New Xbox 360 Slim News

Microsoft had decided to release Project Natal AKA Kinect as a standalone device for the Xbox 360 console. It has now been confirmed that there will be an Xbox 360 Slim/Kinect bundle. No price or date has been set at this time. It has now also been confirmed that in the of Fall 2010 that there will be a $199 version of the Xbox 360 Slim. Whether it will have built-in WiFi or a Hard Drive is not yet known.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 CE Detailed

The Star Wars Force Unleashed II Collector's Edition comes with:

• Premium Collectible Steelbook
• Exclusive In-Game Content
• Three exclusive challenge mode levels
• Exclusive Ralph McQuarrie concept “Deak Starkiller” skin
• Exclusive Lightsaber crystal
• Exclusive Mimobot USB Designer Drive Preloaded with Bonus Content
• Starkiller 2GB Flash Drive designed by Mimobot
• Digital art book, featuring the art of The Force Unleashed II

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 E3 Trailer

If you're like me and have a huge desire for more force action, prepare for The Force Unleashed 2. Don't worry Star Wars fans, I'm here for you.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine E3 Trailer

Even more 40k goodness is coming our way (to our consoles this time) in the form of WH40K:Space Marine. Here's the trailer.

Warhammer 40k Dark Millenium Online E3 Trailer

Final Fantasy XIV E3 Trailer

Dear PC owners,

We didn't forget about you.



Love,

Playdit!

Medal of Honor Beta Delayed for 360 Owners

It has been confirmed that 360 owners will have to wait at least a week to get their frag on in the Medal of Honor Multiplayer Beta. The reason is unknown, but the Medal of Honor Blog posted that EA is "very disappointed" and hope to release the beta next week. In response, the beta will be extended for 360 owners to make up for lost time.

The PC and PS3 betas are still on schedule and will begin June 17th for those who own Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Stay tuned for any new information regarding the delay. Meanwhile, I'm going to head to Gamestop and ask them why the hell I haven't received my access code yet.

Kevin Butler: VP of Epic Presentations

MOH Multiplayer/Beta Trailer

As I posted just a bit earlier the Medal of Honor Multiplayer Beta launches this week. Here's a video detailing it.

I hope you like Linkin Park.



Welcome back, Medal of Honor. You have been missed.

Medal of Honor Multiplayer Beta Starts This Week

If you bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 new and you've pre-ordered the new Medal of Honor game at a participating retailer, you can get into the Multiplayer Beta starting June 17th.

If not, you can still get in June 21st, but you still have to pre-order to get the key.

Not excited about the new image of the Medal of Honor series? Don't care about the multiplayer being developed by the guys behind Battlefield? Here's something that might be more up your alley:

E3 Fable III Trailer

Gamestop Wants You to Pre-order Kinect. Now.

Kinect was officially announced today and within minutes Gamestop employees started asking for pre-orders. No, really.

Kinect will launch November 4th and will have 15 games (Wii owners will find a few of them oddly familiar) launching with it. In case you were wondering.

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How To Look Like A Tool @ E3

Sunglasses indoors? Nuff Said

New 360 Available In Stores In The Morning? OMG!

Some how I seem to be getting Mc Donald's syndrome here. The first picture shows a very shiny new 360 and then you look at the second image and it just doesn't look the same. Either way a smaller 360 with a 250gig HDD and built in Wi-Fi can't really be a bad thing. Now if they just got rid of achievements I may buy one.

Gears of War 3 @ E3

It was little surprise that we saw Gears of War 3 @ E3, while watching this I felt that it was a bit underwhelming. (But then again I am not the biggest Gears fan) It's bigger, badder and better than Gears 2 (So maybe we can now have more than 6 enimies on screen at a time lol)

Metal Gear Rising @ E3

The Metal Gear Series has had some great games and some poor games, yet one thing you can guarantee and that is a lot of gamers will be eager to get their hands on MGS: Rising (Me being one of them) Take a look at the E3 screens below and I am sure you will agree this game looks pretty cool. (Even you Raiden haters have to admit it!)

Casually Play'd - Code Play'd Mario

(Casually Play'd is a column by Codedigital chronicling his unfortunately limited playtime, and his rise...TO POWER! Each column will do a mini review and how well the game fits into a limited playtime schedule.)

Juggling a family, two jobs, drinking hours, and friends that always need shit takes my play time down to about very little to nil. In fact, the more I think about this the more I realize I'm losing even more play time by writing on this blog.

Oh well.

So this Casually Play'd will cover the game I've been playing recently: Super Mario Galaxy 2!

I could say something along the lines of "Wow"...but that would be pretty shitty of me to be so simple. To me, this is the best Mario game I've ever played. The level design is the tits and the way you just float through the game in this constant state of reverie makes me a very happy Code. I know, "fap fap fap, Codedigidi", but I can't help it. Play the damn game. Especially since it's going for pretty damn cheap right now.

So, how well does this baby play for the willing/forced casual player? Great actually. The game, like all Mario's of 3D fame, is broken up into stages with certain goals. Completing said goal earns you a star. Generally, stars should take you less than 10 minutes per...sometimes even as low as 2. So you can snap up as many 20-30 minute game sessions you can and probably walk away with 3-5 stars each time. Couple that with a quick game/console boot time and you're getting close to rivaling the iPhone/iPad "pick up, play, put away" model.

Casually Play'd-ability: 5/5

These PSN Games Deserved To Be Play'd

I used to hate the weekly XBLA games that I would buy and play for a day never to play again, yet for some reason I don't seem to mind buying games on the PSN. I don't really know why this is although the 1 purchase 5 console downloads does ease things quite a bit. So here are some of the great games that in my opinion deserve your attention.

Shatter

Shatter takes the basic game play of Arkanoid and freshens it up for a whole new generation, adding the ability to either suck or blow objects and bend the ball which adds a lot to the game play. Then throw in big giant screen filling bosses to defeat and you know your onto a winner.

8.5/10

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Commanders Challenge

Take your basic Command & Conquer game play and turn the hardness up to 11. Commanders Challenge is a stripped down version of the game making you earn units and troops to use by completing missions. This method sees you returning to missions you have completed with better hardware at your disposal once unlocked. The only thing missing really is a skirmish mode, but for what you get at such a bargain price that is forgivable.

8.5/10

Pixel Junk Shooter

Pixel Junk Shooter is a fantastic game that sees you piloting a subterranean ship to rescue Scientists and Miners. The game sounds a bit crap to describe but it really is fun and really needs to be played from start to finish. (Not just a few levels Cody!) I know I can't wait for the follow up to this game.

9/10

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord

This game deserves purchasing just for having the longest title I have ever seen. Seriously though this is a great puzzle game mixed with RPG elements. It is one of those games you can come back to time and time again, simple to play but aren't all the best puzzle games?

8/10

Final Fantasy VII

Call me a cheat throwing this in here with the other PSN games, but in fairness it is available on the Play Station Network so it does count. What needs to be said about Final Fantasy VII? Well it looks a bit shit now, yet after an hour or so of playing you forget that it really hasn't aged that well graphically. Despite this though the same game is still there and is one of the best RPG's of all time.

9/10

When Unlocking Things Goes Wrong

Well I was up early this morning so figured I may as well play more than the 20 seconds of After Burner Climax than I had previously played. I use to always play the original game in the arcades back in the 80`s whenever I used to get chance and it was a joy to play. After Burner Climax is no different, it really stays true to the game play of the original game and is just as fun to play in short sharp bursts.


There is however a problem with the game and that is the ability to unlock things as you play. Normally unlocking things is great, whether its a stronger weapon in a shooter or some other thing that adds to playing the game. Sega have instead managed to make it so that by unlocking things you lose something in the enjoyment of playing the game. Anything you unlock appears in the "EX OPTIONS" which is selectable from the main menu. In here you can turn on anything you unlock by playing the Arcade mode. The problem is after playing it for quite a while you get the chance to turn on things like "Lock On: Auto" this basically shoots everything for you, throw in the "Armor: No Damage" and you don't even need to play the game. (Well apart from moving the controller to the left and right on the canyon levels.


So basically you end up with a game that does everything for you while you sit there moving the controller left or right every few minutes for 30 seconds or so. Whoever thought that this was a good idea needs a good slap. As a result After Burner Climax is a good game that plays as you would expect it to, but then you start messing with the "EX OPTIONS" and the result is something that ends up just no longer being fun to play. So to wrap things up After Burner Climax is a good but short game that starts to lose its shine after about the third play through. It really is a shame as if Arcades were still as popular as they were in the late 80`s people would flock around this game shoving coin after coin in as opposed to people playing it at home for an hour or so and then forgetting about it forever. For the sake of giving it a rating it is worthy of a 6/10.

You Want To Sell Me What?

Over the years we have seen various things for sale in shops such as extra lives, armour, weapons and other things we expect to see in shops while playing video games. Every so often there are some things we don't expect to see such as the chopper and motorbike that appear in Alex Kidd in Miracle World, which really add something to the game play and change the feel of the game. There are probably many other games that do this but Alex Kidd is the first one that springs to mind.

The whole thing that got me thinking of things for sale in video games is Yakuza 3 (As I finally decided to take it off my shelves, unwrap it and finally play the game. It seems reminiscent of Shenmue in some ways, yet is nothing like Shenmue if that makes any sense. (No having to do a pretend job of driving a fork lift truck in the game is a bonus) I do seem to be involved in a fight every few minutes though as random people walk up to me saying that they are bored and do I want to fight. (Just like half the drunks on a Saturday night out for most people in the UK) After a while of fighting you need to replenish your health with food or a drink from one of the shops in Yakuza 3. So I walked into one of the shops only to find this for sale...

Yep that's right! Yakuza 3 will let you buy not just any blow-up doll, they let you buy a "Large Blow-Up Doll" it is really one of the strangest things I have ever come across in a video game. (No pun intended, but hey anything for a cheap laugh) It got me thinking of what other strange stuff you don't expect to see in shops in a video game. I really can't think of anything at the moment though, which is a shame as I am sure there are some great items I have seen and forgotten about from my gaming past. Well I am off to see what Kazuma Kiryu will need this blow-up doll for, it can't be anything that bad though as the Daily Mail and Fox News haven't made an issue of the game. (Well not yet anyway)

30 Something And A Gamer?

So you reach 30+ years old and your time spent playing video games starts to diminish bit by bit as other things get in the way like work and kids. So any time that you get to spend playing anything is a godsend, well I had such an opportunity tonight after we had eaten our tea (Tea is also what we call the evening here in the UK not just a drink) as the kids were playing on the trampoline.

O'Lean the Irish Tramp

After about 10 minutes messing about renaming folders on my PS3. (OCD for the loss, I started putting games into genres before returning them into the correct format of A-Z just 5 minutes later as it was bugging me) then the worst thing in the world happens the kids decide that they want to play on the Wii. The sun is shinning outside, birds are singing and they want to go on the Wii as they are tired from jumping up and down on the trampoline. So here I am using up my valuable gaming time looking for batteries for the controllers and hearing them argue over what game they want to play for 5 minutes. (In the end they went for Wii Sports)

So thats a good 20 -30 minutes wasted so far of my gaming time so far, then Mrs Flea comes downstairs and sits in the garden wanting to speak to me about general crap that's gone on today. Now the one thing I have learned is that if you want more time to do stuff like watch football, UFC, Formula 1 and play games then you really have to pretend that you are interested and spend x amount of time listening to this stuff that's using up my game time.

So basically after about 30 minutes I make an excuse saying its to warm outside so I need to go in and get in the shade. (That's sneaky speech for "Ok you bored me enough, I want to go shoot some stuff online see you bye!") Then just as I was walking in the doorway she says "Oh are we still watching that film with the kids at 7.30" So once again I smile and say sure just so I can get back inside to play anything I can. The only problem is that it is now 7.20 and I haven't played anything at all yet and doesn't look like I will have time until later on tonight at best.

Family life can make you feel this good!

This so it seems is the life of a 30 something gamer with a job and family, or should I say former gamer as it seems to be on days like today. There s always hope that us 30 something gamers can find the time to play tomorrow, but lets face it the chances are slim at best which is one of the reasons you get grumpier as you get older.

Zombie Killing Good?

Well I finally managed to get my hands on "Age of Zombies" last night after a day of not being able to download the game. Apparently the error was down to Sony according to the makers of First Play, if it is Sony who are responsible then much fist shaking is aimed at them from myself.

Age of Zombie while only being a "Mini" is a fun game to play with some piss taking references in the game that I didn't expect. One being on the Egypt level where your character Barry Steakfries says something along the lines of "This reminds me of that rubbish film that spawned a series Star Fence" he then goes on to take the piss saying how the leader of the group couldn't make a bomb out of a paper clip and some string. It really is better seeing the dialogue in game than me trying to remember what the heck actually appears on screen.

Age of Zombies see's you blasting a set amount of er..... Zombies to complete a stage. On the third stage of a level you will fight not only the normal Zombies from the last 2 stages but also a boss. Some of which are more inventive than others such as the Zombie T-Rex and the Mummy. The 1930`s level boss is a bit shitty as its just a car that drives up and down shooting bullets and grenades and that's about as far as I am up to so far. Three levels in with probably only 1 or 2 more left to complete. (It is a Mini after all)

One complaint about the game though is as it is designed for the PSP in mind so the controls aren't as good as they could have been for playing on the PS3. Who wants to press down the Triangle & Square button to shoot diagonally when you should just be able to press in any direction on the 2nd analogue stick. That really isn't the game developers fault though, more Sony's and their lack of vision to include the 2nd analogue stick on the first PSP's that they created, but that's really going off topic. So if you fancy a bit of mindless Zombie killing action in small doses you could do a lot worse than pick up Age of Zombies. If I had to rate it I would give it a solid 7 out of 10 when you factor in that its only around £4 for the game.

Zombie Killing Bad?

In an earlier post I wrote about the epic fail that is First Play, well it seems that the Fail continues with this weeks episode as the Mini (The only thing most people actually downloaded the crap thing for) won't actually download. Whats worse is that "Age of Zombies" actually looks like a half decent game for a change.


All I seem to get is the screen above that says "The following downloads are temporarily unavailable. Please check again later." Well it has now been over 12 hours since I first tried downloading it and it is still not working. So basically I can download the 1.2gig of crap I don't want just so I can download "Age of Zombies" yet can't download the game which is only 21MB in size.

I guess my Zombie killing addiction will have to wait until this crap is finally sorted out which makes Flea a very sad panda.