E3 2009: DO YOU WANT TO GET WET? I DO.

Are you getting Wet or what? I think I talked about this game a while back but now we have a super action packed trailer to go along with it. This game is rapidly growing in size on my must-have game radar. I was scared at first, thinking this game was only going to be released on the PS3. Fortunately for this 360 owner, it will be on both platforms. Phheeww! That was a close one. This game, and Dark Void seem to be the ones I am interested in most right now. Can’t wait to learn more. I’m digging the artistic styles of both these games. Enjoy the trailer thanks to That Video Game Blog. No, not that video game blog, ThatVideoGameBlog.com

RENDITION: GUANTANAMO – CROSSING A LINE?

Conservatives are fuming today and it’s all surrounding a new game announced that has to do with the politically-charged and extremely sensitive topic of Guantanamo detainees. Expect a huge media firestorm to erupt soon! If it doesn’t (or hasn’t already), then it makes absolutely no sense as to why Konami had to drop “Six Days in Fallujah” a few weeks ago, because this game looks, by far, more politically motivated.

When I first saw this trailer, I thought it was a joke. Then Rush Limbaugh had discussed it on his show today and posted a link to the trailer on his site. As you might have guessed, Rush is not the leading video game expert in the world (I honestly didn’t know he cared enough about video games to discuss them). However, he does make a point when he says the game “dishonors the sacrifice” our service men and women have made for our country, and the war on terror in general. I agree with him. He also says that the developer had said, “nobody gets killed or anything.” Well, the trailer doesn’t answer the question: Is the U.S. military the target? On another site, it says, “the object of the game is for the player to get the Guantanamo detainee out of the prison by shooting his way out.” So are these Americans being targeted in the game? The developers say no. But does that even matter when we all know who is running this real life controversial prison? We all know the U.S. is the real target, whether you substitute them for a made up “mercenary” force or not. When you say Guantanamo, you think of the U.S. (Americans are associated with that word forever now.)

I didn‘t feel this disgusted with Six Days to Fallujah because it was being told by the soldiers themselves and I looked at it as an important story they wanted to share with the world. A story about what really happened in one of the deadliest battles of the Iraq war. So when you create a game like this Guantanamo game, which the developers happen to be creating with the help of a former GitMo detainee, Moazzam Begg.. it makes you question their motives. Why? Why do you need to create this game? And more importantly, why are you involving a former “terrorist” who will stop at nothing to glorify his cause? This game is like a huge propaganda tool for their jihad. And of all companies to support this game, it’s to be released on the Xbox 360? Microsoft? Is this true? We all know from watching Hollywood movies, Pandora’s Box is better left un-opened.

We don’t really know much else about this game, other than the trailer above. It’s obviously taking a different unrealistic route by saying the detainee was sent to Guantanamo for scientific experiments, but why does it have to be Guantanamo? Why can’t it be Alcatraz or some fictional prison? Is this game being made specifically to make money off the explosive subject? (If so, what a surprise!) Negative press is still press right? But where is this money going? Is it going to terrorists? Or is it going to people who support the shutdown of Guantanamo? It seems I have more questions here than answers.

And what the hell is up with the music!? It seems like it’s stolen right out of a Clint Mansell’s classical song called “Lux Aeterna”. Just slightly altered. You can listen to it on his MySpace. It sounds very similar. Are developers really running out of ideas they have to resort to this uncreative game, and using other peoples songs to achieve the necessary hype to generate sales? Sad thing is, this may actually work.

I’m all for freedom of expression, freedom of speech.. some will even consider this art.. but when you cross a line… you cross a line. Kind of like that Japanese Rapelay game that got canned.. you just don’t go there! Even though the expert detainee they have received consultation from, claims his innocence, it’s still propaganda for the terrorists no matter what angle you look at it from. Whether they claim “No U.S. or British Soldiers will be killed” or not, we all know what the prison guards at Guantanamo represent. Congrats T-Enterprise, you’re doing a hell of a job spreading hate. Most likely on both sides.

Excuse me for turning my blog political but this one had to be discussed. Whether you agree with me or not, please comment and voice your opinion. There are thousands of men and women who sacrificed their lives so you can have the freedom to say what you want, so say it.

Is this game crossing a line? Would you buy it? Would you even want to play it?

UPDATE From GamePolitics.com:

In a statement, Microsoft said:
“We are unaware of this game and have not been contacted by this developer. As such, we don’t have enough details about the game to even comment about it.”

BIONIC COMMANDO DEMO IMPRESSIONS

Bionic Commando eh? Hmmm.. sure why not? I’ll check it out. But I doubt I’m going to like it. I predict that the controls will be frustratingly difficult and I will want to drop out of the multiplayer match after just a few minutes. That’s what I said to myself as I was about to start the Bionic Commando multiplayer demo. Well, I was kind of right, but I was also wrong.

First match was obviously just an experiment on how to move my guy around and how to kill any other guy that crosses my path. At first, I found the controls difficult but not actually frustrating. I could overhear other people talking (especially the guy with an amazing 10 kill lead already) saying to just give the game a few tries. On about the 5th time you play it, you should have the controls down and you should be seeing how much fun you can have. For me, the first match was not a shining moment in my life. With 0 kills and 8 deaths, let’s just say I did not do as well as I planned. Ahh forget it, I got pwned! Big time. But again, it was kind of predictable. If I ended up getting the most kills on my first try in a game I’ve never played before, you’d have to call me the Wizard. But the Wizard I am not. Or am I?

Second match I played was quite different than the first. I don’t know what happened to me but the game, the controls, the grappling hook and arm just connected. I started getting into a flow with this new game which felt like a mix of Lost Planet and Spiderman. (Yes, that is a good thing) Being able to swing from beam to beam, building to building was fun especially when you’re chasing after someone and shooting their direction at the same time. It gets crazy when you’re doing that and you have a guy right behind you trying to kill you and the guy I’m trying to kill. I can see some of the matches being a huge conga line of deaths with the guy coming up from behind having the advantage of getting most of the kills. A majority of the time, that guy behind me did indeed kill us both. Wish I knew how.

I found some of my deaths to be unexplainable. There must be a weapon or some type of button you can press that magically sends you flying off the top of buildings because it happened to me many times. It was almost like a shockwave that blew me over the edge and I think I’ll play it again tonight to try and figure out what the hell it was. I had a lot of trouble killing my enemies at first. But I finally found some of the weapons, armor and health spawn points and from then on, I whored ’em like I used to whore the rockets in Halo 2. (yea, that was me that kept killing you over and over again as well as the complimentary teabag) But for me, I finally caught up with the leader in kills by not using the weapons themselves, but by using my big ass arm. Hit your enemy once with your arm and it’s instant death. I can see this being a major complaint in multiplayer.

That’s probably not the best thing for this game. One hit kills in any game can get frustrating for the guy on the other end of my arm. Here this guy is, running and swinging all over the place, trying to shoot me or somehow toss me over the edge to my imminent death, and all I had to do was walk up to the guy and bitch slap his ass. Sure enough, it worked! Instant death. I soon found myself in the lead as I bitch slapped nearly every person in the match. In the end, I tied for first place with 9 kills. First match, 0 kills. Second match, 9 kills. I did not expect to catch onto this game that quickly. But I did, and I found it rewarding. If you see other demo impressions with a negative outlook on this game, it’s most likely because they did not get a chance to feel what it was like to win. Or to at least get more than one kill. I can see myself giving this demo a bad impression if each of my matches were exactly like my first. But it wasn’t, it was better than I had predicted.

When all said and done, I really liked this demo. However, it is probably one of the more shorter demos you will play this year. I think there is a reason behind that as I found myself wanting more. Even though you play on the same, small level each and every time. I wanted to keep playing on different levels and for longer periods, so to that extent, I think the developers were successful. The weapons could be a bit better as some felt extremely weak being shot in third person. And you don’t really aim all that much either. At least, you don’t have time to aim. (There is almost always someone respawning behind you so standing there aiming a sniper is not bright) When I first heard about this game, I didn’t know what to expect. After playing the demo, I can honestly say I was impressed with the ‘fun’ factor and I hope to have even more fun with the single player campaign when the game is released. As for multiplayer? I can see my friends and I playing this a lot if they give it a chance, but then again I thought my friends would be playing Left 4 Dead with me as well. So who knows? This demo is probably going to get a lot of mixed reactions but for me, from The Gamer Report, I definitely recommend you try this out. If you do, feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

To get another viewpoint (one that is opposite of mine)read another impression over at Ars Technica…

1 vs 100 IS SO CLOSE TO REALITY

I know we’ve heard about 1 vs 100 for a while now but the time for us all to take part in an online game show is almost upon us. This may be coming out with a whole new Spring update so I wonder what else will be in this new content? I really don’t know much about the game show 1 vs 100 itself other than knowing Bob Saget was the host of the TV version. From doing a quick Google search, it looks like the show was originally started in the Netherlands. The game pits one person, hopefully that’s you, against 100 and you’re asked a multiple choice question. The object of the game is to eliminate all 100 of your opponents by answering the questions correctly and you win real prizes. I think that’s how it goes, I have to admit I’ve never watched the show just for the fact that Bob Saget was the host. America’s Funniest Videos is still funny ’til this day, but once you’re part of something so classic as that show and Full House, you can’t get any better than that. It’s got to be hard to top two shows that were so memorable for so many people. But we’ll see what happens. For now, enjoy the new trailer of the Xbox 360 version of 1 vs 100. Oh, and this game is free for Xbox Live Gold members. Woo Hoo!

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: F.E.A.R. 2

So I will be the first to admit, I am a little hesitant in most cases to play a sequel of a game if I didn’t play the first one. In the case of the FEAR series I had to make an exception. The demo I played for the original FEAR was absolutely atrocious. I gave it about 5 minutes before it was deleted off of my hard drive. So time passed, a couple expansion packs were released and I was still not attracted to even a rental. I am not a total pessimist, I will usually download just about any demo and give it a chance. I started seeing ads for FEAR 2 frequently and my curiosity began to migrate towards that evil little girl. Alas came the day, the demo for FEAR 2 was released and into the active downloads it went. I fired up the demo, and all I can say is… WOW! I have not been impressed by a demo this much in quite some time. After playing the full version of the game in it’s entirety, the demo is even more amazing as it is a mix of 5 or so of the campaign levels rolled into one. It includes some of the cooler weapons in the game and even the awesome mech/battle suit! For anyone who has not already played this demo or even the full game, in the words of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger, “DO IT NOW!”

The gameplay has totally changed since the first FEAR. It feels almost identical to the Call of Duty engine.. The down the sights aiming is clean and smooth and the bullet time is a nice touch, although it did make the game feel a bit easy at times. This Max Payne style bullet time also transfers to the game’s turret and mech sections which is pretty awesome. Do yourself a favor and try and use it as little as possible, it will make the firefights more challenging and more immersive. The game also does an excellent job of backtracking to give noobs of the FEAR series like myself a bit of the background behind the story. While I won’t dive into the story too much in this review, I will say that it is both captivating and cool with nice little twists and turns and a really cool ending to boot. The game has it’s fair share of “OH SHIT” moments, and while it’s not terribly scary, it’s a good one to play with the lights off. There are some really nice touches as far as graphics go. While the textures and environments aren’t amazing, the lighting and spec maps look really nice, and the movement as far as running and aiming feel very realistic and controlled. I must say, this game has some of the best and most believable AI in any shooter I have played. Shoot an enemy in the leg and he will hobble and limp towards safety and flip over a table or hospital bed to take cover. The cover system isn’t revolutionary but you can interact with certain objects in the game to create cover. There are even some items that have a propane tank or gas can on them. Hit bullet time, flip the table over and the tank of flammable liquid will fly towards enemies allowing you to target it and detonate it with a well placed shot setting enemies on fire… good stuff! A nice touch that was added was the ability to perform some awesome running melees, even in bullet time. Running slide kicks and spinning back kicks will have you throwin‘ it down like Jean Claude Van Damme or Neo from The Matrix. These melee attacks transfer over to the multiplayer, but the bullet time does not.

The game has a few really well thought out moments. A couple that stick out to me would be the creepy and VERY bloody hospital levels, an abandoned high school and a really cool tram level where it feels like you are battling on the Monorail from Disneyland. Very similar tie-ins to Killzone 2 in this game. While I don’t know if the chicken or the egg came first here, I couldn’t help but feel like an employee might have left one of the projects and joined the other as there was so many similarities. From the nail gun to the look of a few of the enemies and the weapons and grenades, there is some striking resemblance. And onto my favorite part of the campaign, the mech!! Wow, few game developers have implemented a mech or battle suit well in quite a few years but FEAR 2 really hits the nail on the head. Zooming, thermal vision for seeing enemies through walls, dual heavy caliber machine guns, and rockets that look straight out of Robotech will have you decimating enemies and removing limbs in quite a satisfying fashion. I would have to say this was definitely my favorite part of the game and it never really seemed to get old.

Multiplayer was actually quite surprising for me. While I wasn’t expecting anything new or spectacular, I was really pleased with the way it played. Plenty of your standard modes available like Bomb Arm, Free-for-all, Deathmatch and even Blitz which is a clever take on Capture the Flag or as they call it, PHLAG, (PHosphoLuminescent AGents). The level designs are pretty darn good and a Call of Duty style leveling system is provided as EXP points are gained. The mode I found the most fun by far was Armored Front. In this playlist, each team gets a mech and it’s basically King of the Hill or Territories style control. It’s pretty cool advancing behind your mech and capturing territories. While there is nothing mind-blowing, or that has not been done before, it’s a pretty solid experience that’s sure to keep folks populating multiplayer for a while. Good stuff all around on this one guys and gals, and again if you haven’t at least played the demo, give it a go ASAP. Definitely one of my favorite games all around this year.

–DIGGITY OUT

HALO: LOVE IT OR HATE IT, IT’S STILL KING

The year: 2001. The town: Palm Desert, California. The store: Bestbuy. The mission: buy a Playstation 2. The outcome? Well, I can now claim that this day was the day that set off a chain of events that have made video games a very important part of my life, and hopefully a full fledged career. I’ve narrowed it down to this one day. Let me explain…

Gran Turismo in high school was my game of choice and the game all of my friends were playing. I was really into the import car racing scene in So. Cal and Gran Turismo was something all of us got into because we could relate to it. We challenged each other to see who could create the better car, who could beat who in a race. We would bet who would win, Imports vs Domestics. (Imports always won of course.) Anyway, this is the game I really wanted the most and the only way I could get my own instead of using my friends was to purchase a Playstation 2. So off to Bestbuy we go.

I was not prepared at all for the sales person on the floor at Bestbuy that day. I came in to buy a Playstation 2 and just like when I shop anywhere else, I wanted to get the hell out of there before I bought anything else, or sign up for a stupid Bestbuy credit card. (I did anyway, such a sucker!) But the damn guy wouldn’t let me buy the damn Playstation! I swear I could have been there for more than an hour with this sales guy trying to talk me into buying an Xbox. An Xbox? Why the hell would I want to buy an Xbox? I don’t even know what it is! So the guy explained.

I couldn’t comprehend why this random person was being so aggressive with this sale. I had money in my hands, I told him what I wanted and the fricken‘ dude refused. He said I needed to buy an Xbox because there were so many games being developed for it and the games were actually better than anything the PS2 had. Then he mentioned the one reason why I needed to walk out of that store, with an Xbox in my hands… Halo. That’s it. Just one word is all you need to know when purchasing the new Xbox. HALO.

So after a few moments (more like 30-40 minutes) of sitting down, contemplating my big game console purchase, and after the guy called me “stubborn” and “thick headed”, the guy actually won me over. I walked out with a console I did not want to buy when I walked into the store that day. How the hell did that happen?

Needless to say, I don’t regret my purchase. AT ALL. That day, that console, that game.. that’s where the addiction started for me. Little did I know back then, what doors would open for me later on in life based off of my love for games, and well.. Halo itself.

We’ve gone through the whole Halo trilogy now and I can definitely say there were some ups and downs along the way. Halo: Combat Evolved was a game I could never get bored with. CE didn’t even have online multiplayer and I was still addicted, playing the campaign over and over. As always, split screen made the game last longer as I could play with my buddy or my girlfriend. It wasn’t until a LAN party (didn’t know what a LAN party was back then) that I truly saw where Bungie was taking Halo multiplayer. The LAN party set up a big projector screen and we played, honestly.. until I was sick.

Then along comes Halo 2 and all hell broke loose. I spent so much time and energy on this game playing multiplayer online. Sometimes I would get so into it, I would become a different person. If any ladies are reading this, please write this down. DO NOT try to have a conversation with your guy friend, boyfriend, fiance, husband… whatever, while he is playing Halo online with his friends. The testosterone levels are sky high and remember on many occasions, snapping at my girlfriend when she dared to interrupt me as I’m trying to “no-scope noobs“. Long story short, it got to a point where I needed to walk away from the game and pay more attention to other important matters in my life. But isn’t that crazy? How can a game do this to people? I guess I understand more why some dude at a Korean internet cafe can die from exhaustion by playing StarCraft or World of Warcraft for hours on end. This game really grabbed a hold of me but I was fortunate enough to realize this and adjust my attitude accordingly.

Finally, Halo 3 approached release day while I was up in Canada. I walked the streets of Downtown Vancouver around 11pm to wait in line at EB Games for my first ever Midnight Launch. I had already experienced the beta thanks to an awesome game called Crackdown. Playing the 3 maps they had released for the beta was more than enough proof I needed to warrant yet another Halo purchase. I knew more good times were ahead as evident in this old beta footage I’ve posted below. This video was recorded on a small camera while sitting in front of my TV so I apologize for the quality, however I hope you enjoy what happens in the video.

Halo 3 is a great game. No doubt about it. I find myself playing H3 in phases though. A lot of my friends got sick of it. Got sick of the cheating, bridging, lagging, standbying.. all of those “ing” words that people accuse other players of. So once my friends get sick of it, I do as well. If I don’t have my friends to play Halo 3 with online, I’m not going to play it by myself. I need to know I have a decent team to back me up because let’s face it, guys don’t like to lose. We play games because it’s challenging and when we lose, we get pissed. (no not drunk pissed, angry pissed.. although now that I think about it, some might get pissed drunk as well, to each his own)

As reported by Major Nelson the other day, Halo 3 is King of Xbox Live… again. (Halo 3 and Halo 2 on the original Xbox) It seems people do what I do; we go through phases of playing other games besides Halo 3, but once you’re finished with that game, (which is usually pretty quick for those of us with mild to severe A.D.D.) we always fall back on Halo 3 to get our FPS fix. So whether you hate Halo or not, there’s no argument that can be made to reduce the importance and the influence Halo has had on me, the Xbox, Microsoft and online gaming. Unless your argument of course is, ” I stopped playing because Bungie fixed the rocket/sword flying in Halo 2″. Then I would say you have an argument. Why the hell did they take that out anyway? That was so much fun! Bring it back Bungie! That was the one glitch worth turning into an actual playlist. haha.. could you imagine scrolling down the Halo 3 playlists.. Team Slayer, Team Skirmish, Team rocket-sword lunge flying glitch playground. Who knows, maybe Bungie is listening. With or without that, Halo is still King. Will there ever be a Halo killer? There have been many games that claim to be the next Halo killer, but none have really succeeded, and I doubt they ever will. Leave your comments below and let me know your thoughts.

THE GAMER REPORT REVIEW: AFRO SAMURAI

I’ve been wanting to include game reviews in The Gamer Report blog since I started doing this, but I have a huge problem with finishing games. I’ll play ’em, but not enough to write a review. So this is where my buddy Dane, aka Diggity, comes in. If anyone can take apart a video game and give a decent, honest review, it’s him. I met Diggity while playing Halo 2 online about 4 years ago and come to find out, he lived right down the street from me and was having Friday night LAN parties every week. He is one of the few people I can talk about games with and be at the same level of understanding about gaming and the game industry. I trust from his many years of gaming and the many times he tried talking to me about games I’ve never heard of that he would do a much better job than I would. I think you’ll agree I made the right choice. So here it is, The Gamer Report’s first of hopefully many game reviews.

It’s a rare occasion that I take the chance to play a game that basically received next to no advertisement at all. As a huge fan of the Afro Samurai anime series, I was stoked to be a able to find a copy of the game at Blockbuster, as I did not even know the game was released yet! Afro Samurai was a great series. It was one of the first anime series I have watched that felt very Americanized, unlike most other anime that is very artistic, deep and symbolic. The artistic beauty was definitely there, but this series was all about battles and bloodshed, with a touch of hip hop culture thrown in al la Champloo. It was these characteristics that made me really enjoy this game even though it was flawed in many areas.

Afro Samurai is a game that is full of positives and negatives. Before going into the positives and negatives of this adventure, I would first like to recommend anyone interested in playing this game to do themselves a huge favor and catch up on the anime series before diving into the video game. Not only is the story told very similar, but familiarizing yourself with the style and direction of the story will help you to enjoy the story that much more. Onto the review, lets start with the positives, as they far out-weigh the negatives. This hack and slash button masher will leave your thumbs numb and your neck sore from bobbing your head to the awesome soundtrack inspired by RZA of the infamous Wu Tang Clan. This game is definitely worthy of the mature rating as it is filled with violence, swearing and even the occasional breast or two.

Afro Samurai is a hack-n-slash through and through, which plays most similar to games like the Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry titles. It features deep combos and a very artsy style that somehow makes something as simple as a sword slicing through the air beautiful. That said, the art direction in this game is brilliant. The graphics won’t wow anybody, but you can’t help but be fascinated with the cell-shaded style of Afro. Short cut scenes play out well throughout the game that help to enhance the mood and story well. Again, if you haven’t seen the anime series, some of the ideas and principles may be a bit confusing or new to the average gamer.

You will do quite a bit of slicing in this game, as there is multiple enemies on the screen at almost all times of the game which can be decimated very graphically as Afro advances through the somewhat simple maps. Arms can be severed, feet cut off, heads lopped and even the rare but awesome slice between the eyes, which leaves a foe split as each half slowly falls to the ground. Call me a lover of violence, but something about a game with a lot of violence just feels more immersive to me. Afro does not skimp in the violence department at all. Pin-point accuracy is delivered through a “Focus Mode” that acts as a slow motion, to allow Afro to aim his slash vertically or horizontally via a line across the enemies body to slash and remove the body part of your choice. It makes for a cool addition to the repetitive and continuous hacking and slashing, and the animations and variety of ways to chop up your foes keeps the fighting exciting. Woah that rhymed! The combo chain ends up getting pretty deep, but you can advance through most of the game by simply mashing combinations of the light and heavy attacks. When you do pull off some of the deeper combos, (especially after leveling up), the animations can be pretty spectacular as well as the names of each combo.

My favorite upside of this game by far was the soundtrack. While it may not be a Marty O-Donnell orchestral masterpiece like Halo, RZA did not disappoint on this one. As a long time hip-hop fan and follower of both RZA and Wu Tang, I found myself cranking up the volume several times during game play. This soundtrack oozes with brilliance from smooth Japanese inspired instrumentals to the occasional Afro-inspired lyrics. This game is a must play for both hip hop fans and music fans alike. To go along with the incredible music and soundtrack, the voice over work by Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Perlman is top notch and somehow adds to the ambiance. While I won’t spoil anything, I will say that Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of the witty and comical Ninja Ninja made me laugh quite a bit in this game. I found this game to be one of the funniest video games I have ever played.

With all the upsides of this game, and as much fun as I had fun playing it, there was definitely some issues that were frustrating to say the least. First and foremost, let’s talk about the camera set up. There were plenty of times where the camera was just not in the right place at the right time. While you can center the camera behind Afro with the click of the right thumb stick, it just does not feel right. Another frustrating element is that the camera is inverted as far as left to right control goes. While you can switch the vertical axis to non-inverted, there is no option to change the left to right inversion. I have to say, by mid-game I did get the hang of it, but it was almost ruining the experience to begin with for me personally. I actually got so used to the right goes left, left goes right control that I found myself continuing to do it while playing Gears of War after beating the game!

Another issue I found frustrating, was the lack of a UI. While leveling up several times during the game, I never actually knew what I was leveling up. While the press of the back button will show you the various combos and focus moves, you never actually find out what exactly has leveled up. My advice to anyone playing this game is to check the combos and attacks at the start of the game, and then periodically as you start to level up. Another issue that was strange was that there is no in-game option. Don’t like the way the camera is set up? Well, you will have to quit your game and change the options from the main menu. Although it’s not a huge downside, many might find it a bit frustrating.

While the game is filled with awesome hack and slash action, it tends to try and lend itself to the platforming genre in a poor fashion. There are parts of the game revolving around Prince of Persia style platforming, (wall running, pole swinging and the like) but they are executed poorly both strategically and as far as controls go. Running on walls feels clunky, wall bounces and pole swinging just aren’t dynamic, making the platforming element just lack a certain stickiness that feels like it should be there. Navigating the game was pretty straightforward for the most part, but a few parts with backtracking got a bit confusing as your only option for a map or objective direction consists of a somewhat broken mechanic. A press of the D-Pad pops up Ninja Ninja in a puff of smoke in the direction you are supposed to go, however, because of the horrible camera, he is often gone before you can spin around to see just where you are supposed to go. Again, not a huge issue here but frustrating at times.

All in all I had a great time slashing my way through Afro Samurai. The game does keep some cool statistics, (with even the amount of gallons of blood spilled) but again, they are only accessible from the main menu. Achievement hunters should easily find their way pretty close to 700 achievement points without a problem. A couple boss fights were pretty tough as the game progressed and the lack of even a hint of what strategy to employ made a few of them seem a bit off-pace as far as progression goes. This game is a must for hack and slash or anime fans despite it’s minor flaws. Kick back, turn up the volume and get ready to remove some body parts!

–DIGGITY

XBOX WARRIOR REVOLUTION

Very interesting story over at GamePolitics.com about a young gamer who turned into a soldier by using the skills he developed while playing on his Xbox. The 19 year old kid was a high school drop out and wanted to be a helicopter mechanic to make his father proud. Well, he didn’t quite qualify for that kind of career but he sure qualified to be a drone pilot. Flying a pilotless aircraft about 7,000 miles away, surveying the dangerous terrain and dropping hellfire missiles when necessary. The long hours on the Xbox helped develop skills that naturally trained him to be a drone pilot. In fact, he is one of the best!

I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. But when I think about it, if I was asked if I could be a drone pilot just going off my experience with playing video games, I feel really confident that I could do it. I have an older post about robots going into the heat of the battle being controlled by a Wiimote, check it out: Future Wars to be fought by Wiibots?

It’s amazing that this is the world we live in now. This is reality. Robots are taking over the world! haha, I almost couldn’t type that.. I’m just messin‘. But seriously, the reality is now that soldiers are a completely different breed of men. Most of these drone pilots aren’t even overseas with everyone else. They drive into work each day, drop some bombs and patrol the skies over enemy territory for like 8-12 hours and then head home to their families just like you and I would do. Minus the dropping bombs part of course.

So what the hell? Are we heading towards an iRobot society? Are machines going to take over and become cleverer than humans like Google and Nasa believe? Or are we cool because we’ll be controlling them with Xbox 360 and Wii Controllers and we can just turn them off if they get all Terminator on our asses? In any case, I hope Arnold Schwarzenegger is around when it happens.

Read more at GamePolitics.com…
See interview with P.W. Singer, author of Wired for War…

PRODUCT REVIEW: XBOX 360 MESSENGER KIT

I don’t know about you but sometimes when I am online and I want to send a friend a message, I just don’t feel like sending a voice message. (call me lazy) Especially if the message isn’t even that important, then I’ll just send a text message. I send text messages on my cell phone all the time anyway so it’s kind of natural to do the same online. The problem is, just like on my cell, the process of sending a text message is tedious and time consuming.

So I bought the Xbox 360 Messenger Kit and tried it out. At first I thought it would be a bit obtrusive but it really fits nicely. It adds a bit of weight to it which I’m not sure if I like just yet. It doesn’t get in the way of the buttons though so you can keep it on while you play. The functionality of the Messenger itself is spot on. I thought some of the letters and characters would be confusing to figure out but the way this is set up is straight forward and simple. The Messenger includes the QWERTY keyboard layout and is similar to what you would see when typing a message on Xbox Live. For characters (?,!#&), they’ve included two different colored keys, (green and orange) and each character is associated with either one of those colors, again very simple. Best part is, the keys light up when you press them so it’s really nice if you’re in a dimly lit room. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the kit also comes with a headset. Unfortunately, it’s the headset that has the mute button on the wire so if you’re not a fan of that, then you probably don’t care. But hey, free headset! I’ll take it.

So the question is, is this product worth it? Well, the main reason I bought it was because it was too time consuming to type a long, sometimes irrelevant, question or comment to a friend. The Messenger resolves that issue and makes texting online more convenient. If it’s simple convenience you’re looking for, then this is something you should invest in. You can send a text message while you’re playing your favorite game, you can send one while you’re watching a movie or you could send an IM to a friend on a PC using Windows Messenger. It comes in handy. It also takes less time than typing it online so.. this purchase, for me, was warranted. If you don’t really send text messages that often, well then don’t bother buying this! It would totally be a waste of money for you. You’re better off spending your money on Barbie Horse Adventures and don’t act like you’ve never heard of that game.

Xbox 360 Messenger Kit retails for $29.99