(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
Loading ...At E3, a new Xbox Experience was announced which basically boiled down to a new version of the Dashboard. This was pretty controversial with the hardcore Xbox 360 fanboys, who had come to love the Dashboard. The videos and screenshots that have popped up off this new Experience have showed a much less fluid, empty space. This could just be a dummy look until the final version comes out, but there is a much anticipated feature in this new update. The update will feature the ability to install games from discs onto the hard drive. This is great for two reasons: the load times are much faster, and the fear of scratching a disc is gone. There is also a video, check it out.
Author Archive for Ali Shah
Everyone that was disappointed that Call of Duty 4 shipped without any co-op can rejoice now. Call of Duty: World at War will feature a heavy co-op component. The game doesn’t seem like that much of an improvement over Call of Duty 4, but it does seem different. Decide for yourself with the following co-op footage of the game.
Starting today through August 11th, Sony will be inviting 10,000 users to be a part of a new round of Beta testing for Playstation Home. Playstation Home is basically Sony’s reply to Xbox Live, featuring both more flair and more eye candy. You are given your own avatar, which is effectively a character model, that you are then allowed to dress as you want, purchase different homes, watch movies with. Although Sony recently said that Playstation Home is not a social network, I definitely feel that it will be with all the types of customization and chances for public interaction. The news of this beta round was found on a Japanese site, so I’m not sure how it will affect our American readers, but I suppose you should give it a try.
via [Impress AV Watch]
Update: Behemoth confirmed today that no official price has been set on their game Castle Crashers and that they are working with Microsoft to set a ‘reasonable’ price for it.
Ever since Behemoth, the makers of Alien Hominid, announced their new game Castle Crashers for the arcade, everyone has been excited. It features 4 player co-up, unrelenting humor, and crazy difficult levels. But the official Japanese Xbox website posted the prices for Castle Crashers and other summer arcade releases today and some people might be considerably less excited. The website reports that Castle Crashers should cost 1800 MS points or for humans, 22.50 dollars. If the game costs that much in the US, it will be the most expensive arcade release in the history of Xbox Live. The game is set to release August 27th, 2008, at least that gives us some time to start saving up our MS points. Here is the full list of the other games releases dates and prices.
- July 30: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (800 MS points / $10)
- August 6: Braid (1200 MS points / $15)
- August 13: Bionic Commando Rearmed (800 MS points / $10)
- August 20: Galaga Legions (800 MS points / $10)
August 27: Castle Crashers (1800 MS points / $22.50)
via [Japenese Xbox Blog]
Microsoft has finally decided to cut their Xbox Live Silver Members some slack by allowing them to play any cross-platform Xbox 360 games online for free. This announcement comes right after Microsoft decision to make GFW a free service altogether. Microsoft didn’t indicate how long this offer would last, but they indicated that it would only be active until sometime during the fall. This could be a move in the right direction for Microsoft because many people feel that paying for playing games online is really an ill-conceived concept regardless of the services provided. But if you have over 10 million subscribers, why change, right?
Many people will argue this, but in my opinion Gears of War 2 is the biggest blockbuster coming out this year. And yet, there has hardly been any information on the game thus far. I mean there has been the occasional video and a few small tid bits of knowledge from game creators, but I feel that information on the game has been kept relatively quiet for such a major release. I am also fairly bias because I am REALLY excited for this game, as I’m sure many of you are. Well here is a pretty cool multiplayer video with a lot of information, as opposed to the same information that been continously released. Check out the multiplayer video here:
The Spore Creature Creator has been available for private beta for a week now and it is pretty cool. The customization is amazing and the penetration that the game will have when released in September is probably going to be insane. But, now Big Download is offering the Trial for download for both Windows and Mac users, you guys should definitely check it out. Check back later for pictures of all of RotPod’s creatures.
A new update for the Pyro class in Team Fortress 2 is due out this Thursday, June 19th. The update will feature three new weapons, including the antinguisher, and 35 new achievements. Along with the update, Valve will be offering a free TF2 weekend, so any steam user will be able to try out the update for free. So be sure to check it out.
Some people have said it was impossible to get 100% on “Through the Fire and the Flames” by Dragonforce. Others said that we would have to wait for some sort of messiah to grace their godly fingers upon a Guitar Hero guitar. Chris “iamchris4life” Chike may be that guy. I mean this guy is no small cookie. He currently holds a world record for most points in any Guitar Hero song. But, he topped even himself with the following video.
The song is basically an endless stream of notes coming 4 at a time. To normal people, this can only be looked upon as a far, far, far, far, far possibility, but to Chris it’s an afternoon. This is the stuff of legends guys. Enjoy.
A few weeks ago, a picture of the new Guitar Hero: World Tour drums was leaked in a magazine scan. The drums looked very similar to the Rock Band drums with the addition of symbals. I’m not trying to discredit the drums because the symbals are very cool, but maybe I was expecting a little more. But, the trailer above may offer that. The trailer above features a few important things about the game. First, a few glimpses of the new guitar, a focus on the drums, which do feature a bass drum looking thing, and a mic. There really isn’t much more, but check it out for yourself above.
One of the coolest pieces of news, or one of the only new pieces of news depending on how you look at it, in the Epic-Microsoft Gamer day press kit was that there will be “weapon specific executions”. One can only assume that instead of simply curb stomping, you will have a much greater variety of execution-types which will be based upon your weapon. There aren’t any details at all really. But, Kotaku seems to have learned a few things in their dinner with a developer from Epic. They learned that the game will feature a romance and that the multiplayer received a lot more attention during development.We at RotPod can only imagine the awesomeness that can result from the weapon specific executions, but if you have any thoughts post them in the comments. We are probably looking forward to this game more than any other in the fall. Maybe because we spent countless hours playing Gears of War or because maybe because we all have a little something for Marcus Fenix. Either way, this is going to be an epic game and we can’t get news on it fast enough.
Gears of War 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, but as of yetwe have gotten nothing but sparse details about the game. Tonight however, is the night many of us have been waiting for. 1Up will post the first gameplay video for Gears of War 2 onto GameVideos.com at 10:30PST and then onto Xbox Live at 11:00PST. No one knows exactly what to expect from this footage, but maybe we’ll get some juicy story details too. I just know I’ll be waiting for the release.
Update: GameTrailers TV is getting their own exclusive footage tonight as well, so make sure you check it out as well in order to catch all of the GOW2 goodness that you can.
GameRankings posted an interesting statistic today. They measured the amount of games per console that received an average of 80% or better (which constitutes a good game) and the amount that received a 60% or worse (which constitutes a bad game). Interestingly enough, the PS3 came in with the best average with 33% of games receiving 80% or better, but that might also be a result of the console having the fewest number of games. The 360 came in an impressive second with 26% of 374 games, more than double the number of games on the Wii and more than triple of the PS3’s games. And the Wii? Well it came in the last with only 11% of games receiving a good rating.
I figure that most people probably expected this with the lack of regulation coming from Nintendo and the increasing number of copy-cat, gimmicky games coming out for the Wii. I think this is as good as time as any for Nintendo to come out and start to invest some more to get more innovation into these game. But I wonder if they really need to, with over 5 million consoles sold.
via [Gamefunk.com]
Let me just say it and then we will go into more detail:
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GTA IV Comparison Video
Okay, so much of our day was spent playing GTA IV and the rest was spent debating if there was a difference between the two versions game. We know that the Xbox 360 version of the game features the two exclusive expansions coming in the future and the PS3 version of the game is touted as having multi-bump aliasing. We also realize that either the integration of Xbox Live into the multiplayer or the motion sensing controls for the PS3 (mind you they suck) could make or break some people’s choice on which console to buy it for. This video might help:
We don’t notice a difference, but you may have the eyes of a well-trained falconer or just someone that is so desperately wishing to justify buying it for either one of the consoles. Either way, you should go out and buy the game right now because it is undoubtedly Game of the Year material.
When the Gunmetal Gray PS3 was announced in Japan, I was immediately disappointed because it wasn’t going to be released here. I am usually not a fan of gimmicky, branded consoles, see Simpsons Xbox 360, but this PS3 just looks amazing. At first, I thought the PS3 would actually be made of some sort of metal, but that opinion quickly changed on some thought about the major cooling problems. But, still worth it. The branding isn’t even that bad, in fact it looks really cool. See image above. For more information on the Gunmetal Gray Version check out the MGS post on the Playstation Blog.
PS – This console is different from the regular PS3 in the MGS Bundle, this is solely the branded console.
Here is an interesting chart I found browsing the web:
This is pretty self explanatory. This chart isn’t trying to say that video games helped reduce violence, or at least that’s not what I got, but I think it’s saying that video games are unrelated to violence. I’ll leave it up to your interpretation.
Gran Turismo has always been called one of the most realistic sim racers in the industry and many regard it to be the most realistic. But, you might ask how, seeing that the game never featured car damage of any kind like some of it’s counterparts. That has also always been a major criticism of the game and probably a major reason why other sim games are still even in the running for most realistic. But, that problem is going to be fixed very soon. Game lead, Kazunori Yamauchi, has announced that Gran Turismo 5: Prologue will be receiving an update in the fall that will add car damage and this is looking good for the highly anticipated Gran Turismo 5. Well that’s all the news about it really, the game is coming out in the US pretty soon and it already out in Japan. So be sure to check it out as buying a PS3 begins to sound more and more like a logical decision.
via[IGN]
One of the most anticipated games of the year just received a release date. Lucas Arts announced that the game will be release September 16th in the US and Australia and September 19th in Europe. This game has be touted for having 3 different physics engines and pushes this generation’s consoles to a whole new level. It has also been criticized by Star Wars fans for not remaining true to Star Wars canon lore, for example, pulling down an entire star destroyer with the force. In the game you will play Darth Vader’s apprentice in between episodes 3 & 4. We might be seeing more of this game at this year’s NY Comiccon. Be sure to check back for more updates on this game and others that will be there.
One of the biggest flaws that has haunted the Playstation 3 since launch is the lack of rumble in the Sixaxis controller. Even PS3 fanboys have been complaining make such comments as, “I didn’t know how much I’d miss it”. But, Sony has been intent on fixing this problem and bringing this last-gen feature to its current-gen console. Everyone prayers(in the US) shall be answered tomorrow with the release of the Dualshock 3. And everyone who has used one is giving it rave reviews. Many people have been saying it gives games like Uncharted, a whole new feel and a new way to play. The price is admittedly a little steep at $54.99, but I’d say its wellworth it.
