’d like to present:

5 Superheroes That Should Never Be in Video Games

*disclaimer – if a game has already been made that should contain one of these characters, then there’s no need to mention it – the damage has been done.

5. Ant-Man

The one cool thing Ant-Man ever did.

So, you can control ants. Oh, and shrink yourself? That’s… interesting. I guess those are kind of neat side-powers to your main power of… oh, that’s it. So let’s build a game around a guy who can do all these amazing things. We could have a mission where you ruin a picnic, or have to avoid a kid with a magnifying glass and too much time on his hands. Or maybe just slap together a bad racing game where you either run next to ants, or ride an ant against other ants. I don’t even know if he can control red and black ants or just black ants. You know what, Ant-Man? Just go away.

4. Green Lantern

It's too bad the Green Lantern couldn't use that ring to give himself a set of balls.

Ever had the feeling in a video game that you should be able to do something that you couldn’t? Like not being able to climb something as Spidey or break something as Superman? Well that’s what it would feel like to play a Green Lantern game. Anything that comes my way, I’d have an idea for a “green energy _______” to stop it. Conversely, you or anyone else could come across the same situation and have a completely different way of solving it with your “green energy _______”. It is possible to have too much freedom in a game, but to ever play as Green Lantern you would totally need it.

Also, I hate Green Lantern. Oh, I have a magic ring! Choke on it.

3. Daredevil

Ah, the bright red creature of the night.

Ah, Daredevil – not even mentioning the terrible movie starring Ben Affleck, I’ve never really cared much for the Man Without Fear. Besides the fact that it’s kind of an oxymoron to have a lawyer as a hero of any sort, Daredevil in a game would come across as kind of a Spidey clone without the cool. Swinging and jumping around New York fighting crime isn’t cliched at all, right? Anyway, Daredevil is kind of like a discount Dark Knight – he’s basically a blind, poor Batman with a law degree.

2. Captain Marvel

Way to take every 10-year old's fantasy and use it to be the biggest pansy of all time.

Gradeschool by day, crimefighting by night. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. Captain Marvel is perhaps the cheesiest superhero of all time, with his powers derived from mythological figures (literally) and the word that gives him his power: Shazam! So we basically have Superman, but his alter-ego is a 10 year old boy. What kind of game would that be – half of it is a Superman clone, and the other is finishing your multiplication tables and going through puberty? No thanks. Also, any game that could or would feature a “Shazam!” button should never happen.

All five elements: earth, fire, wind, water, and cheese.

1. Captain Planet

I’m actually trying not to laugh thinking about how terrible Captain Planet is. Can you imagine a video game starring this flamboyantly gay, green mullet-sporting disaster of a superhero? Would he even bother to stop a robbery if the robbers used a hybrid getaway car? Forget battles of epic proportions, races against time, as Captain Planet, you’ll be fighting… pollution? Toxic waste? Nothing? Captain Planet saves the day, by recycling that soda can that a much cooler superhero dropped in the park on his way to deal out some actual justice. You’d be playing a game where you have to recycle and plant trees. No. Probably the only good action in the game would be fighting Captain Pollution, and even then it would probably just be them waiving doilies at each other at a tea party. On a side note, that South American kid with the Heart ring had no value to the Planeteers at all. Terrible.

Honourable Mention: Aquaman

Lastly, one that almost made the list is the fishy failure that is Aquaman. I’d really, really like to go into further detail about the character, but I’d have to Wikipedia that, and nobody cares anyway. If I wanted to play a boring aquatic game, I’d play Ecco the Dolphin again. Although to be fair, a dolphin has more personality than Aquaman.

Although a failure as a superhero, Aquaman could have a very lucrative sushi enterprise.

Alright everyone, after this massive video game crapshoot I need to go take a shower. If you have any other ideas for comic-book superheroes that shouldn’t ever have their own games, let me know below! Perhaps I’ll do another installment if there’s enough craptacular characters I didn’t mention here.

Cheers!

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Game Ranting

Josh Salem — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:34:56 +0000

This past week on Penn and teller’s show, “Penn and Teller: Bullsh*t” they tackled the topic of video games, and namely video game violence. Now, I’ve dabbled in my own research dissecting violence in video games and their effect on the youth from a strictly ethical point of view (no psychology or any other brain rape involved) and it all came down to a small number of children not being able to tell the difference between real life and fantasy… Either that or negligent parents who provide their kids with M rated games at the age of 10 (more on this later).

In this episode, Penn and Teller (I still don’t understand why a show that revolves around debate and speech has half their talent being a mute) talk about the huge amounts of revenue flowing in from video games, the wave of violent crimes depicting video game copying and those deemed to stop them (Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton, and some guy with a balding pony tail) but also take the reverse approach and provide a 9 year old gamer with a real assault rifle… how can it go wrong? The 28 minute video begins by making a strong comparison, video game violence to us is like three stooges violence to our parents, makes sense already doesn’t it? With every generation there comes a form of entertainment (or violence) the generation before doesn’t quite understand, while three stooges rarely ever dealt with guns or murder, I peg this as just the progression of the times, desensitization from the news, and newer technologies taking precedence.

Don’t get me wrong, a slap to the back of the head is a lot better than a gunshot to the gut, but the generations before didn’t have this type of technology, if they did, perhaps this wouldn’t be as big an issue as it is now (and I fear to think what our kids will be looking at as entertainment in the future if we’re ok with virtual violence). While a number of critics might think Penn and Teller’s show is indeed, BullSh*t, they did raise a number of important points. Almost every single study into video game violence on youth (both pro and con for video games) is completely bias and agenda driven. This can be seen from both sides throughout the show and based on papers I have researched in the past. Secondly, just because one enjoys violent games, doesn’t mean they enjoy violence. I mean… it COULD mean that… but it doesn’t always mean that. This was shown in the half hour show by allowing a sweet innocent game playing 9 year old shoot a rifle… ONCE… and that lead him to tears on national television. The third point this show left me with was their last, if video games had been around for generations, and football was all of a sudden introduced to the world; what would we think about football? A violent sport in which physical contact and taking one down are requisites to the game, and which by the way, have relatively high injury rates compared to oh… I don’t know, video games? Aside of course, from a pulled muscle playing Dance Dance Revolution or a sore thumb after a night of gaming).

This cannot end well...

Overall I think video game violence issues fall into five broad categories:

1) Children who don’t have the mental capacity to tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

2) Negligent parents who ignore the ESRB ratings on boxes and don’t pay attention to what their kids play (Hey… I was one of these kids).

3) Game stores selling M rated games to minors; if you can’t buy cigarettes, alcohol, or adult rated videos and magazines under age, why should you be able to buy adult rated games?

4) People who use video games as scapegoats for their violent acts (like the guy in the UK who blamed Grand Theft Auto as the reason he stabbed a man to steal his sneakers… there aren’t any sneakers in GTA!).

5) And finally, the generally deranged.

Should these games be discontinued? Should they be banned? Is it the developers fault or the parents? Does legal ramification come into play when dealing with ESRB ratings? I know how I feel about the topic (parents and game stores should be the ones you point fingers at, not the game companies or the people playing them), how do you feel? I welcome to virtual floor to debate, praise, or hate mail. After all, it’s just entertainment, no one gets up in a huff when kids watch violent movies (Power Rangers ring a bell?).

Rant over.

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Gaming at a glance, fighter’s edition

sarge-ak47 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:29:53 +0000

This is the summer of the Fighting game!! YES it IS!!
So today I will be going over some of the new releases in the last four months or so, and give you reasons to pick up a controller and knock the other guy out.

And if none of the new releases tickle your fancy, then I have got a list of old greats that are sure to keep the fighting spirit ALIVE!!!! SO BROTHA LETS GET THIS STARTED!!!

In the last little while we have had some old franchises return, some new updates, and some classics sent our way. In fact, if I can honestly count the number of hours I have spent playing a fighting game this year; it would rival if not beat the combined total amount of time I have spent sleeping last year. THAT’S A FACT!

First off I’m going to shed some light on Punch-Out for the Nintendo Wii, a true return to the franchise maybe bit too true. In fact the game has the same mechanic behind it. Boss pattern memorization may sound odd in this day and age, but to a classic that wasn’t broke why go and fix it. Besides some new characters and a multilayer mode the reason you should get this is if you’re an old school gamer.

The nostalgia factor is off the charts and lets be honest I am stunned by the art design of the game.

Truly fun to gather around some peeps and try and take on the boxers as a group, or try and take out each other with some smart waggle control that actually makes sense. With no online play, this title is best left for gatherings.

Available only on the Nintendo Wii.

Now if that ain’t your style, then maybe Fight Night Round 4 is. With over 48 boxers from around the globe, new inside boxing mechanics, and perfect stick control; this title stands out as the best boxing simulator. It looks gorgeous and besides a couple of gripes (why no face buttons… yet) things are pretty fun.

This is the type of game to crack out before an actual fight and get hyped. A couple of drinks, some random boasting and bragging and nothing settle the score better than this title. Well you could go ahead and box for real, but let’s face it, it’s too much effort. With solid online play, things are looking good.

Available for PS3 and 360.

Steering away from the boxing games, we have what I think is the biggest surprise thus far, UFC 2009 Undisputed.
The game is MMA- mixed martial arts, and centers around a simple context – two men go in the octagon…one man comes out.

With controls that are easy to learn and get into yet provide the depth necessary for the vets; this title controls like a dream. What makes this game stand out is its nature. The unpredictability of fighting is brought into the light, 1st round knock outs never felt better. The game actually pays attention to your stance, opening, position and strength. Possibilities like knocking a guy out within the first 10 seconds if he is not careful are not only real but fun to mock afterwards.
If you’re a skilled fighter you can be as technical as you want and push it to as many rounds as you like.
Stamina, health, injuries, and other essentials are factored in but never cluttered on the games interface. This helps create an immersible experience. This title is best played online and off.

Available for PS3 and 360.

now we enter the cool realm, fighting games that aren’t really a sport.
Street Fighter 4 is without a doubt the most ambitious fighter on the list and the best buy for any fighting fan.
New cool pseudo 3d looks and a 2d fighting plane means back to the good old days (lets not remember street fighter and its 3d experiments) and with an official numbering of the title you know its gonna be good. Just like street fighter 3!
I got to say at first glance it’s all too familiar and simple but the more you dive in the more you learn that focus attacks, focus canceling and ex moves/ cancels, create a new level of skill waiting to be mastered. With gorgeous art, music and some of the flashiest ultras out there…this is a true return. Aside from some small online gripes- such as everyone playing as ken… or the fact that you can’t be in an online room with more than 2 players (WHAT???) things are handled nicely with its ranked matches, stats and replay options. OH one more thing…probably the worst downloadable content ever… I mean alternate costumes are gonna cost you!! WHY CAPCOM!!!??
But hey if I can sing praise for this game even after that! It’s a BUY!! MUST BUY for PS3, PC and 360.

Now then fans of the GUILTY GEAR SERIES!!! The original team has put forth their hand-drawn efforts to a new franchise. The original creators give you BLAZBLUE!! An oddly named game but one that you’ll never forget after some time with the title. The combo friendly fighter packs some of the sharpest 2d visuals on any next gen console. With some intense and amazing metal/rock ballads fueling your fights, an online system that has Street Fighter in shame (6 player lobbies!! viewing rivals fight while you wait!!! AWESOME!!) And the finest art style since Guilty Gear. You’ll be wowed at the level of complexity of the fighting engine. Everything goes here, air combos, cancels air juggles, and combo breakers…. the list go on. The most comprehensively deep fighter available on the market! This is for the hardcore!! The real deal baby!!

And if you’re new to the fighting mechanic? Well with some easy combos you’ll be jamming in no time!
To put it simply, this is the most rewarding audio-visual fighting experience thus far.
And did I mention the art is gorgeous??

Now then, I hear you wanted to check out Guilty Gear? Well it’s funny since a new update of the old franchise hit shelves this year
Guilty Gear accent Core Plus, for Wii and PS2! The Classic insane metal rock fighter. Now with the complete roster and insane finishers. Granted the engine is from last gen and some of the sprites were designed for standard def T.V s… but don’t let that stop you from enjoying a rewarding fighter. With some historically cool rock icon named characters such as … Ino, Axl, Sol badguy, etc!!! And some intensely entertaining fight mechanics this is a good buy that will cost you around $39.99.

And now for the rest, the older titles but great ones none the less.
Ill make a list of fighters you should be playing this summer.
Keep in mind these are last year old…

1. Smash Bros Brawl – ICONIC Nintendo Brawler. Now with Sonic and the legendary Solid snake! Nothing beats Smash bros Brawl. The best 4 player brawler! And with a good online foundation and deep single player and challenges (they even have a trophy room) the most value for your money out of ANY FIGHTER THIS YEAR AND LAST. It’s Smash bros… nuff said

2. SoulCalibur 4 – I keep talking about gorgeous next gen graphics… but this is HONESTLY the BEST LOOKING 3D FIGHTER THUS FAR! It came out last year and it still has tekken 6(not released yet… fall of ‘09) beat. With the best weapons based fighter title and some fun online set-ups, this is truly a MUST BUY for ps3 or 360… oh and it has Darth Vader, Yoda, and Star Killer as playable bonus characters!! Heck you can create your own fighter if you want too.

3. Street Fighter 2 HD REMIX
Street fighter 2 with HD graphics, you can’t go wrong. On XBLA and PSN only.

4. Naruto Ninja Storm
for PS3 only.. A true sequel to the 2d fighter many of us never played (but I and so many fans of the anime did)
Gorgeous visuals and some hilarious battles make this a for the fans only title. Lack of online play hurts but then again get some people in a room and watch their jaw drop on the insane cartoon visuals.

5. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection for PSN only.
Can’t wait for Tekken 6? Well this will have to do! The best game to crack open with you got 10 people and few gamers… Fun, easy, a button mashers dream! Until you face a skilled opponent! Fun for everyone!
OK that about does it for me…. NOW KEEP ON FIGHTING BROTHAAA

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Game Ranting

Josh Salem — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:25:15 +0000

Now, I’m just gonna start typing and see where it takes me. This is a free for all blog rant and I have no intentions of a specific topic this week.

I just stared at my computer screen for five minutes… this isn’t going to work.

I like video games, I like them alot. Not to a point where I would rather sit down on a weekend evening and play instead of being social… but a few titles out there have gotten me close to that point. I also play a lot of games, one of the perks to this job is that playing games and reading about gaming news is part of my job description! So this past week I went to my local EB games to trade in a few titles and pick up something new, I must have spent a good 45 minutes looking through the Xbox 360 used section, new section, PS3 used section, new section, Wii used section, new section, DS used, new, PSP used, new (as you can tell, I try to save some cash where I can) and after going through every one of these sections, I didn’t really see any titles I would be willing to spend the cash on!

It’s not like there are good titles out there that I wouldn’t want to try: Punchout, Street Fighter 4, Call of Juarez, Fight Night Round 4 for example. It’s just that for the most part, I know that these games just won’t keep my interest long enough to warrant a purchase, perhaps a rent, but that’s about as far as I would be willing to go. I realize this is getting dangerously close to my other rant about games not keeping my interest for long enough periods of time however, so I will move on.

I feel the video game industry is growing too large too quickly. When it gets to a point where gamers are expecting a blockbuster game title to come out every week and getting upset when there comes a week (such as this one) where the biggest title that excites you is the virtual console release on the Wii of Commodore 64’s California Games, things just have to slow down.

Don’t get me wrong, the fact that the video game industry is bigger than both the music and box office industries combined (says Cammie Dunaway in her press conference for Nintendo at E3) is fantastic for those that love making games as well as playing games. Developers and publishers gain bigger budgets and prestige for creating that amazing game, and gamers around the world get to enjoy the higher level of gaming that comes with the territory. At the same time however, the gamers, the fans themselves become in a sense, spoiled. It will get to a point that those that have a certain budget per month on buying or renting games will begin to get every ‘must have’ title out there and either only have a week to play each title, or become frustrated that they can’t get all the big names with their current budget.

Could Mario be the key to world peace?

It scares me to think of what will happen if the gaming industry continues to grow at such an alarming rate. In my mind there are three bad scenarios and two great scenarios of the outcome if gaming continues at this pace. First bad scenario is that the holiday season will create such a backlog of must-have games that people will only purchase games during the holiday season and at such a high level of products being purchased that they have enough games to last them until the next holiday season ignoring all the gems that are released throughout the year. The second bad scenario is that those that create short, cheap, poor quality games will flood the market with even more titles, trying to grab cash with low budget titles… which might create the need for a new tax on games. Thirdly, with the industry growing so large so quickly, I fear the foundation of the entire gaming industry might collapse on itself and the gaming bubble (much like the tech and dot com bubbles) will pop and alot of high quality developers and publishers may go under.

Now, that being said however, things could always get even better for gamers. With the high demand for games, more publishers and developers will come into the market, creating stronger competition; this strong competition will lead to higher quality titles, more original and innovative games, and perhaps even a price decrease to gain a larger consumer market share. The second positive scenario that could come from this is that everyone wins. Governments start to vie for more video game companies in their countries, new jobs are created, more original titles are coming out to stifle the influx of gaming sequels and ultimately world peace is achieved through the use of video games… I realize this last part is a little out there, but hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

Could you imagine the world’s first peace treaty signed and witnessed in World of Warcraft? Hey, it could happen sooner than you think!

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Game Ranting

Josh Salem — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:09:04 +0000

What’s your favourite game? I know, it’s a tough question to answer for some of us, and a question I get asked almost every time I have an interview regarding any form of game related activities. In fact, it’s such a difficult question for me to answer that I often ask people I interview for andPOP positions just to watch them squirm as much as I do when I have to come up with a quick meaningful response. Do you base your answer on memory? What’s popular at the time? Do you want to sound sophisticated so you refer to some obscure art title? What if the game you say is your favourite turns out to be a personal worst for the person asking you? With such a simple question comes so much drama, and to a point, it gets a little ridiculous.

Personally I would probably have to say my all time favourite video game would have to be Punch Out for the original Nintendo… or Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation… or Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation… or General Chaos for the Sega Genesis… or the latest Smash Bros title. At least I can narrow down my choices to my top five favourites of all time. Why did these become my favourites?

Punch Out was always a quick fun pick me up that never got old, and was challenging enough that from time to time I would make it all the way to the final boss (Mike Tyson or Mr. Dream) but believe it or not, I never tried the new remake on the Wii (I guess I don’t want to tarnish my memories of such a great game). FF7 had a great story and more side quests than an aging wizard can shake his wand at, with such character growth and connection in this long lasting RPG, it’s easy to see why it’s on a lot of other people’s top 5 games as well. Metal Gear Solid (another Playstation one title) was like an interactive movie, but not only that, a really amazing interactive movie! Hideo Kojima just had a way of telling a story with such beautiful graphics, compelling deep characters and an amazing script I’m still amazed it hasn’t been adapted into a film yet.

Obscure? Maybe... Awesome? Definitley!

General Chaos was a little known game on the Genesis published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1994 which pits you, General Chaos against your rival General Havoc in a battle for army supremacy; What I enjoyed most about a title like this was the simple customization of soldiers you could have well before the time of RTS’ really took hold. And Finally, Super Smash Bros. has always been the ultimate party game, what’s not to love? Fast paced action packed fighting of your favourite Nintendo characters using in game weapons to kick some ass! Where else could you find Pikachu picking up a fire flower to toast Link or Luigi unleashing a Metroid on Donkey Kong? It was like a dream I had over and over again materialized into a great game to sit around with friends and create smack talk around.

So there you have it, my top five games of all time, what are yours?

Gamer’s Mind Blog: The Burnout factor

sarge-ak47 — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:52:05 +0000

Alright!! It’s Friday!! And you don’t care what you read at work as long as the day goes by real quick, am I right?

Well from now on every Friday I’ll be ranting about video games and I’ll try and tackle key issues surrounding our industry as well providing you with some heavily opinionated takes on different games.

So then, today I’ll be taking a closer look at what I think is the most value I have gotten out of a game since F-Zero GX…

BURNOUT PARADISE!

Its sort of funny now that we look at the current next gen racers, a number of years ago we had so few big budgeted racers to pick from. Aside from the Project Gotham Racing and GT series gamers who wanted a causal and very arcade foray into racing had nothing but the Need for Speed and Midnight Club series. And I won’t be counting all the wonderful kart racers or fantastic Futuristic racers here.

Well what else was there on the consoles? Sure the PC has always had some of the best racer sims available and countless cool arcade imports to toy with. But us console folks were entering a scary time. The over-customization era presented within the NFS series was beginning to get a bit on my nerves with titles like Juiced and the * Gasp* return of San Francisco Rush.

Arcade racers veered away from the core fundamentals of racing and the basics of what made a racer fun…they instead dived into the over saturated ooze of customization and neon urban culture -what was once inspired by The Fast and the Furious films.

In comes a game that I believe to be a spiritual successor to the once exceptional San Francisco Rush series, Burnout.
Its beginnings were shaky, but then the sequel proved that a fun arcade racer was finally emerging with a new angle.
The sense of speed, destruction and overall chaos/exhilaration was second to none. Very reminiscent of good old car chase movies and Japanese arcade racers.

Now I was ridiculed by my RACER FANATIC friends for choosing to side with Criterions racing game. It seemed like the game was about crashes and driving like a maniac… it seems a little crazy…stupid…too buck wild…not for me.
But I kept playing every title of the series, and lo and behold I and millions around the world grew to love and see how this title will change things… FOREVER.

After the third game I was convinced that nothing could top it… in came Burnout Revenge. Now as far as closed track racers were concerned Burnout Revenge nailed it. Yet no one took notes.

The launch of Paradise city was scary at first, an open ended burnout? Online sandbox game play? Paradise was my first game for the PS3 and till this day I play it and am astonished at how much life I have gotten out of this one title.

Not only did they attack the sandbox game design pioneered by other games, they perfected it with a diverse land, simplicity in offline to online game play, achievements, and overall structure and game advancement goals. While I saw the once famed NFS series do nothing but implement a good dosage of horrible story into my racer, with ridiculous scenarios and horrible characters.

I can’t think of any title where I’ve driven around the open world exploring shortcuts, finding collectibles and trying to get the edge on the best areas to take jumps from. I’ve drifted down free style with my buddy on one of its most twisty roads, taken stunt runs on an aircraft field, raced, crashed and achieved take downs. Seamless games play online and off. Heck me and my buddies still try to outrace each others time record for the various roads we lay claim to. So far I rule the freeways with an iron grip… but Tito won’t let that stay for too long

I mean a good game is not hard to appreciate. So I wasn’t a tad bit surprised to hear the Burnout devs working on a new NFS project while NFS Shift tries to redeem the series.

Burnout took out an entire array of cheesy racers with licensed cars with its evolutionary design.
I dare you to try the fastest car in the game and not be amazed by its sheer dedication to its core values as a fast and furious (no pun intended) racer.

You don’t have to be a fan of racing to appreciate a good racing game. And that’s what I realized.

I challenge you to find something from this generation that has given out more free updates and paid DLC to extend the life and fun factor of the game. They even updated the filters, road textures, lights, color filters, vehicles, game assets… Take a screen grab of the game from launch and compare it to where it stands today.

So what am I going on about? We as gamers need to play more games and start supporting such studios. I hate that I had to pay 3 bucks for 3 costume unlocks in Street Fighter 4…

In this modern age of DLC where I was once worried that everything would be micro transactions I am glad to see Criterion dare everyone else to do better. Gaming may be a form of entertainment or a past time but it need not be a passive experience. With titles like Blur on the way, seemingly heavily influenced by the sheer chaos of burnout while claiming to offer something more, it makes me smile that we are seeing constant evolution in every genre of gaming.

This is one racing game you must buy. In times where I have to second think every game I buy because of its replay value, burnout paradise is the only title that has given me value for every penny spent.

Be marveled at the sheer size and scope of the game. Enjoy the robust online challenges and single player achievements. AND MAKE WAY FOR BIG SURF ISLAND.

To put it simply I’m proud to have been a burnout fan from day 1, seeing the potential of the series finally being realized. Have such a studio that doesn’t treat me like a chump and actually gives me reasons (most of them free) to keep playing. Providing a return to what made these racing games so fun while astonishing us with what has never been done before. So I urge you to try and encourage you to buy Burnout Paradise, don’t let this gem pass you by.

In the end it has taught me that the core foundations of what makes a good game never change- it just has to be tremendously fun.

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Infinite Ammo

Brett.Caron — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:07:58 +0000

CHEATS – The Gamer’s Moral Compass

Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Up, Up, Up. And all of a sudden, I can level select in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on my Sega Genesis. So what if I don’t earn my way to the Ice Cap Zone? I’ve played this game 50 times already – it’s been done. But you’d never catch me sprinting through GoldenEye or Quake with God Mode on – ruins the game for me. So my cheating in games is based on convenience and sportsmanship (after a fashion). But am I the rule, or the exception to it?

Cheats and secrets have been around in games since 8-bit systems. I really wouldn’t be surprised if there was a cheat to make your Pong paddle bigger (and I’m not referencing the herbal medicine junk email we get every day). Back on the Genesis and NES/SNES, we had Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat codes to unlock characters, and Battletoads, Sonic and many other codes for level selection. Later, on platforms like the N64, Playstation and PS2, codes became a way to unlock secret features of the game, features that you couldn’t unlock without the codes. A great example of this is Star Wars: Rogue Squadron for the N64, which had a code to unlock the Naboo starfighter from Episode I. However, LucasArts only released the code after the movie had been released in theatres – so noone was unlocking that baby by accident a few days before opening weekend at the box office. Cheats and secrets are still a big part of games, but as the core gamer demographic grows out of the desire for codes (and more importantly, grows out of hard-core gaming into casual gaming), these become more rewards than hustles.

Not many games offer the good old codes and secrets these days – everything is either unlockable or achievements. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against unlockable secrets. It’s probably the best way to give the cheats but still ensure the player gets the full experience of the game. Beating every level in the game then being able to level select from the main menu is a perfect example of this. Or like Metal Gear Solid 4, where you earn the infinite ammo bandanna only after sneaking through the game without a single kill (or acquiring 5,000,000 Drebin Points, which requires mass murder – a challenge in and of itself) and the stealth camouflage if you can get through the game without being seen.

I suppose that the point I’m trying to make is that older platform games seem to endorse the childlike desire to just get everything at once, regardless of losing out on the real gameplay value. I wouldn’t enjoy a game of Monopoly if I stole a bunch of cash when noone was looking. Newer games reward skill and persistence with achievements, and the occasional secret. But it seems that the unlockables are fading away. Why is that?

Sometimes it ain't easy being a plumber in the Mushroom Kingdom

Well, one big example is that games aren’t as hard as they used to be. Hear me out! Most games now don’t have a finite health bar, like older games like… well every older game. Newer games like Resistance, Call of Duty, inFAMOUS, the latest in the Rainbow Six series and others have a replenishing health system where you might get hit a few times, but you’ll heal that damage as long as you stay out of harm’s way for 30-40 seconds. Try that tactic in Super Mario Bros. or Quake II. But those games had power-ups like health packs and invulnerability, which tended to compensate for the ease in which you could expire. Newer games make it harder for the player to die, which really does fit in with the changing demographic of young gamers growing up into more casual gamers. I don’t want to sit down in front of my PS3 and have to learn for an hour how this game works – I want it intuitive and fun. So that’s what we get. Games that don’t have the same depth as they used to (with some exception); so why would game designers bother with unlockables and codes and secrets that the average casual gamer won’t bother to unlock anyway? Answer: they don’t.

This, I think, is the major reason behind the achievements and trophies systems seen on the XBox 360 and PS3 consoles. An easy way to have a rewards system in place that doesn’t demand that the gamer in question lose their entire social life by trying to get through the game in under 6 hours without dying once or firing a shot standing on their head blindfolded (I’m looking at you, Metal Gear). So while I rue the loss of the symbiote suit and others we saw on the Playstation Spider-Man game, or the Naboo starfighter from Rogue Squadron on the N64, I find that my lifestyle lends itself better to the little pop-up at the bottom of my screen that tells me I just earned the trophy for 100 headshots (I mean, it was bound to happen eventually).

Until next time,

Cheers.

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Game Ranting

Josh Salem — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:43:34 +0000

Hey andPOPpers, Josh again with my weekly ranting. This week’s topic, how do you play video games? What is your ideal setup? How long is a good gaming session for you? When I play, it all depends on the mood I’m in, what kind of game it is, and what happened earlier in the day. If I’m having a crappy day, bad traffic, annoying people, and I’m just in a downright foul mood, I like to cause some havoc. Take my anger out on virtual citizens of a cyber world. I may go home, crack open a nice frosty coke, plop on the couch and pop in some Horde mode of Gears of War 2 and just slaughter alien scum for a good hour or two. If I’m awake and relatively bored I might go back to my old MMORPG ways and play some online final fantasy 11 (either on my PC or Xbox depending on the mood) and slash 3 to 4 hours off my day. When the mood strikes and I feel like watching a movie but want that interactive vibe to it, I would usually play some good, theatrical, and beautiful Metal Gear Solid 4, pop in my Jabra earpiece (that came with Warhawk for PS3) and play with that much more involvement… and yes, if I want to be 100% in the game, I may even toss on my eye patch every now and then.

The problem I have, and would like to rant about this week though is what happens (and lately it’s been happening a lot) if I’m feeling lethargic, lazy, bored, just wanting to shut off my brain and do something relaxing for a couple of hours in front of my TV. I browse my gaming titles, usually starting from the games I’m currently in the middle of, usually starting with Xbox 360 titles, my choices usually include: one of a dozen shooter games, a plethora of music titles, horror games, sports titles or a movie trivia option. Nope, don’t feel like playing any of those, I move onto the PS3: a lot of the same, more sports, less horror, Little Big Planet or Eye of Judgement (both have a lot of setup involved either in the game or physically, much too lazy for that). Onto the Wii… ya, about that, as most of their games involve movement as it is… I skip over the majority, otherwise they’re all just too fast paced for me to relax to. I can’t seem to find my PSP and the DS is in my backpack in another room. I know what you’re thinking, ‘boo hoo little Josh has all this choice and is bored, cry me a freaking river’, yes, I know I am ridiculously lucky to have such a job, and it does have it’s benefits, but when your mood is ‘blah’ there really isn’t much you can do, and it’s frustrating!

No reason for this picture, I just love the power glove

What would you do if you went though an entire library of games you KNOW you enjoy, but just don’t feel like playing? Go outside? Take a nap? Watch TV? I had to figure this out, and I came up with an interim solution to keep me busy until my mood changes, first option: Set up a blog and tell the world how annoyed you are, if you’re lucky maybe they’ll respond and tell you how annoying YOU are! Option two: check out downloadable options for your next gen console, Xbox 360 has Live Arcade, community games, and original Xbox titles, PS3 has the PSN that offers downloadable games, PSP titles, and older PS1 titles, Nintendo Wii offers not only a huge selection of older titles through their virtual console, but also WiiWare titles for download as well. Option three: check out the downloadable demos available on your consoles! Just because you never thought about buying a game doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try the demo for it for free anyways. Even the downloadable titles usually have demo options available to test the waters before buying and downloading them. Finally option four: go to your local gaming store and take a look at the overabundance of classic game compilations available for almost every system, if you’re lucky, you could even pick up a used copy of one. So which option did I go with?

Well, I did all four, you’re reading my blog, I downloaded Castle Crashers for Xbox 360 and Wave Race for the N64 on the Wii, tried a few demos and just came back from my local gaming store with a copy of Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360. I figure with over 45 classic Genesis games to play, some I loved but had a hard time tracking down to play again, some I had never heard of that when the mood to not play any of my previously loved titles strikes, I can try my hand at something I enjoyed 15 years earlier!

So, there’s my rant for the week, I’m sure a lot of you have a lot of things to say, rant about yourselves, comments, ideas, etc. So leave a comment, tell us what your favourite fall-back title is and what makes it the game you can play at any time no matter what.

Gamer’s Mind Blog: Game Ranting

Josh Salem — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:42:17 +0000

Hey andPOPpers, Josh here again and today, I think I’ll rant about the big news of the month, E3. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the biggest North American video game trade show came and went, and with it, a slew of previews we all expected to see as well as a few big surprises came our way. While I was unable to attend this year, I watched from the comfort of my couch and desk as the news rolled in, and while I got excited for what’s coming our way I couldn’t help but get a little disappointed that while the people there had to deal with crowds, line-ups and costs, they would ultimately be the ones to say they played these games a year or even more before they came out.

So for the past week I’ve been watching the live E3 press releases of the big three: Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft; and I must say, for the most part I was surprisingly impressed with what was announced and shown at these press conferences.

To start off, let’s take a look at Microsoft. They not only snaked away Final Fantasy 13 as an exclusive from Sony, but to my surprise, they also have the new Metal Gear Solid Rising coming out for Xbox 360 as well as PS3 and PC! Rockband Beatles, Tony Hawk Ride (with skateboard controller) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was also all announced as Microsoft held the first press conference, but all these titles were also to be debuting on other systems as well. So what did Microsoft have to show that would make me proud to be an Xbox owner? The announcement of Crackdown 2 perhaps? Left 4 Dead 2?!!! Already? I had no idea! Forza 3 (of course Microsoft needed something to combat GT5), and not only a preview of Halo: ODST but the brand new announcement of an entirely new Halo game altogether called Halo: Reach. Now, as of writing this blog up, we do not know what Reach is, or even what kind of game it will be, but my assumption is that if it is being announced along side ODST, it will not be a first person shooter, but I could be entirely wrong. **EDIT: it IS a first person shooter!** Aside from Alan Wake (we all knew it was coming), that wrapped up what Microsoft had in store with regards to their software, now what about hardware? The introduction of Last.FM for Xbox Live gold members, Sky (like NetFlix) for UK gamers, and oh ya, 1080P NetFlix in 18 countries! Other expansions to Xbox Live include connectivity with Facebook, and what’s this? Project NATAL? Full body motion control? No need for a controller or wand or anything? Voice recognition, facial recognition? This is all too much to handle… or is it? Dun dun dunnnnn.

Moving onto Nintendo, we were shown a lot of the DSi and Wii Motion Plus yada yada yada, they keep talking about what we already know, does Nintendo have nothing new to show this year? They do. And by golly was it a surprise to me at least! Cammie Dunaway first blows my mind with statistics; video games sell more than music and box office movies combined? A few kids games are shown, girl games and BAM we’re whacked in the face with a brand new FOUR player simultaneously Wii Super Mario game! We’re shown Mario, Luigi, and two Toads (Toadaie?) competing for mushrooms and coins. Red Steel 2, Tiger Woods 10, Wii Sports Resort, Mario and Luigi RPG 3 announced… nothing really new for a while during their press conference until bam (again), Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers for the Wii, Sin and Punishment 2, and Kingdom Hearts for the DS. More ho hum games announced, Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Wario for the DSi with user created content… not my favourite, if I wanted to make my own game, I may just do that. I feel Nintendo is trying to jump on the user created content bandwagon too little too late. Here’s where it gets good, Super Mario Galaxy 2! Sure it looks exactly like the original Galaxy, but this time, you can ride Yoshi, and besides, any new Galaxy game is good enough for me! The big announcement that totally caught me off guard however, Metroid: Other M! a new Metroid title that looks deeper into Samus Aran’s past!!! Oh ya, and a finger sensor for the Wii to check your pulse… what?

Finally Sony’s press conference was coming up. We heard rumors and saw pictures of the new slim PS3 and PSP Go, would they make an appearance? Well, the PSP Go did, and the CEO of Sony kept making jokes about all their secrets being leaked… way to throw us off Mr. CEO! To start off they talk about Uncharted 2, of course, the only real PS3 exclusive anyone has seen more than a few minutes of, let’s just hope Sony didn’t put all their eggs into one basket (or two if you include God of War 3). What’s this? They still think 256 players can play simultaneously in MAG? They must be MAD!!! (see what I did there?) . They go on to talk about PSP titles, Dissidia (the Final Fantasy fighter), Castlevania: Bloodlines, Hannah Montana, and what’s this? Gran Tourismo PSP (with 800 cars), Resident Evil Portable, and what what what? Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker! A PSP MGS title that has Big Boss and what looks like 3 other snakes (Solid, Liquid, and Solidus perhaps?) playing in a true metal gear solid portable sequel taking place 10 years after MGS3. Will it be a four player co-op game? I sure hope so! LittleBigPlanet and Jak and Daxter also coming out on the PSP. They then go on to talk about Final Fantasy 13 and show a new trailer for it followed by… what? An announcement for Final Fantasy 14?!!!? Another MMORPG it seems, but since I just quit FF11 three days ago, I eagerly await more news! Sony goes on to talk about more user created content along the lines of LBP, a new game called Mod Nation Racers, and it’s exactly what you would guess, you create the racer, you create your car, you even create the track you race on, it’s a pretty kart racer, other than creating your own content, nothing really special. The third and final game from the creators of ICO, The Last Guardian has a chicken puppy working with a child to do god knows what, but it is pretty and fairly artistic, what we expected. Following this game preview we were given a glimpse of Gran Tourismo 5. Nothing special here. And finally, a 5 minute demo of God of War 3; now, while we all saw trailers for GOW3 and were expecting something big, right when the demo was getting good, they cut it off and from what I saw, it wasn’t anything revolutionary or special, just more of the same fun God of War gore. Good enough for me, but for how much longer. So, Sony, whom I thought would be the weakest of the three this year came out with a bunch of surprises even after the leak of the PSP Go, but wait, they had one more little thing to show me. What I thought to be the biggest showing so far, Playstation motion control! Using a colour changing wand with buttons, players are given 1:1 tracking along with the Playstation eye which lets your magical wand become anything you want, a golf club, gun, sword, you can even achieve first person views with it! Take two wands and enjoy if you like! All very exciting stuff.

So there you go, the big guns of the big three, I apologize if my writing is very sporadic but I wrote this as I was watching the press conferences, so any hiccups you see can be translated into excitement for myself! I cannot wait to see how these games and features expand and grow and I full heartedly look forward to the next two years of gaming, they’re going to be magical! What I always enjoyed most about E3 was never really the games themselves, the trailers or demos for the games, but rather the excitement of the press releases. Only in these meetings do you get to see old stuffy CEOs in business suits get overly excited about content I find interesting as well. I also greatly enjoy the surprises they throw at us year after year whether it be a great kept secret, or surprise guests, watching these press releases might very well be the most exciting aspect of the video game industry. Yes, I realize this is not really game rant, but hey, my blog, I talk about what I want!

So what were your biggest surprises and letdowns of E3 this year? Leave a comment; let us know what you thought of the revitalized gaming expo?