GRAW 2 New DLC

GRAW 2 recently got new DLC on the Live Marketplace including new missions and maps. My question is why the hell would you do that Ubisoft. Sure, GRAW 2 was a good game, but noone plays it now. Wouldn't it be better to divert those resources into developing the next Ghost Recon? It seems like a very odd time to release DLC, especially since the game's almost a year old. I don't know Ubisoft, first the fiasco with EGM, now this?

Xbox 360 attach rate of 7 games per console

Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell told CNBC that the attach rate of the Xbox 360 is now 7 games per console. That is an amazing number, especially since the PS3 and the Wii have attach rates of about 2 or 3 per console. It really proves that the 360 is the console that sells software. Personally, I have about 10 or so games at the moment so this seems like a believable number. It also proves that, with the games costing $60 a piece, many 360 games are paying more for the games than the console which is the way it should be. Unlike Nintendo though, the 360 doesn't make as much money through selling the console, so they rely more heavily on their software sales. Hopefully their 2008 sales will continue that way but the way I look at it, there aren't that many big name games coming out this year (unless Gears 2 is announced at GDC which seems likely)

Undertow Review

I just downloaded Undertow from the Xbox Live Arcade yesterday and it actually surprised me a bit. Now, I have never bought an Arcade game before. Spending $10 or $15 for a small game doesn't appeal to me when I could just save that money to get a quality $60 game. But, as you probably know, this game was free (today is the last day to get it free by the way) and I couldn't resist downloading it and trying it out. It is actually a very good little time waster.

Basically, you are this marine group under water and you are fighting these people. That may sound very vague and its probably because the game actually has a story with cut scenes and all but I just skipped those and went to the actual game.

The point of the game is to capture these strategic checkpoints that give you troops before the other team does. It is a lot like Conquest Mode in Star Wars Clone Wars the game. So you start off on one side of the map, while the other team starts out on the other side and you battle to get the two or three checkpoints in between.

There is also a counter of the number of troops you have. If you capture all of the checkpoints the other team starts losing numbers on the counter very fast and when it reaches zero they lose. If you can't capture all of them, no worries, just kill all of the people to get the counter to go to zero.

Another task of the checkpoints is that they are places where you can switch classes. There are four classes in the game: a marine, a marine in this bulky suit, a small ship, and a bigger ship. My personal favorite is the small ship because the weapons are good and it isn't slow as hell like the big one, but I guess people could like other ones.

I am playing on normal mode (there is easy, normal, and hard) and I have to say the game gets pretty difficult. The last level on the first campaign (yes, there's more than one, but each are pretty bite-sized) took me about 4 tries before I beat it.

So, all in all, its a pretty decent game. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than most of the classic crap that usually comes out on the Live Arcade.

Call of Duty 4 Best Selling Game of 07??

For some reason, I really think this story is BS. I think its probably because Activision is saying it. I mean sure it deserves it, it was definitely one of the best games of last year and apparently beating Halo on Live but can it really beat Halo in sales? Last I heard, Call of Duty had sold about 3 or 4 million copies and suddenly the numbers skyrocketed to over 7 million... Thats a little strange to me. Well, whatever the number is one thing is for sure: Activision had one hell of a year in 2007. Oh yeah, and for the record, I think Call of Duty 5 will be a bust (like Call of Duty 3).

Best Buy to drop PS3 80gb model

Apparently, Best Buy will not be receiving any more shipments of 80 gb models of the PS3. This is horrible news to me as it seems like the 40 gb model is selling many times more units than the 80 gb model. In my opinion, the 80 gb model is really a much better offer and I would not hesitate to pay $100 more to get the better version of the console. This will only add to the fact that the 40 gb is outselling the 80 gb and may even cause Sony to drop the 80 gb version entirely. Sony would look even more foolish after they would drop backwards compatibility, the thing they had been so gung-ho about just a few months ago. I guess they could afford looking a little stupid after their apparently stupid decision to put Blu-ray drives in their machine became a brilliant move a few weeks ago.

Splinter Cell Conviction still an Xbox exclusive

Ok, so I'll admit it. I really thought that Conviction was going to the PS3 as well. I thought that Ubisoft was eventually just going to opt out of the contract terms they have with Microsoft and just multi platform it. I guess I was wrong because Ubisoft has officially gone out and said that it is still an Xbox exclusive. This is great news for Microsoft, who are going to need good exclusives for the console as all of the hype is going towards Sony and Nintendo games coming out this year (unless the happen to show Gears of War 2 at GDC which would flip-flop things in my mind). Microsoft, just go and buy Ubisoft already; you definitely need the first-party development.

Microsofts Repayment for Live Downtime

Microsoft, which had promised a free Xbox Live Arcade game from the beginning of the Live issues, has finally announced what that free game is. Undertow will be available starting next Wednesday for free for all Live users. I don't know much about this game, it looks kind of decent. It's basically an underwater shooter thing, I think. I only saw a trailer for it. While this may be a good repayment for many people, I would much rather have a free month of Xbox Live, which would cost about the same price, because mine just ran out. Yes, I've had a silver account for a few days now and I can finally appreciate what I'm missing. Anyone want to donate a gold card?

Macbook Air

Ok, you knew I couldn't ignore this little baby in a tech blog. This thing is one of the most beautiful computers on the planet. Apple has done it again, with this being another design miracle and it will probably sell thousands of units.
That being said, I don't really want it right now. Yes, I need a computer but I think I'll wait for the second iteration of the Air before I jump on board. Why, you ask? Its because of the obvious downfalls of the device.
First of all, there's only one USB port. That will definetly not fit my multiple devices. Yeah, yeah, you could put a splitter on there, but that kind of defeats the whole slim look. Secondly, no removable battery. The battery is going to die sometime. Its just a fact and I dont want to have to pay $130 to fix it. And lastly, the lack of hard drive space. I really need a lot more than 80 gigs of space to fill with music and stuff. Oh yeah, don't get me started on the pricing of the SSD drive.
These are only personal preferences, so by all means if you like this type of thing go ahead and get it because this is, like I said, a very sexy device.

Bioshock 2 coming to the PS3?

It looks like 2K Boston, makers of Bioshock, are looking for employees that have experience working with the PS3. Hmm, it sounds like its very obvious that the sequel (or prequel) to Bioshock, which will obviously be released, will be coming to both Xbox 360 and PS3 (and PC, probably). This is only good news as the PS3 owners can only be happy they finally get the chance to play this game.

PS3 Production Costs Finally Down

It looks like Sony has made a major step in being successful this generation of consoles. They have reduced the price of the PS3 to make from $800 about a year ago, to $400 now. This should make them more eager to drop the price even more and give the PS3 a fighting chance to stay alive this generation. This makes me wonder if the PS3 should have released this year because it would have been much cheaper. I also believe that the Xbox 360 should have released last year rather than two years ago, as it would have given them valuable development time for the console so it wouldn't have a virtual 100% failure rate. I guess Microsoft just wanted to jump out ahead, and them doing that gained them much marketshare, but lost them much money on repair costs. It hurt Sony the most though because the PS3's price was too high when they were basically forced to release it. It actually didn't hurt Nintendo at all because I believe they would have released it last year, under pressure from Microsoft or not.

Portal

This game is amazing to me. Valve has done such a great job finding this game when it was just a concept and working it to perfection. Yes, I said perfection. I believe this game is the perfect puzzle/action game. It is not the perfect puzzle game, because it is so short and it is not the perfect action game because there is basically no combat, but the whole is an amazing title which would have easily been worth $60 (if it had a few more levels), except Valve threw in a few more excellent games for us. Ok, I'm done confessing my love of Portal.

Xbox to have best gaming year ever?

According to Microsoft Games Cheif Don Mattrick, the Xbox 360 looks like it had the best year (profitwise) of any game console ever. Hardware and software sales for the 360 surpassed $3.5 billion which is $1 billion more than the Wii and $2 billion more than the PS3. The 360 now has over 17 million consoles sold and 10 million Live users.
This is honestly not a huge surprise to me. This is to all of the people who thought Nintendo did the best in 2007. No doubt they did phenomenally selling hardware but there is another aspect of gaming: the actual software. In this aspect, I think, Nintendo did only average or less than average even. Wii or DS games rarely broke the top games sold for the month (except damn Wii Play). The 360 usually dominated the game sales charts because of its appeal to hardcore gamers who buy games regularly. On the other hand, the Wii is bought by many casual gamers who only buy a couple games if any a year. Nintendo has little or no chance of dominating the sales charts like the 360 did unless the appeal to the hardcore and get better third-party support. No, I didn't say more, we have enough crappy Wii titles, I said better.

BioWare's and Pandemic's Transformation into an EA company

BioWare, once makers of favorite games such as KOTOR and Mass Effect, and Pandemic, makers of a few decent games like Mercenaries, look as though their time developing well thought, quality games is over. EA has just announced the pair of companies shall be developing a total of ten new franchises. Yes, thats right ten. And they are not only games, these babies are franchises and, looking at EA's track record of franchises, these will probably get multiple sequels. Come on EA, we all thought you were going the straight and narrow and bringing your company around. But it seems like EA hasn't changed at all. It'll take a miracle for BioWare to make all of those games up to par with their other ones. You gotta feel for those guys.

Personal Games of the Year

Here are my personal picks for Games of the Year that I've played. Remember, I'm only including the games that I've played so far so sadly some are left out (for example, Mass Effect and Uncharted)

1)Bioshock
This game just blew my mind away. The atmosphere, the game play, the story, everything was absolutely perfect. There was a bit of a frame rate issue for me but other than that it was perfect.

2)Orange Box
This game packs 3 potential game of the year candidates (and two older titles) all into one package. This was an amazing offer for me especially as I've never played the Half Life series, as I'm not a PC gamer. Portal, Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2 are all great games.

3)Call of Duty 4
This game did what other games found impossible. It took away gamers attention from Halo 3 a mere month after its launch. The story and the multiplayer are both good enough to match Halo's.

4)Rock Band
It's not often that I play video games with my family. Now this game (and the Wii if I had one) are solving the whole video games are bad problem. The whole family is having fun with this even if my mom sometimes gets headaches from the noise.
5)Halo 3
Sure, the story wasn't great but this game's multiplayer is still top-notch. Look for it to get much of my playing time this year and onwards.

Well there you have it, those are my top five games of the year that I've played