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Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – Demo Impressions

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 28, 2012 in Previews

Few games boast quite the all-star development line-up that Alamur does. In all honesty if I had been personally asked to hand-pick a crew of people to work on the next big RPG I’m almost certain I would have picked these exact people, with the minor exception that I would have added Terry Pratchett to the mix,  for obvious reasons. Ken Rolston, lead designer on both the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is acting as Amalur’s executive designer, ensuring that Amalur is as epic as possible, and you can certainly feel his influence on the game. The universe and lore have been written by the legendary fantasy author R.A. Salvatore, who even went to the trouble of crafting 10,000 years of history for Amalur, and is then brought to life through the wild imaginings of Todd McFarlane, resulting in a game world that is clearly a labor of love. But of course with an all-star cast such as this, expectations for Amalur are high, and so the recently released demo has a hell of a lot to live up to. But does it?
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Geoff Sharp – Tried Anyway

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 27, 2012 in Geoff Sharp

Don’t panic, this is still a gaming site, but I wanted to share a new songe Geoff Sharp has written, called Tried Anyway, which has been written for his second album. But before he goes and adds more instruments to it and mixes it to complete album standards he wanted to see what people thought of it, and what better way to do that than to record the song in his kitchen. Errr….

As always if you enjoy Geoff’s stuff then tell him so! You can also find two other songs of his on the GSharp tab at the top of this site.

Right, back to the games.

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Time For Some Music

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 25, 2012 in Feature, News

Geoff Sharp.

If you’re a regular reader then you may have noticed that a new page, titled GSharp, has popped up at the top of the site, so I thought I’d take a minute and mention what it was and why it’s there. Obviously you can actually go to the page at the top of the screen for the complete story – I’ll just give you the basics here.

Next to gaming, possibly even above gaming, music is the biggest thing in my life, and being a drummer myself I appreciate it when a real musician steps forward and chases their dream. So I’m proud to announce that one of my oldest and dearest friends, Geoff Sharp, has done just that and released his fist album, No Regrets, onto the market. Years back independent musicians didn’t stand much a chance because you had to be in the right place at the right time, and now the music industry is a former shadow of itself, favouring boybands who only get signed because they have the right look to be marketed to thousands of screaming girls. Real musicians are in danger of becoming a thing of the past, but thanks to the Internet people like Geoff can chase their dream of playing music.

As for Geoff, he’s one of the best guitarists I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something as I’ve met a fair few of them. Other than being a killer guitarist he’s a songwriter, singer and bloody good at recording and mastering tracks. If that wasn’t enough he even plays every other instrument in the album. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was just showing off.

Anyway, below this you’ll find two songs taken from his album, so all I ask is that you take a few minutes and listen to them. If you like them go visit his Youtube channel and listen to the rest of his work. If you’re still liking it then go check out his site and drop him a message because he likes nothing more than to hear from fellow music lovers. You can find the links and the videos below.

Geoff Sharp on Youtube

Gsharponline.com

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The Fanboys Are What’s Wrong With Call Of Duty

Posted by Nick Jones on January 25, 2012 in Opinion Piece

I love Call of Duty. To many people, the franchise has only been going downhill after Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but to me, the Modern Warfare series has only improved with time. Although most people preferred that broken mess of a game – Modern Warfare 2 – to the latest installment, I like Modern Warfare 3 a hell of a lot more. I firmly believe there are some improvements that Infinity Ward could continue to make to the formula. But above all else, I still think that the franchise is doing a terrific job.
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Australia Strikes Again: Syndicate Refused Classification

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 21, 2012 in News

 

In case you didn’t know and were planning on moving there, Australia is not a good place to be a gamer. Not only do they have to deal with irate kangaroos kicking them in the head (or at least, in my imagination they do) but their ratings board doesn’t have an 18+ rating for games, despite having one for films. The result is that overly violent games simply can’t receive a classification and therefore cannot be legally sold in shops, essentially banning the game. Many games, including Mortal Kombat, have been brought down by this rather odd system.
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Angry Birds Coming To Consoles At The End Of February Via Retail

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 21, 2012 in News

Fans of Angry Birds have been wondering why the global sensation of firing innocent birds across a screen at pigs has never come to Xbox Live Arcade. But now it looks like that they might just get their wish as the game seems to be set to arrive on consoles,  as well as 3DS, at the end of February via retail. Wait, What?

 In the Primer section of the latest issue of Xbox World magazine there’s a small story titled, “Angry Birds Comes To Consoles”, which states: ” iPhone and iPad mega-hit Angry Birds is set to arrive at the of February on disc. It seems a bizarre and retrograde move for the 59p App Store classic, as this puts it on the same shelves as the likes of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection – three of the best games ever – and Soul Calibur V”.

If you’re still not convinced then the fact that Impact Global Solutions have acquired the rights to produce and distribute over ten peripherals based on the Angry Birds license, including speakers, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 headsets and…..a HDMI cable. Errrr.

Why does that confirm a console version coming in February? Because Impact Global Solutions CEO told MCVUK: “We are delighted to be working with Rovio. The Angry Birds range will be launched in conjunction with Rovio’s release of the games on each associated platform and are available for pre-order now.”

The retail version of Angry Birds was released for the PC last month and retailed for around £10, so you can probably expect console versions to sell for the same price. Still, that’s a considerable price difference between the retail version of the game and the digital download. The other question is why waste a disc for such a small game? And why release a retail version of the game on Playstaion 3 when it’s available on PSN?

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Anonymous Threaten To Bring Down XBox Live In Retaliation For Closure Of MegaUpload

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 21, 2012 in News

Anonymous, the global hacking group, have threatened to bring down the XBox Live servers in retaliation for the FBI closing down the massively popular hosting site Megaupload, which was closed on January 19th due copyright infringement investigations. They’ve also threatened to bring down the UN, US Bank, Capital One, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. That’s one hell of a revenge list, but have Anonymous really considered the implications of pissing off millions of gamers who play shooters on a daily basis?

In case you weren’t aware, Megaupload is a Hong-Kong based site that offers incredibly easy to use online hosting for anybody that is also well know for being used for piracy, for obvious reasons.  The site was shut down by the U.S Justice Department who are investigating the site for copyright infringement and four of the sites owners have been arrested, having been accused of being part of a lucrative scheme to provide content online without compensation the copyright holders.. However it should be noted that uploading copyrighted material is a fault of the users and not the service provider, and as such it’s hard to see what legal basis they have for shutting down the site. Likewise Youtube cannot be held responsible for what its users upload.

Megaupload have already stated that they’re fighting back:

“The company is looking at its legal options for getting back its servers and its domain and getting its servers back up online,” Megaupload’s lawyer Ira Rothken told Reuters. “Megaupload will vigorously defend itself.”

It is really offensive to say that just because people can upload bad things, therefore Megaupload is automatically responsible,” he said.

It should be noted as well that Megauploads shutdown has nothing to do with SOPA, despite what seem people are claiming.

Whether Anonymous are doing the right thing is a point for debate. Their past is a mixed one, with some of their actions being just, some having good intentions but terrible outcomes and others being outright stupid. So which do you think this is? And do really have the ability to bring down Xbox Live?

 

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Resident Evil 6 Announced; Due For Release November 20

Posted by Nick Jones on January 20, 2012 in News, Opinion Piece

As suspected from yesterday’s information concerning what many people interpreted as a teaser for Resident Evil 6, it has been confirmed that this is indeed Capcom’s next project.

Gee, they seem to be extremely confident of this franchise lately. What does that leave us at? Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Resident Evil Revelations, Resident Evil 4 HD, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Resident Evil Code: Veronica HD, and a bunch of terrible Resident Evil movies? Yet I have a feeling I’m missing something. My god, Capcom, chill out with the Resident Evil games. Dead Rising is better anyway.

As for the trailer in question, judging from the seconds of gameplay that I could separate from the CGI cinematics, the formula is going to pretty much remain the same as it has since Resident Evil 4 for this game. That means over-the-shoulder gunplay, paired with emphasis on action rather than survival horror.

Turning the franchise into action games has disappointed a lot of fans, but it doesn’t seem set to change. Maybe this time, Capcom got it right though. After all, Resident Evil 4 was a beacon of excellence, if you ask me. Resident Evil 5, on the other hand, was just everything that was bad about the old members of the franchise with new problems; still not bad, but certainly several steps backwards. But if the little bits of gameplay shown are any indication, it looks like the Gears of War-with-zombies formula is being tweaked a little. And yes, I know Resident Evil 4 preceded Gears of War; I don’t care, that’s what the “fifth” game felt like, and older IPs can still ape new games, like it or not.

But as I said, it looks like the gameplay has been refined, and hopefully that will say a lot for the dated controls. Resident Evil 4 and 5 did not age well, but at least they did better than Code: Veronica, am I right?

As for the story… Well, contrary to what Capcom has said in the past, this is not a reboot. This is very well a sequel, following the events of previous Resident Evil games, although I have to wonder how much more BS this virus… parasite… thing can get. By this point, the “zombies” might as well all be Galactus.

This game is scheduled for release on November 20. Yes, this year. That’s quite a ways away, so I figure that Capcom has enough time to work on this installment. Especially when they’ve been messing with us about it for quite some time. Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised if Capcom had Super Resident Evil 6: Off The Ultimate Turbo Record Gold Edition on the horizon three months later. These names are becoming as outrageous as Super Saiyan jokes.

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Skyrim 1.4 Patch Notes Revealed

Posted by Baden Ronie on January 19, 2012 in News

Bethesda have been hard at work in their mythical Sky Forge crafting another massive update for their rather awesome Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Despite there having been several patches already many players are stuff suffering at the hands of numerous glitches and problems, but considering the monster patch note list below, there’s a damn good chance that the problem bother you has been fixed, and it hasn’t, well, you’ll just have to wait until patch 1.5.

At the moment there’s no concrete release date for the patch, but Bethesda previously mentioned that they were planning on releasing it some time this month, so keep your fingers and toes crossed, ladies and gentlemen.

Enjoy this lovely list of fixes and tweaks.

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Mass Effect 3 Demo Will Drop February 17

Posted by Nick Jones on January 19, 2012 in News

Mass Effect 3‘s demo is coming to XBox 360, PS3, and PC on February 17. This demo will not only include part of the single-player mode, but multiplayer as well, and you’ll get to test out the Kinect voice commands! I mean, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’ll take a second’s notice to respond, though.

If you bought Battlefield 3 and activated an online pass, however, then you’ll get early access and you’ll be able to play the demo on February 14, three days before everyone else. Clever bastards. At least they’re giving us incentive to buy games with online passes rather than holding their multiplayer to ransom and saying “haha, you can’t play online!”

Speaking of which, I should go sell Battlefield 3 now… that multiplayer was terrible. At least I get an early demo to play a game that will be good… I hope.

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