Review – Borderlands (360)
How Rock Band has affected how I listen to music
Rock Band 2
(EDIT 12/9/2009: This article was featured on Bitmob at http://bitmob.com/index.php/mobfeed/how-rock-band-has-affected-how-i-listen-to-music.html )
I am a huge fan of Rock Band. I play it almost daily, but not as a social function like many who play the game; for me, it’s a solitary experience that I find both relaxing and stress relieving. I do some of my best thinking with a plastic fake guitar in my hands.
It was during one particularly long session of Rock Band late into the night that I came to a pretty shocking realization: not only have I not purposely listened to music outside of the various music rhythm video games for several months, I also hadn’t even realized this fact until that moment.
Rock Band and its ilk have completely changed how I purchase, consume, and think about music.
Review: Braid (PC)
Does the world need another 2D platformer? Yes.
When Braid was released last year on Xbox Live Arcade, the game was met with both critical and commercial success and propelled developer Jonathan Blow into celebrity status in the enthusiast press. The game certainly deserves the attention it has received; Blow manages to inject originality into a stale genre nearly as old as the medium itself. Read more…
Review: Star Ocean: The Last Hope (360)
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
I should make it clear that Star Ocean: The Last Hope is not entirely a bad game. I enjoyed the game enough to play through the entire 30 hour adventure in a week, despite the glaring balance and design issues that plague the experience. Unfortunately for Star Ocean fans, by no means is it a return to the series’ glory during the PlayStation’s reign. The Last Hope is ultimately flawed and forgettable, but manages to be a decent Japanese role playing game for those who want to stab some monsters.
Oh yeah, it takes place in space in the near future. It has to be kind of interesting, right?
Mild spoilers after the jump.
Sony’s Next Move
The PlayStation 3 is in trouble.
According to the January NPD sales numbers, sales of the PS3 fell nearly 25% compared to last year’s January numbers. The system’s only game to crack the top 30 in software sales was Call of Duty: World at War, moving a tepid 108,000 copies. To add insult to injury for Sony, the profitable PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable were also both down compared to last January. In comparison, both Microsoft and Nintendo managed to not only completely dominate the software sales chart, but also saw large year over year increases in hardware numbers.
In summary, the expensive-to-manufacture $399 PS3 (which is $200 more than the cheapest competitor yet still most certainly losing money) is languishing in both hardware and software sales during a global depression while the only hardware SKUs actually making a profit for Sony are also suffering.
It isn’t looking good for Sony right now. The kneejerk reaction to this situation would be to slash the price of the PS3 immediately and hope to regain worldwide marketshare. This is the popular opinion amongst the armchair executives in enthusiast gaming circles. It’s also a bad idea. Read more…
Blizzard’s MMOnopoly: Why is there no real competition?
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is an absolute juggernaut in the PC gaming world. Official numbers released by the company pegged the number of currently active subscriptions at a staggering 11.5 million spurred by the release of the latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which became the fastest selling PC game ever with four million copies in players’ hands within a month of release. To give some perspective:
- Everquest and Ultima Online, the two most successful pre-WoW MMORPGs, both peaked at around 400,000 and 250,000 subscribers, respectively.
- Lifetime sales of The Sims (excluding expansion packs) is over 16 million.
With the kind of success that Blizzard has seen expanding the MMORPG genre, many companies have tried to enter the market and carve out a healthy subscriber base. After all, if a company can get 15 dollars a month from a few million people, then that’s a healthy amount of profit even including server upkeep and content creation.
Yet few have ended up with anything resembling WoW’s sustained growth despite a great deal of effort. Why?
This is getting ridiculous: Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds
It’s no secret that most recent Playstation 3 games have either mandatory or optional installations that take up several gigabytes of space. The appropriateness of mandatory installs in a console game is debatable, but most developers say that the installs lead to improved performance.
I see no problem with mandatory installs in moderation. It can be annoying to come home with a brand new game, and have to wait an extra five or ten minutes play, but it’s no big deal. I even install most optional installations just in case there is an improvement. Read more…
Presidential Election 2008 Predictions
STRONG OBAMA (+10% in popular vote)
· California (55)
· New York (31)
· Pennsylvania (21)
· Illinois (21)
· Michigan (17)
· New Jersey (15)
· Massachusetts (12)
· Washington (11)
· Minnesota (10)
· Wisconsin (10)
· Maryland (10)
· Oregon (7)
· Iowa (7)
· Connecticut (7)
· New Mexico (5)
· New Hampshire (4)
· Maine (4)
· Rhode Island (4)
· Hawaii (4)
· Vermont (3)
· Delaware (3)
· Washington D.C. (3)
WEAK OBAMA (3-10%)
· Ohio (20)
· Virginia (13)
· Colorado (9)
· Nevada (5)
TILT OBAMA (0-3%)
· Florida (27)
· North Carolina (15)
· Indiana (11)
· North Dakota (3)
· Missouri (11)
TILT MCCAIN (0-3%)
· Georgia (15)
· Montana (3)
WEAK MCCAIN (3-10%)
· Texas (34)
· Arizona (10)
· Louisiana (9)
· South Carolina (8)
· Mississippi (6)
· South Dakota (3)
STRONG MCCAIN (+10%)
· Tennessee (11)
· Alabama (9)
· Kentucky (8)
· Oklahoma (7)
· Kansas (6)
· Arkansas (6)
· Utah (5)
· Nebraska (5)
· West Virginia (5)
· Idaho (4)
· Alaska (3)
· Wyoming (3)
Obama wins with 378 electoral votes compared to McCain’s 160.
55% to 45% in the popular vote, Obama leading.
The question on Election Eve isn’t if Obama will win, it’s by how large the margin will be. While it isn’t outside the realm of possibility for the Democratic presidential candidate to grab as many as 400 electoral votes, it is highly unlikely.
The states to watch are the tilt states (Which in my estimation are Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Georgia, and Montana) which really could go in any direction at any time. Indiana is the most likely of the Obama tilt states to flip, depending largely on unprecedented turnout from young voters and minorities that I feel will turn out due to incredible Democratic excitement. I believe this excitement and resulting apathy from Republicans will result in higher-than-expected results for Obama almost across the board with few exceptions.
Two other states that could be interesting tomorrow night are Texas and especially Arizona, traditionally Republican strongholds. It’s unlikely that McCain will lose either state, but expect it to be closer than expected.
In this current political environment, it’s hard to imagine a McCain win that doesn’t involve a time machine or a dead hooker in Obama’s car. Almost any comeback involves taking several states that Obama leads by 8 points or higher in current polls. In comparison, Obama doesn’t even really need to win any of the tilt states. He has more than enough electoral votes to win the election just from states he’ll win by over 10% alone.
If any two of Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, or Florida go to Obama, you can go ahead and call the election.
Two Hour Review: Why I’ve Given Up on Far Cry 2
After a bit over two hours, Far Cry 2 may be my biggest disappointment of the year. I don’t say that lightly.
Xbox Live Gamercard
