Rock Band Presents The Warped Tour Pack With the Warped Tour about to get fully underway for this summer, it would make sense for the good people at Harmonix to do something for this tour. By either having an event at some of the locations or at least give some good tracks to be added to the ever growing collection of songs in their database. At least it makes sense to me. Well looks like that was part of their plan, the DLC at least. Read More...

Activision has unleashed Map Pack 2 for download on both the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace. The pack features 4 new maps entitled Banzai, Corrosion, Sub Pens, and Shi No Numa. Banzai takes place in a jungle deep in Japanese territory. Corrosion makes use of a rundown Russian train yard as a battleground. A bombed out Japanese submarine base is the site for Sub Pens. Shi No Numa which is Japanese for ‘Zombie Swamp’ adds a third map to face down the unstoppable zombie hordes. Read More...

As much as one can be in awe of the Final Fantasy XIII and XIV trailers on the giant screen at Square Enix’s booth at E3, I kept walking around to find something else.  The classic jRPG fan in me jumped for joy at the sight of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.  Already out on Wii Ware, picking up and playing Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was like running into a warm hug of an old friend.This sequel, 18 years in the making, tells the story of you, the son of the paladin Cecil and the white mage Rosa, years after the end of Final Fantasy IV.  The great evil of the second moon destroyed by Cecil and Rosa’s party in the original has returned and it is now up to you to stop this evil and return peace to the once quiet planet. Read More...

The inclusion of three Star Wars characters in Soul Calibur IV was a hot button issue that polarized a lot of fans. For some they were an interesting addition to the tale of souls and swords. For others they were cheap, overpowered and had no business being there. Personally, I’m a huge Star Wars fan and I loved having them in the game. I can agree that a little more tweaking should have went in to making them more balanced like most of the other characters in the roster. Everyone knows just how ridiculous fighting against Yoda was, but even still this felt like the truest adaption of lightsaber combat in a video game. Read More...

Batman: Arkham Asylum One game that seemed to be at every one of the big companies booths, sans Nintendo, was Batman Arkham Asylum. It even had it's own booth show casing it as well as an area in the Warner Brothers booth, with leather restraint chair for those who got to bonkers while checking out this game. You might be laughing, but we had to restrain Church at one point. Well he kind of just hopped into it for some reason, but this is not the point of this article. Read More...

With all the huge news coming from Square-Enix, Activision, EA, etc, Konami decided to join in on the fun and make a huge announcement also. How? With a trailer of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Also announced was the shocker of Kojima Productions working with MercurySteam on this title based on the classic game. As I stood in the middle of the Konami show floor looking up on their titan-tron waiting for the trailer to come up, one thing came to mind while I was waiting. "Will this game be another disappointment? Read More...

Now I could go the route that you all think I am going to go with this. Well at least the route that any who have heard our E3 podcasts and also saw the PSN Pulse interview. That is, just go all out using the flashy words, hundred dollar words, spouting awesome catch phases, being the total fan boy of this game and franchise. But you know what? I totally am going that route with this. Read More...

Unfortunately for E3, there wasn't a hands on demo for Mass Effect 2 of any kind, but we did get to see a demo played by one of the Mass Effect 2 team. The first bit of information we were told was the fact that Commander Shepherd is in fact not dead. This is further confirmed by the fact they stated Shepherd will be around for the entire trilogy, which will surely please many fans who didn't want to see all of their efforts from the first game go to waste. When the demo started, it was easy to see that this was a much darker world this time around in Mass Effect. You begin by witnessing Shepherd searching for the assassin, Thane. Read More...

There is something unforgettable about the moment you began playing Wolfenstein 3D.  Fast, furious and in your face, this title made an impact that affected the games industry forever.  For many gamers, including myself, it changed the way we played and thought about games, shooters in particular.  Fast forward 17 years and many first player shooters later, Wolfenstein is getting set up to be released by id Software and during this E3, we saw a demonstration focusing on the supernatural aspects of the game.   Once again, you assume the role of BJ Blazkowicz and it is your mission to uncover and stop the Nazi plot to take over the world. Read More...

Entering Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins demo room, I figured it would be another sit down and watch the developer's play the game type demo. And it began in just that fashion, in which they went over the basic premise of how the Arch Demon has risen and brought along a horde of demons to help wipe out everything in the world. The developers started us off at one of the party camps, and these are mobile locations the player can set up and interact with the various characters within the party. You can give gifts or items to other characters to build your relationship. Read More...

I finally got my hands on Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Nintendo Wii. It was developed by Vanilla Ware, the studio that did Odin Sphere on the PS2, and localized by Ignition Software. The game is beautifully animated and the amount of detail really shines, which showcases the amount of work that went into it. Presented in a 2D side scrolling format, the backgrounds and characters pop out at you. You have two playable characters, Kisuke (male) and Momohime (female), with whom you control using the Wiimote and Nunchuk. Read More...

Druids, are you tired of looking the same as all the other Druids? Would you want to change colors in your bear and cat form? Do you want to dance in bear form in style? Well now you can, as Blizzard has announced new looks for the Druids! In the next major patch for World of Warcraft, druids will be able to find color schemes for the bear and cat forms. Blizzard made the following announcement on their Under Development page: “There will be five different designs for each of these forms for the Horde and Alliance. Night elves can choose to change their cat and bear look at any time by visiting the barber shop and changing their character's hair color, while tauren will be able to change which look they use by switching skin tones in the barber shop -- a new feature for tauren in the next major content patch. Read More...

Last Thursday’s announcement that Midway Games, of Mortal Kombat fame, will be selling off its Mortal Kombat franchise along with its Chicago and Seattle studios is not shocking.  We have watched this proud company take its lumps this past year with threats of closing or being bought, having its debt purchased and ultimately filing for bankruptcy.  Having grown up in Chicago, Midway Games was always a steady force in the Windy City just off of California Ave.  I even applied and interviewed for a job there once upon a time. Read More...

So the inFamous compatibility 2.76 update for the PS3 "improves the playback quality of some PS3 format software. and you will no longer have to restart a game to display trophies after a hard drive upgrade or if you restore from the backup" (like we do that SO much). The software update is most likely aimed at issues that arose during the testing of inFamous, the new game coming from Sucker Punch. GO DOWNLOAD IT NOW WOOOT! *missing from the update is the ability to do cross-game invitations, cross-game microphone chatting, or anything that makes playing a game as easy as XBOX Live. Read More...

If you haven’t heard by now there is another video game movie in the works. And this time it’s for Gears of War (chainsaw FTW). Chris Morgan, who has written such movies as Fast and Furious and Wanted, just wrapped up the script for the upcoming movie and now they are looking for a cast. He is looking for his main actor to play Marcus Fenix, and while others are thinking of actors like Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, or maybe Chuck Norris. That is not the case for Chris, as he is actually thinking about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to play Marcus Fenix. Chris Morgan told MTV, “The Rock is awesome. Read More...