Category Archives: GAMING

GAMING

Call of Duty: Escalation (Starring Trejo, Rooker, George A. Romero, Freddy Kruger, & Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

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Call of Duty – Three words almost universally despised by wives and girlfriends everywhere. Well ladies, things are about to get worse. If it seems your man has been picking the controller up less frequently as of late, I hope you enjoy it while it lasts. Coming May 3rd is the newest expansion for the latest Call of Duty game, Black Ops. This is the second such expansion released for the game, as First Strike is almost 3 months old already. I know a few people I play online with still haven’t bought the First Strike expansion, but personally I’m happy I did, as ‘Discovery’ has become my favorite map in the game. The new add-on is called Escalation.

Here is a quick synopsis:

As indicated by the retailer leak, the DLC will include four multiplayer maps: Hotel, set “on the roof of a Cuban luxury hotel and casino against the vivid backdrop of old Havana”; Convoy, which offers up “intense, close-quarters combat at the scene of an ambushed US military convoy”; Zoo, set in a derelict Soviet-era animal park; and Stockpile, which is set in a small Russian town that contains secret facilities housing weapons of mass destruction.

Also included in the Escalation pack is a new level for Black Ops’ zombie mode. Today’s announcement gave no details on the mode, other than that it will provide a “unique Zombies experience.” However, the previous retailer leak referred to the level as “Call of the Dead.”

Ok, so new maps are always nice, but what’s really grabbing me here is the “Call of the Dead” aspect of the game. Long has the Zombie section of the game been a favorite of mine, and it is in fact the reason I bought both Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops. And while it was fun, it was obviously never a real focus for the designers. That’s about to change. Here is the trailer for the ‘Call of the Dead’ section of the expansion…

As our esteemed Technical Editor likes to say: Holy crap.

Not bad at all. Here are 4 luminaries in the Horror/Sci-Fi genre, brought together to voice characters not for a full game, but just a downloadable expansion to the game. That is throwing your budget around. Just look at this cast:

– Michael Rooker made his name with a lot of geeks in Mallrats, however was already established in the horror community for a decade prior with the title role in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. And for the Zombie connection – he was in the first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

– Danny Trejo is one Mexican you don’t want to f–k with, or so he told us in Machete. Machete was of course a spin-off of Grindhouse, and Trejo has been in such classics as Maniac Cop 2, the From Dusk Till Dawn trilogy, and Rob Zombie remake of Halloween.

– Sarah Michelle Gellar is of course best known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but has also appeared in horror movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Grudge and Scream 2.

– Robert Englund has played Freddy Kruger over 50 times between the Nightmare on Elm Street movies and the TV show they inspired. Plus he has been in other movies like Wishmaster, Urban Legend, 2001 Maniacs, and Zombie Strippers! He is a horror icon.

And all of them helmed by the man most synonymous with Zombies – George A. Romero. If you somehow don’t know who Romero is…well, you’re just not a zombie fan. He is responsible for Night of the Living Dead and all of it’s seemingly thousands of sequels.


I’ll admit, on the last map pack download, I didn’t spend a ton of time on the Zombie stage, but this time around…I plan to.

GAMING

DIABLO III: Over a Decade in the Making

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On June 28, 2008, BLIZZARD, creators of such popular games as Starcraft and World of Warcraft, announced the making of the third game in the Diablo series – Diablo III. Diablo was an action RPG, and is strictly made for the PC. Although there has not been a Diablo game released in over a decade, this next one looks promising.

GAMEPLAY: Diablo III is said to play much like Diablo II in a lot of ways. You will see your game from an overhead view via 3D environment.  Just like Diablo II, Battle.net will be used by online co-operative players, who will now be able to drop in and out of sessions. This game is also guaranteed to have replay value! It features a random level generator, a random encounter generator, and class-specific quests to go along with the main storyline quests. Something I read about that I found very interesting is that there will be no more potion bar. Instead, health orbs will fall from enemies, which leaves room for a skill bar where the old potion bar was. PvP combat is implemented to enhance single player and cooperative modes. There are different game modes you can play in, one being ranked games, or “best of”. You will earn a certain amount of points per match based on how many kills you have, achieved objectives, etc. The points will get you multiplayer achievements and titles.

Continue reading DIABLO III: Over a Decade in the Making →

GAMING

‘Mortal Kombat’ Franchise Launches Both Show and a 9th Game

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Guest Writer, from Books N’ Such: Nathan Troy

Last June Kevin Tacharoen released Mortal Kombat: Rebirth on YouTube. Initially there was some confusion as to whether or not it was a marketing ploy designed to promote a new film or video game. Turns out the short film was actually made to sell Warner Bros. on his vision for a re-imagined Mortal Kombat movie.

‘Rebirth’ blew up on YouTube leaving many fans wondering when they would see this fresh take on one of the most popular fighting game franchises in theaters.

Well, it may not be that far away. Warner Bros. has hired director Tancharoen to produce ten web episodes of Mortal Kombat which may lead the way for a new movie. The web series will be based on Tancharoens short film Rebirth, but it will expand on the idea by adding some of the more familiar fantasy elements found in the video game series.

The series will be released April 12th on the Machinima YouTube Channel.

The following week on April 19th the new Mortal Kombat video game will be released for the XBOX 360 and PS3.

Personally Mortal Kombat was one of my favorite games growing up. I use to play it all the time on my Sega Game Gear.

Now for those of you not in the know, Mortal Kombat was originally going to be a game based on Jean-Claude Van Damme. However that idea fell through and the Mortal Kombat we all know and love was born. The creators did end up basing the character Johnny Cage on Jean-Claude Van Damme though.

The original Mortal Kombat video game debuted in 1992 and has since spawned eight sequels to date. GamePro has stated that Mortal Kombat II was:

“Arguably the best Western fighting game to date, and certainly the title that defined Mortal Kombat as a brand, this game launched a thousand imitators en route to becoming one of the most famous — and infamous — video games ever made. Its technical and artistic mastery is only matched by its gushing gore.”

It is because of Mortal Kombat and the massive amount of gore and death that we now have the ESRB to tell us if a game is safe for children to play.

So allow me to say that I for one was very excited to see that with the ninth installment of the series, Mortal Kombat has gone back to its 2D fighter roots. But the characters will still be rendered in 3D giving the game a 2.5D appearance.

It has been announced that there will be various game modes including Online Mode, the Tag team fighting mode, the Challenge Tower and a Fatality Training mode. A four player tag team feature will be completely new to the franchise allowing two players to team up and assist each other in tag team matches. To date twenty six playable characters have been revealed, along with two characters available for DLC.

GAMING

Serena Williams ‘Topspin 4’ Ad – Too sexy for TV?

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Yesterday I was perusing a colleague’s blog and noticed a video she had posted that was simply titled “Top Spin 4“. It had a screen shot of an attractive woman’s behind with the play button overlaying it. Me being a typical guy instantly clicked the video to watch. (What guy wouldn’t?)

It took me a minute to realize the woman starring in it was Serena Williams, because I’ve never thought she was very attractive to begin with; or maybe that was her sister Venus. Either way Serena was looking good in this now controversial video, so take a minute to check it out. Seriously though, the video is one minute long:

Here is Yahoo Sport’s take on it:

The 60-second spot for “Top Spin 4” features a scantily-clad Serena playing the new video game against an actress wearing even less clothing. The matchup is billed as “the world’s sexiest tennis player” against “the world’s sexiest tennis gamer.” There are shots of nearly bare bottoms, unseemly facial expressions and lots of cleavage, accompanied by a thumping techno beat and suggestive moaning. At the end of the ad, Williams asks breathily, “You realize this is a fantasy, right?”

Was the video super sexy? Yes. Was I offended by anything in it? No. Was their outrage over this commercial? Apparently there was, but that depends on your point of view. I’m not sure who out there was complaining about it, or who deemed it too sexy, but I would assume a lot of women see it as objectifying them. There were probably groups with no stake in it complaining like the NAACP or the NRA. Maybe PETA was offended by the leather booty shorts she was wearing, or that her fishnet stockings were offensive to fish.

I did enjoy the irony of the ‘E for Everyone’ rating that showed up before the sex charged commercial.

2k sports has come out to say:

“As part of the process for creating marketing campaigns to support our titles, we pursue a variety of creative avenues, this video is not part of the title’s final marketing campaign and its distribution was unauthorized.”

But one has to wonder if that’s the truth. A lot of time and money obviously went into making the commercial, and it looked pretty final to me. Even amidst the flurry of “outrage” Serena Williams has twittered how she is proud of the video, and how it turned out. I say more power to her.

I can’t figure out why people in this great country of ours get so offended by things like this. If it was Derek Jeter swinging a bat in his underwear and grunting suggestively, would there be an uproar? (Hoepfully that never happens.) What was 2k sports going for with this ad? Was it intended to be leaked like some sort of celebrity sex tape to garner a viral buzz about their new tennis game? Maybe, and if it was then mission accomplished. What the hell, I might even watch a little tennis this summer.

And by the way, Serena Williams is not the sexiest tennis player in the world. This is:

Caroline Wozniacki

Sincere apologies if this offended or outraged anyone. I apologize you have a stick up your ass.
GAMING

The Return of Resident Evil 4 & Code Veronica

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I really feel like playing Resident Evil 4 sometimes, but I don’t because hooking up my relic of a Gamecube is too much of a hassle, and I don’t own a Nintendo Wii. And if I want to play Code Veronica, forget about it, the last copy I have of that is on the Sega Dreamcast, and there is no way that sucker is going to work. But now, people like me can now breathe a sigh of relief…then inhale and let out a ‘Howard Dean-esque’ Yell of Joy!

According to IGN, both of these chapters in the Resident Evil zombie fest are returning to us via X-Box Live and the Playstation Network this fall.

And not only are they being re-released to us, but they will be getting an HD and visual overhaul. So yes… double awesome.

I can hardly wait for these games to be available again, though I will have to wait (in great anticipation) to see if they release a revamped Resident Evil 1 or Resident Evil: Zero to us in the near future.

But that’s not all, fans of Resident Evil have plenty in development to look forward to. Along with the revamped games coming up for download, Resident Evil: Damnation is to be released next year, which is a sequel to the computer animated Resident Evil: Degeneration.

Also Milla Jovovich and Sienna Guillory will return in 2012 as Alice and Jill Valentine respectively for the fifth Resident Evil movie.

The next big question then becomes: Where is the Resident Evil 6 game?

GAMING

Gratuitous Batman Updates: Arkham City, Dark Knight Rises, & the Comics…

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VIDEO GAME
We got all sorts of stuff here. Let’s start with the game. The other day I did a write up on the upcoming Arkham City game. In said article I mentioned how the Riddler’s clues were now gonna be more…involved. Well it seems like the man himself will be more involved as well. Unlike the first game it seem like Riddler will actually appear in this one, not just his voice.

Riddler
Rocksteady Marketing Game Manager Dax Ginn: The Riddler experience is not part of the main story, but you can see how much work we put into it. It seems to do them a disservice to call them ‘side missions,’ because we take them really, really seriously.

Continue reading Gratuitous Batman Updates: Arkham City, Dark Knight Rises, & the Comics… →