GameSpotting!

Get a CoD: World at War Beta Key, on us!

Posted on October 22nd, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Giveaways, Site, Xbox360.

This drawing is currently closed and the winners have been sent their keys. Thanks to everyone who entered!

A few weeks ago, Treyarch announced a multiplayer beta of CoD: World at War, for their “friends and family”. We’re doing something similar. We’ve gotten our hands on 5 beta keys that we’ll give out to 5 randomly picked commenters on this post.

All you have to do is comment on what you think will be the best part of World at War.

One key per household. If you try to enter more than once (and we can tell if you have), you will be removed from the drawing and not receive a key.

Giveaway ends this Thursday (October 23) at 5:30PM PST. We’ll send the winners their keys via email then.

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Getting Dead Space? EA has some free DLC for you

Posted on October 16th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Xbox360.

If you own the Xbox 360, and are getting/own Dead Space, it might be wise to pick up some of the DLC on the Marketplace. EA has released a special “Elite Suit” that can be used on your character. The level 5 suit improves toughness and expands your inventory slots and the best part, it’s free. So pick it up while it’s still availible, according to EA it won’t be free for long.

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Browse the Xbox 360 Marketplace from your PC

Posted on October 10th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Xbox360.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Microsoft created a site called the Xbox Live Pipeline which allowed players to browse the Xbox Live Marketplace from your Computer. It was mainly just a way to look at pretty pictures, and not much else. The site closed in the beginning of 2007, and started redirecting to xbox.com.

Today, Microsoft announced the ability to browse the Xbox 360 Marketplace from your PC that will be implemented around the time the new dashboard releases (November 19th).

Players will be able to browse the Marketplace and queue content to be downloaded automatically the next time the Xbox is turned on.

Additionally, players can purchase content from the site. However, there was no mention if the site will accept additional online methods of payment (like Paypal), besides a credit card or Microsoft Points.

This move is a pretty cool move for Microsoft, though it is somewhat redundant. Beats browsing via the Xbox 360 sitting right in front of you….right?

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Bungie reveals new Campaign addon

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Xbox360.

Last night, Bungie revealed the second part of its original Halo 3 trailer (prepare to drop) as the trailer for the new Halo 3 campaign addon, Recon (Recon is whole new game using the H3 engine). Halo 3: Recon tells the story of what happens on Earth before Master Chief falls to Earth at the beginning of Halo 3. In the expansion, due in Fall 2009, you play as an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) holding down Africa waiting for Master Chief to return. The expansion is supposed to be tougher (as you do not have any shields), and so you will have to employ more stealth than before.

According to Microsoft, Recon will ship with new multiplayer maps (that are different from the Mythic Map Pack) and will improve on Halo 3’s Forge Engine (yay).

You can watch the full trailer (includes new content) here. The game will be availible in stores on a disk (not on marketplace currently). It looks mighty pricey.

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New Xbox 360 Dashboard releases November 19th

Posted on October 9th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, Xbox360.

Microsoft announced yesterday that the new Xbox 360 dashboard (complete with ugly Mii rip-offs) will be availible on November 19th. Microsoft also stated that those avatars will start showing up on your gamercard. Eww..

The new Dashboard will feature Netflix streaming, Live Party Support (across every game [up to 8 players]), private chats with more people (rather than a 1 on 1 chat), and much more. Now if they would get rid of those ugly Avatars….

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SBCG4AP: Baddest of the Bands Leaked Gameplay Footage

Posted on October 7th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Wii.

We managed to get our hands on some gameplay footage for the next episode of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, Baddest of the Bands. For your enjoyment, we’ve put it on the internet for all to see.

Enjoy:

Optionally, you can watch it here.

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SBCG4AP: Strongbadia the Free!

Posted on September 20th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Review, Wii.

“Onward to Strong Badia, Strong Badia the Free!”

In Strongbadia the Free, the King of Town has imposed an email tax where all send and received emails cost one swisscake roll like snack item. Strongbad, being the email checker he is, calls for a rebellion against the King of Town.

He’s immediately placed under house arrest for calling for a rebellion…in an email. From there, he has to escape his house before he goes insane from his little whiny brother, Strong Sad.

Once you escape (with some help from the protesters outside your house), you move to Strongbadia, where you call a meeting with other fellow “countrymen.” When the countrymen do not want to go to war, they secede from Strongbadia into their own independent nations.

From here, it becomes your primary goal to rally all the nations to help you conquer the King of Town. Using logic, and a variety of silly ways you can reach your objective.

“Hey, that’s the name of this…” “SHUT UP!”

One of the first things you’ll notice is the amount of changes in Strongbadia the Free. The game no longer has trophies that you have to unlock by doing certain things. You can collect flags of each country. The map has changed, mainly because the King of Town ate your old one (odd….). In following from the last game, Snake Boxer 5 is replaced by Math Kickers: Featuring the Algebros, which is a parody of those math games and Double Dragon.

And you can go into Strong Sad’s room now (not that you would even want to go in there anyway). Emails are less emphasized and you start out with all your email “hints” that are “supposed to guide you through the game” according to TellTale. It’s probably not the best idea to read them all until you get at least three or four countries. The story is a lot better than Homestar Ruiner, but that might be because it’s more linear. You have a tad more freedom to explore and use the metal detector in more places.

“We can never be truly free until we reject the fat-thority of the King of Town”

As with every game, there are some problems that make this game far from perfect. But doesn’t mean that it sucks. It has it’s good points, and not-as-great points.

Pros:

• It has a great story that is more linear than the first episode
• The puzzles are a bit tougher than Homestar Ruiner
• The graphics have improved
• Featuring more characters!
• Strongbadia the Free has better jokes
• It doesn’t feel repetitive

Cons:

• In some puzzles it can be hard to tell if they are making a reference to an sbemail or if they want you to do something completely different. The 2^nd appearence of Strong Sad is like this.
• You can’t take over Bub’s country, but it isn’t obvious enough. He does say he’s neutral, but when has that ever stopped anyone from invading?
• It felt a tad short
• It’s a really big file, you will have to delete several other games in order to play on the Wii. Or buy an SD card.

Overall, it’s a pretty good game. I’ve never been of point and click games, but this game is an exception. I do wish it was a bit longer though. If you are not a Strongbad fan, play the demo. Otherwise, get the game. I rate this game: 4/5

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Battlefield: Bad Company is Good Company, a review

Posted on August 27th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PS3, Review, Xbox360.

Welcome to Bad Company, Soldier!

Soldier? More like cannon fodder. The 222nd, Bad Company, is the “expendable” portion of the military made up of the leftovers and troublemakers that the Army bunches together rather than throw them into prison. It has the highest mortality rate of the whole army.

Which explains why the the division is only made up of three rejects (You [Preston Marlowe], Haggard, Sweetwater) and a Sergeant (Redford) who rather go fishing. The game opens with some wisecrack jokes and some great humor (a reoccurring theme in this game). After you are introduced to everyone, you hop on a truck and ride off to your next position. Redford proceeds to tell you everyone’s backstories. Haggard, the not so bright demolition expert, got transferred to B-Company because he blew up an army ammo cache and the officer’s latrine, Sweetwater was “promoted” to the position because he uploaded a virus into the military’s secure network and Redford was transferred when he made a deal with the army to have his term shortened in turn of leading B-Company.

So you’re driving down the road, with a helicopter that flies over you head going the opposite direction and Sweetwater starts to get tense. Suddenly, the whole area gets bombarded, and DICE gives you a first look at the explosive power of the Frostbite engine, which allows 90% of the terrain to be destructible.

And then you die. Game over. I rate this game, a 5/5!

Oh wait, you aren’t dead. Just sleeping/fainted. The game takes this opportunity to teach you the basics as a series of “Are you okay? Look up. Look Down. Shoot those Barrels. Bounce Around. Duck. Make me a sandwich.” Maybe that last one was improvised.

What’s Single Player really like?

Well, to put it in one word, fun. This game makes sure you have a good time playing it. The humor fits the situation and rarely feels forced. The game wants you to blow stuff up. Make a mess, they don’t care, they will probably be dead anyways. Run in, guns blazing, blow up everything. While the list of levels are short, they are very large and free roaming. And the game gives you a list of collectibles (guns) and gold bars, which are like the Halo 3 skulls. Everyone is getting tired of the army, until they find their first gold bar.

“Wars are fought for a number of reasons, and sometimes, if the one they gave you isn’t good enough, you might need to find your own”

From there on, we pretty much carry out A-Team style in the most bad ass way. The game doesn’t require you to find your own medic in single player, nor does it require you to heal your teammates (who are invincible). Enemy AI is decent, player AI is pretty strong, but unless I missed something, I haven’t really found them actually killing the other guys (normally I do it before they can).

I think my favorite parts of Single Player was blowing stuff up, the locations, the characters, and the dialog. The story was great, too, but DICE gave away some of it already during their advertising. So you can pretty much figure out what happens up until you get the first gold bar.

How’s Multiplayer?

Out of the box, there is only one multiplayer gametype, Gold Rush. Gold Rush is like one flag CTF with two teams; Attackers and Defenders. Attackers have limited respawns and can get more by destroying gold crates by either arming a crate or just shooting at it. The Defenders have to protect the crates by taking out the Attackers and defusing the bombs placed on the crates. If the all the crates are destroyed the Attackers win, if the attackers respawn bar is completely depleted, the Defenders win.

DICE recently released a Conquest mode, which I’m not a huge fan of. Basically, get more CPs than the other team to win.

All your stats are available online, with the exception of how much more EXP it takes until you rank up. As you rank up, you receive credits which you can buy new guns with.

“Now that’s what I call an explosion!”

The graphics in this game are great, they are very detailed, from far away and up close. The music fits perfectly with this game. It doesn’t suddenly break out into techno while you are trying to sneak into a base or something. Explosions are really explosions, not some crappy blast. If you want boom, they got it. The multiplayer maps are very nice and open with quite a few places for cover. It’s fun.

“It’s like a real live palace. It’s like uh..uh…”

It’s not all perfect. The game has a few bugs that look better in a list.

• Sometimes, you’ll be running up stairs and end up going right through the wall.
• When jumping up terrain, you can lag between when you pressed the button and when your guy jumps
• You can get killed by nothing
• When you drive a vehicle and get out, sometimes you get out right in front of it. And if you were driving fast, you will die.
• Some objects will be magically floating
• When you want to play on a specific map, the game often chooses a different one
• Sometimes, teammates won’t show up as friendly until after you shoot them.
• Friends very rarely end up in the same squad or team

Multiplayer on some maps can be annoying. One of the Gold Rush maps, Harvest Day features infinitely respawning tanks that respawn instantly. It’s annoying if you are defending as very few people play as demo man. Also, there is very very very little splash damage to the point you would think there isn’t any at all. Respawns take forever in multiplayer.

All in all, you would game is pretty much standard from any other military combat game, right? Wrong. This ain’t a serious military shooter, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy this game.

If you are thinking about purchasing the game, you might want to rent the game first or maybe play the demo. I rate it a 4.5/5.

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Force demo is Unleashing next week

Posted on August 16th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: DS, Gaming, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox360.

The new Star Wars game, Force Unleashed, will be “unleashing” onto the PS3 and the Xbox 360 marketplace August 21st. According to LucasArts, the demo places you in the TIE Fighter Construction Facility level that has been taken over by a Jedi general named Rahm Kota. Your mission? Kill everything (though you aren’t a crazed killer [the game isn't as dark as it sounds]).

Not only that, but LucasArts is also throwing a tutorial level into the demo as well (which according to them, is very important [not that any other demo we've played has not had a tutorial level in it]).

The full game releases September 16th for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PS2 and PSP.

Spike TV will be running a dedicated night to the release of the new game (much like they did for Halo 3).

Stay tuned.

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Strongbad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1 comes out next week

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming, PC, Wii.

TellTale Games announced that SCG4AP episode one will release on August 11th for both the PC and the Wii (via the WiiWare store). The episode costs 1000 Wii Points (or $8.95 for PC).

If you are buying PC, you can preorder it now, and get it when it comes out.

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Telltale Games to produce new Wallace and Gromit series

Posted on July 24th, 2008 by MASA.
Categories: Gaming.

Featuring the hilarious duo of claymation, Telltale Games (makers of the revived Sam & Max series and the new Strongbad Game) announced today that they will be working on another new series called Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Very little is known about the new series, and Telltale is planning to go into more detail this Monday (also the rumored day that Strongbad’s Cool Game For Attractive People will release).

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