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NXE Preview Program Emails Sent!

Major Nelson has informed the press that all emails to applicants for the New Xbox Experience Preview Program have been sent. So if you registered and filled out the survey, check your inbox and you will see an email from Microsoft telling you if you're in, or out!

I have been accepted in, my NXE impressions and screenshots will be up soon, as long as I dont have to sign a NDA.


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Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Review

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Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is the latest Brothers in Arms by Gearbox and Ubisoft. Brothers in Arms brings the same tactical shooter as it's predecessors. If you're looking for a Call of Duty or Halo "run and gun", pass this on your to buy list.



Brothers in arms puts you in the role of Staff Sergeant Matt Baker who is part of the 101st Airborne Division. You start off the game in a fast forward where you talk to a soldier who's face is not shown. The game goes into a short tutorial to show you the basics and necessities, such as suppressing fire and flanking maneuvers.

The game controls are solid and can be changed to different layouts such as "Call of Duty 4", "Halo 3", and "Rainbow 6" for people that want to use a familiar style. This game builds off of the cover system that Ubisoft uses in most of it's FPS games. You can take cover behind nearly everything, but things like wood will not hold up as well. The cracking effects on wood cover are great, the wood does not just spontaneously combust like many other games, it chips away until the enemy, or you, have destroyed it all.



One major issue with the cover system is the lack of blind fire. You must reveal yourself to the enemy to shoot. And this will often hurt your squad more than you. They will stand straight up in the middle of a fire fight and shoot at the enemy, just to see a bullet aimed at their head.

Hell's Highway has been significantly "dulled" down from previous Brothers in Arms, in terms of the micro management of your squads. Flanking is still useful, and needed in harder difficulties and battles, but you find that you could more easily flank the enemy yourself while your squads try to figure out the cover system.



The major down point of this game is the replay factor. When you start the game you have a choice of easy or medium difficulty, you must beat the game once to get the hard difficulty. This is a turn off to me. Why can't I play the game how I want to first time around. It seems like Gearbox is trying to juice as many hours of playtime out of you before you realize that this game gets old after the first play through. Another sign of this is the achievement list. Instead of having achievements for beating the game on the highest difficultly like in the Call of Duty series. Instead they throw in the series of achievements for amount of days played. Like play the game for 7 days, the for 30 days, etc. In addition to the "Remember September '44" in which you must wait until September 17th of next year to achieve.

Along with lack of single player replayability, the multiplayer falls far short of expectations of FPS games. The multiplayer only has one mode with release, and not plans of yet for more to be added via DLC or patch. The single mode is a form of Capture the Flag. The Brothers in Arms games are good and known for their strategic shooter genre, with micro managing squads. In the multiplayer, Gearbox tries to bring that but falls short. The mutltiplayer has assigned "Team Captains", "Assualt Team", etc. The problem is that the team doesnt have to listen to the Captain, and that makes the captain useless.

Overall, a solid game with some replay problems and lack of a stable multiplayer. This game will make the fans of the series a bit disappointed in it's dulled down nature, but for the casual shooter fan it is great.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway gets a:
B
Pass -- Rent -- Buy


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Fallout 3 Succeeds...

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...in bringing one of the best RPG experiences to date. Everything looks great and stepping out of the vault was one of the best gaming moments I've have in a long time. I even suggest saving before leaving the vault so you can see it again. It is one of those "Wow, this is what a good game looks and feels like!". I will have a full review up soon (Once I finish the story once). Below are the list of achievements:


Vault 101 Citizenship Award: 10 points
Got the Pip-Boy 3000

The G.O.A.T. Whisperer: 10 points
Took the G.O.A.T.

Escape!: 20 points
Completed "Escape!"

Following in His Footsteps: 20 points
Completed "Following in His Footsteps"

Galaxy News Radio: 20 points
Completed "Galaxy News Radio"

Scientific Pursuits: 20 points
Completed "Scientific Pursuits"

Tranquility Lane: 20 points
Completed "Tranquility Lane"

The Waters of Life: 20 points
Completed "The Waters of Life"

Picking up the Trail: 20 points
Completed "Picking up the Trail"

Rescue from Paradise: 20 points
Completed "Rescue from Paradise"

Finding the Garden of Eden: 20 points
Completed "Finding the Garden of Eden"

The American Dream: 20 points
Completed "The American Dream"

Take it Back!: 40 points
Completed "Take it Back!"

Big Trouble in Big Town: 20 points
Completed "Big Trouble in Big Town"

The Superhuman Gambit: 20 points
Completed "The Superhuman Gambit"

The Wasteland Survival Guide: 20 points
Completed "The Wasteland Survival Guide"

Those!: 20 points
Completed "Those!"

The Nuka-Cola Challenge: 20 points
Completed "The Nuka-Cola Challenge"

Head of State: 20 points
Completed "Head of State"

The Replicated Man: 20 points
Completed "The Replicated Man"

Blood Ties: 20 points
Completed "Blood Ties"

Oasis: 20 points
Completed "Oasis"

The Power of the Atom: 20 points
Completed "The Power of the Atom"

Tenpenny Tower: 20 points
Completed "Tenpenny Tower"

Strictly Business: 20 points
Completed "Strictly Business"

You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head: 20 points
Completed "You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head"

Stealing Independence: 20 points
Completed "Stealing Independence"

Trouble on the Homefront: 20 points
Completed "Trouble on the Homefront"

Agatha's Song: 20 points
Completed "Agatha's Song"

Reilly's Rangers: 20 points
Completed "Reilly's Rangers"

Reaver: 10 points
Reached Level 8 with Bad Karma

Mercenary: 10 points
Reached Level 8 with Neutral Karma

Protector: 10 points
Reached Level 8 with Good Karma

Harbinger of War: 20 points
Reached Level 14 with Bad Karma

Pinnacle of Survival: 20 points
Reached Level 14 with Neutral Karma

Ambassador of Peace: 20 points
Reached Level 14 with Good Karma

Scourge of Humanity: 30 points
Reached Level 20 with Bad Karma

Paradigm of Humanity: 30 points
Reached Level 20 with Neutral Karma

Last, Best Hope of Humanity: 30 points
Reached Level 20 with Good Karma

Weaponsmith: 30 points
Made one of every custom weapon

Doesn't Play Well with Others: 20 points
Killed 300 people

Slayer of Beasts: 20 points
Killed 300 creatures

Silver-Tongued Devil: 20 points
Won 50 Speech Challenges

Data Miner: 20 points
Hacked 50 terminals

Keys are for Cowards: 20 points
Picked 50 locks

One-Man Scouting Party: 20 points
Discovered 100 locations

Psychotic Prankster: 10 points
Placed a grenade or mine while pickpocketing

The Bigger They Are…: 20 points
Kill all the Super Mutant Behemoths

Yes, I Play with Dolls: 10 points
Collected 10 Vault-Tec Bobbleheads

Vault-Tec C.E.O.: 30 points
Collected 20 Vault-Tec Bobbleheads

Everyone enjoy!


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Zombie Mode: CoD:WaW

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Gametrailers just put this up on their website:



I am super excited about this game now. At first I was worried about the game being a redo of Call of Duty 4. This looks sweet, one of my most anticipated things to do this holiday season...along with Horde mode of Gears 2.


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Selling XNA Creators Club Code

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I find myself with a spare 1 year subscription code to the XNA Creators Club thanks to the guys over at Microsoft. I am selling this code for 65$ (The code is valued at 99.99$). Make a comment on here or email me if you are interested. I take Paypal.

Email: lavathing@rochester.rr.com


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Sorry For No Posts!

I will be returning to regular blogging soon, I am really busy in real life. Hope to be back to full by next week!


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Microsoft Going Casual?

With the soon to be, and already, released games from the Xbox 360 hardcore fans wonder if the 360 will remain the premier "hardcore" gaming console. Microsoft, not confident in it's victory over Sony's Playstation 3 in the hardcore game genre, it aiming it's sights on the Nintendo Wii. Former Microsoft Executive, Peter Moore states:

Ever since Microsoft waded into the video game wars with the introduction of the original Xbox in 2001, the company has spared little expense in attempting to establish its bona fides with hardcore gamers. . . . Until now. In a significant shift for the company, Microsoft on Monday unveiled a new strategy for its gaming unit that is meant to help the company’s Xbox 360 console appeal to the mainstream. Lured by games and consoles like Guitar Hero, The Sims, World of Warcraft and Nintendo’s Wii, millions of consumers who would never have thought of themselves as gamers have begun to play video games in recent years.


Microsoft will always have it's every-other-year blockbusters, like Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Halo, but it seems there will not be an abundance of new Microsoft Exclusive "Hardcore" IP. This is good for the casual gamer, or someone who doesn't consider themselves "a gamer" and plays on occasion. But what about the "hardcore" community? We will have to wait and see.


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Toys 'R' Us Game Sales (NCAA, NBA)

With the release of NBA Live 09 and NBA 2K9, Toys 'R' Us stores now have NBA Live 08, NBA 2k8, and NCAA: March Madness 08 on sale for a cheap price of $5.00 USD. these are while supplies last, as they will not be ordering any more copies of these games. You can find these games in the clearance rack in your local participating Toy 'R' Us retailer.


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EndWar VIP Demo Available

There is now a VIP demo available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for all people who have pre-ordered a copy of EndWar for the Xbox 360. You should call or visit the retailer you pre-ordered the game from and ask for the VIP Demo code if you wish to participate. The demo will include one single player mission, the voice control tutorial, and a 1v1 map. Once you have the code, from your Xbox 360 Dashboard go to the Marketplace tab and down to "Redeem Code". Then enter the code and you should be good to download the demo.

The demo that will be available to all Xbox Live Members will be released on Oct. 24th, 2008.


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Help Support Research on Pediatric Cancer!

All the info you will need on the subject can be found here:

http://extralife.sarcasticgamer.com

You can also join my team of gamers for the event here:

Click Here

All proceeds go to the Texas Children's Hospital for Pediatric Cancer treatment and research. Help support today!


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MyGamerCard.net Lagging?

For some reason my gamercard at the right is not updating, for example it says I have not been on in 20 hours and my last game played was Gears of War. Well, I was just playing Call of Duty 4 about 1 hour ago. Post a comment on this blog if you have any details.

Thanks.


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Fracture Big Suprise?

A relatively unknown game known as Fracture is coming out soon (Oct. 7th 2008) and looks promising! This normally would be a large AAA release, but with over-hyped game like Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, Fable II, Left 4 Dead, etc. it has been set on the back burners of advertisement.

After playing through the demo I became addicted to it. I played the demo over about three times and kept pondering why this game was not hyped up more, as it could easily contend with such games as Left 4 Dead and Far Cry 2.

Basically, it is 3rd person shooter where you can manipulate the environment around you by lifting or lowering land. For example, you are pinned down behind a wall and cannot make a run for it. What do you do? Raise the land between you and the enemy to create an earth barrier.

The weapons from the demo include things such as the standard assault rifle, sniper, rockets, and a cool rocket launcher that launches the rockets underground towards the enemies.

Don't count this game off your "to-buy" list just because it isn't uber hyped!


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