OK since this is the last 16 hours (in the eastern time zone) or so that you will have on this earth until Battlefield 3 hits stores for the official US release, I aim to keep my hunger for all things BF3 satisfied until then. To do so I read the following articles from various game sites with different takes to get a broader sense of what to expect. Let's be honest though, seeing the pictures and reading the words is nothing like getting to experience the pure joy it will be to play out these moments yourself. So read on my gaming brothers and sisters...and prepare yourselves for...well...you know. WAR!
IGN posted their PC Review of the game early this morning - Read here
Destructoid has a great preview by Casey Baker - Read it here
Joystiq has posted their PC review as well - Read here
I will say this, the reviews in Joystiq and IGN are fair and critical as they should be. Each outfit gives BF3 a great score mainly on the merits of multi-player (but we already expected that to some degree) and while they discount single-player somewhat I am not akin to just believing the reviewer all the time. Often times my view of certain parts of a game differs greatly and I think that possibly it is because these journalists are playing so many similar games all the time that their expectations become jaded and their experiences muted.
Finally, here is a new vid by the superb Freddie W. Enjoy!
These vids are just making people salivate. I think marketing for this game has been stellar and letting the action speak for itself just works. Props to the team at EA/DICE. Enjoy these sweet snippets. Are you getting BF3? What about MW3? Comment below!
Got your copy of Homefront on Pre-Order? I do. Select Gamestop locations around the country will be doing midnight releases and I will be at my local store picking up my copy tonight. The pre-order bonus they have for this game is actually pretty good for us multi-player freaks. We get a couple of advanced unlocks like the SCAR-L assault rifle, and an Air Recon Drone. Nice.
With gas prices going up this will give me a reason to stay home and save my hard-earned cash for other things. It's funny how that statement sort of parallels the background story in Homefront where gas prices skyrocket and contribute to the US economic meltdown. In fact a few websites that normally aren't known for throwing in their two cents when it comes to worldly affairs have breached that silence and spoke out on the Homefront story and its real world possibilities. Unanimously they all agree that, while being highly unlikely, the events are Homefront are plausible. This kind of drama and controversial approach is more common these days in our mature gaming world.
LA Noire is the next game on my list to acquire this year. Release date is 5/17/11. I am a huge Rockstar fan and love the games they put out (mostly). This one is looking stellar and quite frankly I could use a break from all of the FPS games out there. There are a ton of videos out there for you to watch, but the one that I find most impressive is the one below that details the investigations themselves and really lets that new motionscan technology shine. Check it out. Are you getting LA Noire? What do you think about it?
A while back I did a short blog post on the new Alice: Madness Returns game that is in development. American Mcgee is back in the saddle and the press got a fresh look at the latest build. I don't why this game intrigues me but it does. I think the imagery is what shocks my mind.
Probably the 3rd game I will acquire later this year is Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. A new villain for the game was revealed check the video below.
Every play Serious Sam? I did. Played the original and loved it. Never played the sequel, but now they are developing Serious Sam 3. Some screens and stuff here.
Saints Row 3 was officially announced on March 3rd and developer Volition is changing things up this time around and putting in drop-in/drop-out full campaign co-op. Wikipedia (I know) actually has a great write up on it here. I just hope they keep the insurance fraud mini-game in there!
Two last tidbits of fun stuff....
Ever see Super Mario Bros. updated with sound effects from today? Watch.
Have you watched "The King of Kong: A fistful of quarters" documentary? If not I recommend you rent it and give it a whirl. For those that have watched, you would be interested to know that Billy Mitchell ponied up the dough and built an arcade at Orlando Airport. He is yet to be seen there. Ha!
It the thought that goes into the death animations that I appreciate the most. What a fun part of the development process! Ahhh yes...its the little things.
Remember last week I mentioned in my post that some new Homefront previews and such were coming? Well today I re-post it to you my loyal readers and give you my take on it. I also want to touch on the whole opinion piece of Homefront stemming from its story line and in-game world.
First thing is first. Two, count 'em, two videos showing off Homefront's multi-player gameplay and new features. My thoughts after the jump.
Ok so what did you think of the two videos? At first glance you might think this was a video of CoD or BF2. I must admit that I was thinking the same thing. Then the guy starts showing off all of this cool stuff like enemy players getting bounties placed on their head and the cool class/loadout screen which can be customized in the middle of a match. The two features introduced in the video are the Battle Commander system, which gives you missions on the fly (marking enemies) based on how the match is going, and the Battle Points system that is just flat out awesome. While the developers haven't re-invented the wheel here it seems, at least on the surface, that they have successfully combined all the aspects of what made other games great and added their own flair to it which looks to be adding up to ALOT of fun. After a few minutes of footage I saw what makes Homefront different and all-together awesome. I will post my full impressions once I have a copy in my hands. These devs have some huge competition that this game will be released in the shadow of, but the gaming landscape is ripe for a show stealer. This could be it people. Stay tuned and pick up your copy come March 8th.
Now for the opinion piece of the post. First I want to reference IGN's coverage from 1/21 as my inspiration to post these next few lines. After reading the IGN piece, the comments, and some other articles from last week I have to say that the controversy is building in the media over Homefront's premise and chosen background for the story. The authors of the articles and a lot of readers are "concerned" about the game's message. They are worried that the message will be "America is awesome" or that it will fan the fires of American patriotism. There is also the North Korea card getting played that some take offense to, and not to mention the supposed 'improbability' of America being invaded.
Opinion?
I think they are all stupid. Who are they kidding? Worrying about a game's message of patriotism? Really? What kind of audience do you think you are catering too? The men and women playing this game are not going to all of a sudden start going bat-shit insane toting American flags on their body and treat foreigners with extreme prejudice because of the events in Homefront. Games are forms of art in my mind. Much like a movie or book. All forms of art are at their greatest when they make people begin to question the things they represent. Good or bad, happy or sad. Take it or leave it, admire it or hate it. That's art.
That being said....Homefront's singleplayer mode is meant to draw the emotions out of you. What would you do in that situation? You think it is improbable or unlikely that America would be invaded, which gives you an air of ignorance, yet you think it is OK to portray a poorer country in this light? Get over yourself.
OK I said my piece. I expect that once the mainstream media gets a hold of this, and they will, the controversy will just get bigger. Which should translate to more sales and more n00bs to blast online! Comments welcome!
So Black Ops on Xbox360 is currently where I spend my gaming time. It won't hold my attention for too much longer though. Why? Well that's easy. On March 8, 2011 THQ will release the new FPS game Homefront for 360/PS3/PC. I will be getting a copy for my 360. This game isn't in the limelight as much as a CoD game would be or even Battlefield for that matter, but it caught my attention mainly for the reasons outlined in the video below. I think the single-player campaign is going to be great. I will be posting my thoughts on this Friday's coverage by IGN on the multi-player in Homefront. Here is the vid.
Ok so for all of you CoD junkies out there who are counting down to the first map pack release on Feb 1st (360 only) here is Treyarch's sneak peak of what to expect on the multi-player maps.
Zip lines! Yikes! Should be loads of fun for all. Speaking of fun have you seen the commercial dubbed "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2" yet? No? Well feast your eyes on the vid below. GREAT marketing gimmick. Give EA kudos on that idea.
I love the gore and the scares. Bring it. Alright so on to the next tasty morsel. Last summer a video teaser of a gritty remake of the movie Mortal Kombat was released on YouTube. It starred movie actor Michael Jai-White of Spawn, Dark Knight, and Sucker Punch fame playing Jax as a detective. Some of you may have seen this already, but I just watched it for the first time ever and I was highly entertained by it. I can't wait for the webisodes. Any MK fan old & new should watch this. Comment below.
All of us want better control right? Those guys on the MLG circuit make it look so easy. I am constantly running into uber-CoD players when casually gaming at night. Maybe if I had one of these I could at least stay alive longer right? Maybe? One point for dialing in your resistance on the analog sticks, two points taken away for not being wireless. Click the pic. The jury is out on this one.
Ok so in the lighter side of the news, I wanted to share this fan-friggin-tastic video of a Nintendo inspired Scion xB complete with game console and a projector built into the headlight. I want one.
I bet the inventor of the Successories brand never thought that his idea of putting a great picture on top of a word that describes it, and then putting a little quip underneath the whole thing explaining why he chose that word, would ever take off like it did. Wonder what happened to that dude? Besides getting rich? The pic to the left here is what I always envisioned my basement looking like. I definitely have more work to do in that area!
So I have something for all my readers to ponder over. My blog is called Game Zombie and I honestly had no idea about the other Game Zombie sites out there. Go ahead and google it and you will see what I mean. There is even a facebook page for some other site that is run by a guy in PA. I love that people think Game Zombie is a cool name, but I value originality. So here is what I want you all to help me with. I don't like to follow the crowd and Game Zombie is a great description for this site, but now that I see these others out there I have to ask what other name could I use? Leave your suggestions in the comments below and in 2 weeks I will take your suggestions and a few my own and we will all vote on it. On to the news!
Game News
The Red Dead Redemption patch is live. Dtoid reports. Of all the bugs they fixed I would have left this one: Occasionally, the player would not recover from being drunk.
Ever hear of a game called Monday Night Combat? Well its a very well put together TF2-type game where you will have several classes to choose from to take into an arena for battle against another team. I think it shows alot of promise and being a downloadable game $15 it has a ton of replay value in it. Here is a great walk-through from the developers as they go through the game and show you that its all about a piece of bacon doing high-five with a shotgun shell.
Remember how many records Modern Warfare 2 broke last year? Yeah well Activision is saying this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops is on pace to smash that record. IGN reports. I am pumped up to play the game, but if it ends up being another glitchy multi-player mess I will be back on the boycott bus. I can already see the map-packs for this one costing $20. Oh and by the way, Wii owners will get their wiimote hands on this one too.
Codemasters announces yet another Operation Flashpoint game. This one is called Red River. According to the Dtoid report, this one is gonna have 4 player drop-in drop-out co-op with better AI all around. I was a huge fan of the original on PC, but mediocre showings afterwards have kept me from going back. This looks to be going down the co-op road like Ghost Recon is and that could be a good thing. Will keep an eye on this as it gets closer to a 2011 release date.
Cool Stuff
Dtoid had a link to this guys site that did some web-comics on Red Dead Redemption that, provided you played the game before, are just downright hilarious. If haven't played RDR it's still funny, but not as much. I highly recommend you check it out. I went through all of them that have been done so far.
Remember the funny looking heads you could slam on a zombie's head in Dead Rising? I found out today its called a Servbot head! Even better news is that Capcom is selling some! No not the ones you can wear, which would be cool to use as a prank on someone, but as a bobble-head! Dtoid has the scoop along with this pic.
Lastly, something to do with zombies (imagine that). I found a fellow blogger site and very talented artist named Rob Sacchetto who creates rather detailed and instantly mesmerizing zombie portraits of Hollywood celebrities. This one below is a disturbing version of Tiger Woods. Brilliant I say. Check out his site and pay your respects to a fellow zombie lover. Till next time!
Yup I got some decent stuff to share on a Saturday afternoon! Lets get to it shall we?
You might of heard of a shooter called Medal of Honor (a new game, old title) that will be hitting store shelves and your wallet on October 12th of this year. Well what you might not have heard is that this latest version is actually based on input from real Tier 1 operators that serve the US military machine. The modern day bad-ass is depicted as realistically as possible in this shooter, which is being developed by well known DICE studios. Joystiq has a preview of the single-player game up on their site and a guy from Dtoid gets upset about playing as al-Qaeda in multi-player.
Dtoid posted their impressions of the new Madden NFL 11 Demo due out next week. Honestly, I would be hard pressed to buy another yearly football game. I catch the football fever every year and watch as many games as I can, but after the season ends that's it I'm done and so is any football game. It has been awhile for me so if this demo is good....I might rent it.
Blowing everyone away at Comic-Con this week with news of a new Dragon Age 2 game was Bioware. The original received high marks for a great story and gameplay. Normally I don't post about RPG games that much, but rumor has it this one is darker, brutal, and over the top. Anything with that description is worth taking a look right?
Finally, what would a weekend post be without yet another game with zombies in it? A zombie-less post that's what. Actually this game has been out for a little while on the PS3 network. It's called Burn Zombie Burn. Simple and effective right? This little romp has you cooking up a zombie BBQ with hero Bruce and his flamethrower. It even has a dance-gun that makes all of the zombie dance for a few moments a la thriller. The latest news has it set to come out on PC via Steam this August. Enjoy the video and have a great weekend!
Yeah I know this trailer has been out since yesterday, but I just saw it and my jaw dropped. So while I search for it on the floor go ahead and watch this trailer. Then look for your jawbone on the ground.
I also wanted to throw this one in, just cuz its AWESOME. This is game is epic.
If you haven't watched Zombieland yet and you are a self-professed Zombie lover (or hater) then take 98 minutes and watch it. Great flick with some good one-liners that you can quote all day long. I especially like the credits in the beginning of the film. The zombie stripper and the fire zombie are just classic. The rules that our main character Columbus refers to throughout the movie are also funny and memorable when played out in certain scenes. I have yet to watch another film about zombie-like folks called "The Crazies" but I have it on my to-do list. Also I was recently told (head nod Mr. Scott) to pick up a book called "World War Z" by Max Brooks. It's a collection of stories about a fictional world-wide zombie pandemic. I hear very good things about it. Now on to the news!
Game News
Just about everytime you jump into Red Dead Redemption for some multiplayer fun in a Free Roam session, where (as the title suggests) you can roam around freely with the other players, you get shot in the face rather immediately death-match style. Well Rockstar is aiming to fix that wagon with a new patch coming soon.
Gears of War 3 is gonna be epic, but the boys in development are letting the players decide the fate of in-game character Clayton Carmine in the story.
Will players let him live or die? One thing is sure. Carmine brings some serious grub-ass-kicking skills to the table.
Switching gears (pun intended) to another franchise, our favorite bad boy Jedi from The Force Unleashed is returning to consoles for a sequel, but just todayGamestop announced a new pre-order bonus that if friggin sweet. Mainly because of the character it unlocks and the story possibilities behind it.
Here is the picture of said character and the description that follows:
"In the cloning facilities of Kamino, Darth Vader created a warrior of unparalleled strength and power by combining the genetic material of Darth Maul, former apprentice of Sith Lord Darth Sidious, with his own apprentice, Starkiller. The resulting aberrant clone possessed traits from both warriors, but the crude fusion of two disparate Force users quickly produced physical and mental instabilities that led to the unfortunate clone’s destruction. For a brief time he struck fear into the hearts of all who faced him, even Lord Vader himself." His name? Maulkiller. How wicked is that?
I was a Transformers nerd when I was a kid. I have the new game in my queue, and this trailer for the DLC that is releasing next week has me pumped to get my paws on it.
So today's Zombie News E3 edition is chock full of goodness. I won't wast any time so lets get to it! - Dead Space 2 gets a release date of 1/25/2011 and the people are pumped. Courtesy of G4TV here is a video of the gameplay demoed during the EA Press Conference.
This is basically a re-post of what was mentioned in the L4D blog last Friday. As some of you may know, the genuis minds at Valve introduced mutations (modified game types) to the L4D faithful with their new DLC for L4D2 "The Passing" and a contest arose from the mutation Last Man on Earth in the form of a best video submission. I just viewed the top 3 before I posted this and I liked them so much I am re-posting them here for you. Just in case you are wondering, the Last Man on Earth mutation is one survivor versus special infected ONLY. Wicked mod. Oh and BTW the mutation for this week is Chainsaw Massacre. Yes it is exactly what you think. Hooyah.
(source L4D Blog)
1. "This chainsaw runs on adrenaline" brought a tear to our eye and captured the #1 spot.
2. Coach grabs #2 for thinking it would be fun to mess with all the witches. He was almost right.
3. Nicks grabs the #3 spot showing how close you can come to being killed by a tank.
For those of you haven't seen it yet or don't own an Xbox 360. Here is the mouth-watering trailer for the new recently announceed Ghost Recon: Future Solider coming out late 2010.
Is it just me or do they have Harry Potter's cloak of invsibility?
