News, Video, Video Games, technology
AR.Drone: $300 Spy Chopper Flies From iPhone Or iPad (VIDEO)
Travis Walter Donovan :: Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 9:10 pm
Available in September, Parrot’s AR.Drone is a wifi quadricopter equipped with two cameras that can be controlled from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Now you, too, can terrorize innocent civilians with a predator drone, just like your government.
The $300 device is paving the way in “augmented reality” video games, as interfaces will overlay the display screen, allowing pilots to virtually blast digital enemies, or even combat other AR.Drones, while flying in real physical spaces. MORE »
Pop Culture, Video Games
Slash’s Guitar Hero Rip-Off App
Nick Nicoludis :: Thursday, June 10th, 2010 4:30 pm
Right now there are a handful of iPhone apps connected to different musicians and bands. Both Wilco and Death Cab For Cutie provide streaming music, and an app put out by guitar-god Santana offers guitar lessons for fans. Not wanting to be left out of the app store and the money generated by useless guitar games, Slash has created his own iPhone game eerily similar to Guitar Hero. See a screenshot comparison after the jump. MORE »
Reviews, Video Games
Review: Alan Wake - ‘Cos This is Thriller
Daniel Casarella :: Monday, May 24th, 2010 10:34 am
Dark shadows have a way of hiding the truth. For a game as moody and dark as Remedy’s Alan Wake, this could be more the case about the game rather than its proposed story. Alan Wake was announced over two years ago and has been long rumored as Microsoft’s big psychological thriller. Many considered the game’s rich vistas and non-linear plot style a direct competitor to Sony’s thriller Heavy Rain. However Alan Wake doesn’t quite break through to the other side. It plays fine and in many ways is quite competent but it will never escape the shadows of its hype, which is unfortunate because if you take away all preconceived notions, the game is very good. It’s funny how the mind can play tricks on you.
Reviews, Video Games
Review: Final Fantasy XIII - A Bustle in Your Hedgerow
Daniel Casarella :: Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 4:36 pm
You know how “Stairway to Heaven” builds slowly and then finally ruptures at around 4:20? It’s a great moment and you get swept away with in the ascending momentum of the song. Final Fantasy XIII, like the Zeppelin song, makes you earn your nut. For instance, the game starts you out in the fine tradition of a simple and new battle system. As you progress hour by hour this battle system gets amended and deepens. It’s a great way to make you master each layer of the complex system before you move on. I’ve also heard complaints that the game starts out too linear and doesn’t open up a vast overworld for you to explore right away. Rest assured it does, just not immediately. Final Fantasy XIII builds momentum steadily as long as you can get into the initial groove. Its about earning your quest, not receiving it from the onset.
News, Video Games
Green Day: Rock Band Announced for June Release
Johnny Sanford :: Thursday, March 11th, 2010 1:25 pm
The songs of Green Day will finally be remembered in the form of Video Gaming on June 8th, 2010. Players will have the chance to put on the shoes of Billy Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt and wail away at tracks like “Brain Stew,” “Jaded,” “Hitchin’ a Ride,” “American Idiot,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” along with 41 other tracks. Like Beatles: Rock Band, players will also get to harmonize vocals and play drums and bass with the tracks as well. All across the country, millions of prepubescent teenagers are begging their moms for an advance on their allowance to scrape together enough money to preorder a copy in order to one-up their friends. MORE »
Reviews, Video Games
Review: Bioshock 2 - Déjà Vu of a Wet Dream
Daniel Casarella :: Saturday, February 13th, 2010 5:28 pm
I think everyone’s a bit skeptical when it comes to sequels now-a-days. We’ve all been fooled so many times by promise and fancy-pants marketing schemes that we are reluctant to believe part II can be any good. This is the way I saw Bioshock 2 being developed. You want more Bioshock? Let’s cram in an alternative antagonist, add Modern Warfare-esque multiplayer system and replace Big Daddies with Big Sisters . Why 2K Marin thought the name Big Sister sounded as ambiguously imposing as Big Daddy once did is beyond me. For that matter, how Bioshock 2 turned out to be pretty darn good also escapes me.
Video Games
Review: Mass Effect 2
Daniel Casarella :: Thursday, February 4th, 2010 1:39 pm
Here’s the problem; Everyone is talking about how Mass Effect 2 is so great. Like the iPad it’s reputation literally preceded its arrival. Take it from me, Mass Effect 2 is a decent game. It may be introducing a lot of novice role-playing-gamers to the genre and that could be why it’s being so celebrated but for veteran RPG fans, this is a light and sometimes boring affair.
Video Games
Immersed in BioShock 2
Daniel Casarella :: Thursday, January 28th, 2010 8:34 pm
One of the most interesting things about the game Bioshock was that it took everyone who played it into a world they’d never seen before. An underwater former utopia built half a century ago and left to rot in the Atlantic Ocean. On February 9th 2010, BioShock 2 arrives on U.S. shores and I’ve had the unique pleasure of playing the ‘Shock and chewing the fat with the game’s creative director at 2K Marin, Jordan Thomas. His perspective on the game’s development and what it takes to make the sequel as beloved as the original is submerged in BioShock 2’s ability to send you back to the once lost city of Rapture. MORE »
News, Video Games
Bayonetta Review: Bad-Ass
Daniel Casarella :: Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 4:02 pm
So about 10 years ago this guy named Hideki Kamiya claims to have reinvented the Castlevania style game of the generation yore with Devil May Cry. He actually did, and along came armies of clones, God of War being the most notable. Now he’s back with Bayonetta. The game is much like Devil May Cry on the surface, but it’s soon apparent that this time, Kamiya-san has turned it up to eleven. Here instead of fighting demons you’ll play as the last of the Umbra Witches fighting against armies of angels from Heaven. Yeah, you read that right. You fight God and the legions from Paradise. Sounds fresh right? Well that’s just the beginning.
Video Games
Rockstar Dates Red Dead Redemption
Daniel Casarella :: Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 3:18 pm
Rockstar Games has finally nailed a date to the wall for it’s big-time western sequel, Red Dead Redemption. On April 27th, 2010 we finally get our six-shooters back. The sequel to 2004′s Red Dead Revolver has been a traveling rumor for years. It was known that the open-world western would be using the Euphoria engine from Grand theft Auto IV and would take many of it’s stylistic cues from movies like Nick Cave’s Proposition, The Wild Bunch, and 3:10 to Yuma. Those traveling rumors are all but confirmed with this new trailer. Take a gander at Red Dead’s new dude. His name is John Marston and he looks dirty.
Video Games
Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition
Daniel Casarella :: Thursday, November 12th, 2009 5:40 pm
GODDAMMIT! Doesn’t anybody give a shit about the rules anymore?! I didn’t watch my buddies die face down in the mud so some fucking digital nobody could just hide in the bushes the whole match and shoot me! Yep, I’ve been playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 all week and I want to tear my eyes out. I’m a veteran of this franchise which saw its newest and most notable release on Tuesday, Nov. 10th. Modern Warfare 2 (which is rated M for MADNESS) is pretty much everything you’d expect it to be. This is a double edged sword. While the first Modern Warfare blew minds for a myriad of reasons, the second can’t really snipe your expectations in the same way. So what it does is walk the straight and narrow and it does that very, very well.
Video Games
Review: Grand Theft Auto - Episodes from Liberty City
Daniel Casarella :: Thursday, November 5th, 2009 1:15 pm
I’m not going to lie. I run several night clubs owned by Anthony Prince. He can be a bit of a pansy but I’ve made many connections and a lot of paper cleaning up after the guy. You should come to one of my clubs. Depending on the night, I might be working the door or working the floor. Catch me on an off night and I might just have to put you in a box. I’ve also been known to do favors for some very powerful people you know. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not the best hitman-driver-pilot-bodyguard-dancer-base jumper, but I can do all those things and I can make them look like fun. My name is Luis Lopez, and you can find me in The Ballad of Gay Tony, the second of two episodes found on the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City experience.
Video Games
Review: Forza Motorsport 3
Daniel Casarella :: Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 1:26 pm
I don’t usually play a lot of racing simulators. That is, games in the Forza or Gran Turismo series. The gameplay tends to be dry and overly nuanced, you never get to start the game with any of the cars you want, and quite frankly the sheer size of these racing sims can be overwhelming at times. So when Forza Motorsport 3 arrived I naturally shivered at the thought of having to play through 50 lap races on an oval course with a fucking Subaru hatchback. Like most guys, I can admit when I am wrong. I misjudged this one, seriously. Forza 3 is hard not to like.
Video Games
Brütal Legend Will Melt Your Face!
Daniel Casarella :: Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 1:35 pm
Brütal Legend has finally arrived. This is an experience conceived by Tim Schafer and Jack Black as a homage to Heavy Metal mythology and comedy. The Legend survives a storm of controversy over publishing rights and the casting of Metal God cameos. Jack Black stars as Eddie Riggs, the best roadie that ever lived. One day while Eddie is performing his duty to the stage, he is struck with an accident that knocks him into the land of Metal. Get ready to romp in an open-world tribute to classic Heavy Metal album covers. Praise Ormagöden, The Fire Beast, Cremator of the Sky, and Destroyer of the Ancient World!
Video Games
Shadow Complex takes you back to Old School
Daniel Casarella :: Sunday, October 11th, 2009 7:01 pm
Shadow Complex is a game built by Metroid fans. Metroid was first released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. So can a modern game, using the brawn of Epic’s Unreal Engine, really capture the magic of Nintendo’s 2-Dimensional platforming adventure? Will traditional audiences accept this homage as such? Or is Shadow Complex just standing in the shadow of the big N?
