Final Fantasy XI A Shantotto Ascension Trailer [HQ]

This new content will give fans of the series a re-introduction to one of the most beloved characters in the FFXI lore, the overbearing ever-rhyming Doctor Shantotto.

Final Fantasy XI A Shantotto Ascension Trailer [HQ]
Developer: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release: Q4/2009
Genre: RPG
Platform: X360/PC/PS2
Publisher: Square Enix
Website: www.playonline.com/ff11us

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition Unlocks Trailer [HD]

The Bad Company must fight their way through snow covered mountains, thick jungles, and dirty villages, in this sequel. An arsenal of the best weapons accompanies the crew while they destroy anything that gets in their way.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition Unlocks Trailer [HD]
Developer: Digital Illusions
Release: 3/2/2010
Genre: FPS
Platform: PS3/X360/PC
Publisher: EA
Website: http://badcompany.ea.com/

Borderlands PC Launch Trailer [HD]

This sci-fi first person action game combines first person action with player customization and vehicular combat. The game also offers a near endless variety of missions, environments, enemies, weapons, item drops, and character customization. With online co-op, real time physics, and life like character animations for incredible layers of depth.

Borderlands PC Launch Trailer [HD]
Developer: Gearbox Software
Release: 10/20/2009
Genre: Action/RPG
Platform: PS3/X360/PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Website: www.borderlandsthegame.com

Champions Online Blood Moon Developer Diary Trailer

Blood Moon has risen! Join the fight against Takofanes in Millennium City, become a Werewolf or Hunter on Monster Island, or jump into Zombie Apocalypse PvP.

Champions Online Blood Moon Developer Diary Trailer
Developer: Cryptic Studios
Release: 10/27/2009
Genre: MMO/RPG
Platform: X360/PC
Publisher: Cryptic Studios

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony Review

Ride off into the sunset in your new tank.

October 28, 2009 – The GTA IV saga closes out with The Ballad of Gay Tony, an over-the-top, explosive $20 downloadable episode. Like the first episode, The Lost and Damned, you’ll need a copy of GTA IV to play the downloadable version of The Ballad of Gay Tony. For those without Xbox Live (for shame!) or who no longer own GTA IV, you can purchase GTA: Episodes from Liberty City from your local games store. The $40 disc contains both GTA IV episodes, but not the main game itself.

In The Ballad of Gay Tony, you take on the role of Luis Lopez who works for the title character. Where GTA IV star Niko Belic and Lost and Damned anti-hero Johnny Klebitz are men of little means attempting to rise up in the world, Luis has already made his transition from rags to riches. Tony Prince, owner of the biggest straight and gay nightclubs in Liberty City, took Luis under his wing and made him something. The Ballad of Gay Tony isn’t about living in squalor. You live well and you work for the richest men in the city.

You might be wondering why this episode isn’t called “The Ballad of Straight Luis.” There are two reasons for this: a) Rockstar’s smart enough not to give a downloadable episode a terrible name and b) This is Tony’s story viewed from Luis’ perspective. Luis’ rise to the top happens before the beginning of Gay Tony and just about every action he takes in the game is tied to Tony’s story, not his own. Gay Tony is more about the side characters — who are wonderfully outrageous — than it is about Luis. This makes for some entertaining cutscenes, but the story itself (which follows the trail of the stolen diamonds from GTA IV to its conclusion) isn’t very compelling. Luis is uninteresting, overshadowed by the big personalities that surround him.

Many of the missions take place in Algonquin, Liberty City’s version of Manhattan. Though there are a few early missions that tie into Luis’ old life, they are throwaways and very quickly the story focuses on the problems of Gay Tony. The missions are jobs for some of the most unstable people in the city, including Tony, the ridiculous Yusuf Amir, and the bat-s*** crazy Russian mobster, Bulgarin. While there are still the standard crop of “these guys just betrayed you, shoot your way out” GTA missions, there are a number of others that are more over-the-top than anything in GTA IV or The Lost and Damned.

Bulgarin, for example, is obsessed with owning Liberty City’s hockey team, the Rampage. So much so that he sends Luis on a few missions to strong-arm the owner. And I mean strong arm in the GTA sense — out a window. At one point, you leap out of a helicopter and parachute onto a rooftop, wax some guards, throw an innocent man out a window, then take a leap of faith from 20 stories up. Don’t worry, you have a second chute you can pull as you make your escape, landing in the back of a moving getaway truck.

The real star of Gay Tony, though, is Yusuf. This guy is lovable but completely nuts. He just wants his Arab Sheik father to be proud of him. What do you get for the man who has everything? How about stealing an attack chopper or a subway train? Or maybe you construct the tallest building in Liberty City? Money is no object to Yusuf and Luis has no objections to killing for cash. The two make an excellent team.

Of course, bigger jobs mean bigger toys to play with and The Ballad of Gay Tony is packed with weapons that give a big bang. Helicopters play a larger role, which is both good and bad. It’s certainly faster and easier to travel in a chopper and the new ones are stocked with weapons, but mid-air battles are still a challenge. Why does Rockstar include a lock-on for guns when you’re on foot but not when you’re in a helicopter? There are a few missions that require you to do battle in the air and all are a challenge simply because it’s difficult to target enemies. The high-flying elements are a welcome part of the Gay Tony storyline, but they should have been refined.

Continue Reading…

DJ Hero Review

Hope you saved room for one more plastic instrument.

October 26, 2009 – For many, exactly what a DJ does up in that DJ booth at the club is a mystery. But now you can find out with DJ Hero, the latest in the never-ending line of Hero games from Activision. Because this is a new type of music game, there’s a lot to explain, but let’s get this out of the way first: DJ Hero is fantastic. It’s one of the best games I’ve played this year and one of the best music games I’ve ever played. Hopefully you’ve saved space for one more plastic instrument in your living room, because you’re gonna’ want to have DJ Hero on hand for your next party.

DJ Hero goes back to the simpler times of music games before there were world tours and fans to earn. You work through tiers of songs and unlock new mixes, characters, and costumes by earning stars — but that’s pretty much all you have to worry about. This simple design puts the focus on the music, which is excellent. DJ Hero has one of the best and certainly most diverse track lists of any music game. Unless you listen to country music exclusively, you will find songs here you love.

Even better, the 102 licensed tracks have been mashed-up to create 93 original songs that you won’t hear anywhere else. 50 Cent is mixed with David Bowie, Beastie Boys are mixed with Blondie, and Vanilla Ice is mixed with MC Hammer. Many mixes were created by the in-house DJs at developer Freestyle Games, but a healthy amount was produced by well-known disc jockeys like DJ Shadow and Grandmaster Flash. The entire soundtrack is superb and could easily stand on its own outside the game. If you just want to hear the music you can enable Party Play and sit back while the mix takes care of itself (you won’t earn any points, though).

DJ Hero also looks great with sweeping, dynamic camera shots of the club gettin’ crunked. You can’t create your own DJ but there are a bunch of amusing unlockable characters, including superstar DJs like Daft Punk and Z-trip. I only wish the DJs’ movements were more in synch with the track, because there are times when you’re furiously scratching and your avatar somehow has both its hands in the air.

A new type of music game means there’s a new controller you’ll have to learn how to use. DJ Hero comes with the turntable controller. Half of it is the record platter with three face buttons and the other half is the mixer that includes the cross fader, effects knob, euphoria button (which enables DJ Hero’s version of star power), and the native controls for whichever system you’re playing on. These halves can be separated and flipped around for left-handed players.

The controller feels sturdy and it’s a lot of fun to use. If you’ve never laid your hands on a turntable and mixer before it will likely feel very alien, but DJ Hero includes a helpful tutorial (hosted by Grandmaster Flash) to walk you through everything and the “beginner” and “easy” difficulty settings live up to their names. Whatever difficulty you’re playing on you won’t ever fail a song. That’s not how DJ Hero rolls. If you aren’t performing so hot the sound will cut out and you won’t earn as many stars, but that’s the most punishment the game will dish out. What DJ Hero is lacking is a practice mode that lets you slow down the music and work it out at a slower pace, as you’ve been able to do in Guitar Hero for years. You’ll wish you could slow things down when you get to the Scratch Perverts mixes in the depths of the track list.

When playing a song you’ll find the familiar colored symbols coming towards you as you tap the turntable’s face buttons in time with the music. But when it’s time to scratch you have to hold down the corresponding button and move the turntable back and forth. On lower difficulty settings you can move the turntable any way you like, but later on you’ll have to follow onscreen arrows that indicate whether to push it forward or pull it back. Like Guitar Hero, I find DJ Hero becomes more fun and rewarding on higher difficulty levels.

Then there’s the cross fader, which you’ll have to push left and right in correspondence with the onscreen audio stream. Think of it like an audio gate: when the cross fader is in the center position the audio from both record A and B is allowed through, but by pushing it to either side you can close the gate on one record and isolate the other audio source.

Continue Reading…