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Gaming for Life - November 2008

Death to the Red Nintendo Logo

November 30th 2008 10:51


Although, it's been in use for about two years now, no one really noticed or made much of a big deal out of the gray Nintendo logo. But, it wasn't that big of a deal until now. Nintendo Europe recently made the announcement that they had stopped using the red Nintendo logo, which highly confused many people.


Nintendo released the official word that they have exchanged the original red Nintendo logo for the gray, black, and white logo TWO YEARS AGO.

Although, it's not that big of a deal to change the color of the logo, it's just a little odd becuase of the simplicity of the red logo. Nintendo has always been red, SEGA blue, and xBox green.

Many people have been overthinking the change, in the grand scheme of things, nothing has changed in video game sales and it's not going to affect hardware sales. Nintendo fans aren't going to go into an outrage because of the new ban of the use of the "old" red Nintendo logo and refuse the product now. Those who were Nintendo fans 3 years ago, were still a fan with the first signs of the gray logo change, and are still going to be fans with the new official ban of the old logo.

It's just much easier to identify large international companies with a color scheme. I mean we grew up with the red Nintendo logo. It's just going to be a minute before we fully adjust to the new logo.


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News
   


More Ads in Video Games

November 29th 2008 17:47


After Barack Obama campaigned inthe xBox 360 racing game, Burnout Paradise, you can expect that more companies will be advertising in video games from now own. Although Obama created a stir with his ads, you can bet it was just the beginning of a new trend.

Although, no terms have been disclosed yet, there has been word of a deal between massive advertising network and THQ (THQI) to be the exclusive provider of advertising ads in THQs xBox 360 and PC games like the Saint's Row series.


Like mobile ads, ads in video games will definitely provide means for growth, as more people will be reached. Although, it is thought that worldwide spending for video game ads will be under $200 million, but it is thought that it may exceed $1 billion by 2011.



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Tomb Raider: Underworld Review

November 28th 2008 00:12


Lara Croft is one of the most known game icons in the world. She is by far the most popular heroine that you will find, as she explores various ruins, fights human and supernatrual threats, and solves numerous puzzles while she becomes one of the best and greatest archeologies in gaming.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is another game in the Tomb Raider series with Lara Croft, and with the most recent addition to the series, there are more hopes for expansion.

For the most part, you will find that Underworld is a continuation of the original storyline. There will be a quick summary and recap of the players as a refresher from Legend. But, Underworld will start as Lara Croft explores the coordinates that lead her to the Mediterranean Sea. She will investigates, she makes an interesting find.

The storyline of Underworld is pretty good, so if your a gamer that enjoys a good story, you'll find Tomb Raider: Underworld entertaining, to say the least. And, you'll find that the blend of cutscenes and exploration will keep the game moving fast.

The pace of the game is caused by a few adjustments and refinements in the game's mechanics. Where in Legend, you were given a large amound of flexibility with a lot of freedom for your agility and speed, it is pretty retained in Underworld. Althouth, you can still manipulate Lara's acrobatics and scale walls, the creators attempted to build on the basics with the gameplay.

The creators fof Tomb Raider Underwold removed the quick time elements and replaced them with Situational Adrenaline, that will give you the feeling that you need to react in order to avoid a particular threat.

They also made minor adjustments to combat. Where Lara Croft still retains her agility for tumbling and firing, she now has the ability to aim and fire at two enemies at the same time, which is rather useful if you are taking out swarms of bats or other creatures. But, at the same time this new ability hampers the progress of other enemies that attempt to close in on you and perform melee attacks.

In Underworld, Lara Croft has sticky grenades that go off in a specific location, which cuts down the frustration that was in Legend.

You are able to trigger the adrenaline at any time throughout the game, which will slow down the actions of your enemies and make your shots stronger. ou are able to store your adrenaline until you've maxed out your holding, to which you are then able to get close to any enemy and bounce off of them in attempts to a one-shot kill.

There is one main concern with the adrenaline system. It makes a large number of the battles way too easy because you are constantly refreshing your adrenaline, which allows you the ability to move quickly, giving you an edge over your opponent. You can still alter the game's difficulty.

Lara Croft comes with a sonar map that will guide you anywhere in the game, which allows you a 3D picture of everything at all times. This is pretty cool, I guess.



You will also find that Underworld has Field Assistance where if you find yourself stumed, you can access hints through your PDA. This is a nice feature for those who have problems visualizing where they need to go.

The game has slowdown and framerate drops that happen a lot throughout the game, which sucks as it is rather distracting. Although, the point is to be a little distracting to get you out of the visual and aural presentation, but the level of them just pop in and snap into place with odd shadows and flickers of light.

Another of the main concerns with the game is that there are a number of clipping and object detection issues. Lara Croft will frequently move into or through walls or blocks, which will sometimes force her into an animation loop as the game attempts to reconcile movements and areas that she shouldn't be in.

And of course the camera is a pain becuase as you move through the environment, the camera will zoom, pan, and tilt on its own accord without your instruction or direction. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a concern, except the camera will stay in place making it hard to figure out the right jumping angle or location to move.

You will find taht the Xbox has downloadable ocntent, which you won't get with the Playstation 3, which gives the Xbox a slightly better edge.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the graphics and sound quality.... They are pretty good. The animations are well done, and the voices are pretty good.

The game is an average action game, that Lara Croft fans will probably get some good gameplay out of, but personally I find there are a good number of technical concerns with the game.

Check out just a few of the scenes that you will encounter.





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Xbox Automatic Shut Down Feature

November 26th 2008 02:21
Because sometimes heavy gamers will play at all hours of the night, it can be hard to remember to brush your teeth at 4 in the morning, much less turn off your Xbox. This is why there is an auto shut off feature that you can enable so that you aren't using loads of extra power that you don't have to use while you're not even playing your games. The auto shut-off feature will turn off your xBox after 6 hours of idle time, which gives you plenty of time to resume playing after a quick nap, but for longer periods away from your xbox, you'll save power with the auto shut-off feature enabled.

For instructions on how to enable the automatic shut down feature, you'll want to check out Set up Auto Shut-Off for xBox 360.




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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Other, Xbox 360
   


10 Games Kids Shouldn't Play

November 26th 2008 00:15
It's been about 3 years since the National Institute of Media and the Family gave the Entertainment Software Ratings Board a solid 'F' on their video game report card. Well, this year, the grades arein, and they got straight A's.

This means that video games were properly rated for age specifications. This is the first time ever that the Ratings Board got straight A's. The difference being that this year, the Board enforced ratings and gave new tools to parents in findings games for their children.

There are still problems, but most of which lies in the hands of parents, and to remedy this, the NIMF has listed the top 10 games that parents should not allow their childr to play due to excessive bloodshed and brutality.

Those 10 games include:
1. Blitz: The League II
2. Dead Space
3. Fallout 3
4. Far Cry 2
5. Gears of War 2
6. Legendary
7. Left 4 Dead
8. Resistance 2
9. Saints Row 2
10. Silent Hill: Homecoming

They also listed a few that are recommended games, such as
1. Guitar Hero World Tour
2. Rock Band 2
3. Rock Revolution
4. Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
5. Shaun White Snowboarding


Flickr Image by sean dreilinger


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Other
   


Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Review

November 24th 2008 09:19


The PlayStation 3 finally gets its own Naruto video game. It has taken two years, but the PS3 now has the latest from the Ultimate Ninja series from CyberConnect2. The Ultimate Ninja Storm is an anime ninja video game that has cel-shaded graphics and has made fans drool since April of 2008 when the first trailer was released


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Review, Action, PlayStation 3
   


Cops Blame Driving Games For Crap Young Drivers

November 23rd 2008 12:10


In a way, I can see it... I mean teens play driving games and action video games more often than strategy and role-playing games. It only makes sense that driving can affect how teens drive in the real world


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Other, Driving
   


Twilight Video Game

November 22nd 2008 17:09


I'm not sure if you have seen the previews for the new Twilight movie that is coming out, but I for one can't wait to see it. I'm really big into vampires and love. Not in a fetish manner though. But, anyway... Teh Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer are best selling books about a romantic, teen love affair with a vampire. The book series have sold well over 17 million copies world wide. I expect the movie to do just as well, especially as it has already outpaced High School Musical 3: Senior Year in advanced ticket sales


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News, Nintendo DS
   


National Geographic Will Make Video Games

November 20th 2008 22:59
The National Geographic Society, which is most known for their long-running science and educational magazine, has made the announcement that they will be creating video games. The company will launch three gaming products that will be followed by three (to date) video games. The games will be developed for major consoles, handhelds, and mobile platforms.

The gaming division of the National Geographic company will try to connect with people via the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, PC and Mac, the PS3 Network, and the iPhone. They will also create Flash games online at nationalgeographic.com/channel


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News
   


Halo Wars Will Never Go To PC

November 18th 2008 00:34


Graeme Devine told VideoGamer that there is absolutely not chance that Halo Wars will ever be released as a PC game. He said that Microsoft may announce it, but he'll say that it will never ever happen


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News, Strategy, Xbox 360
   


OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator Gaming Headband

November 14th 2008 19:58


Ok so this contraption may not look like much, but this gaming headband is supposed to work off of your brainwaves to deliver the best gamin experience. Well, it really doesn't. Instead the gaming headband uses the muscles of your forehead instead of the actual brainwaves


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Other, PC
   


WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Review

November 11th 2008 00:12


Yes, there is another wrestling game, much less another SmackDown VS Raw game... But since it's been released and since we're all playing it, I'm writing a review for those who haven't played it yet


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Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia Review

November 10th 2008 21:32


Ok, so I will admit that I'm not much of a Pokemon fan, but there have been some ok Pokemon games taht have kept my interest for more than an hour or so. Pokemon Ranger is a little more in detail than some of the other games, especially considering that you're no longer limited to cutting grass, flying, or pushing boulders, you're given access to a variety of creatures with a variety of strengths and weaknesses. You are able to complete each mission and quest with whichever creature that you want


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Review, Role-Play, Nintendo DS
   


Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review

November 9th 2008 18:41


The first Madagascar was probably one of the better animated films of the year, but with the second film, it's not as great, if you ask me, but anyway, we're all here about the Madagascar Escape 2 Africa video game, not the movie. Although, if you are looking for a purely entertaining family friendly movie, Madagascar Escape 2 Africa is definitely it


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No Portable Xbox

November 7th 2008 05:17


So, you've go portable Playstations (Portable Sony Playstation - PSP) and the Nintendo DS, but Microsoft doesn't have its own handheld game console. I mean, it only makes since that one of the leading gaming consoles, the Xbox has a handheld version to compete with the other handheld consoles


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Other, Xbox 360
   


Fallout 3 Censored

November 6th 2008 08:16
So, Australia has has rejected Fallout 3 becuase of drug references. The game has to be edited so that Australia will approve the game, but since one country rejected the game, everyone has to suffer the censorship.

An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories. I didn't want people continuing to assume the version in Australia was some altered version when it's not. There are no references to real world drugs in any version of Fallout 3."

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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News, Xbox 360
   


New Wii Console?

November 4th 2008 08:08
Although, Microsoft and Sony have tweaking their console SKUs, Nintendo has refused to alter the Wii SKU. I mean, with the tremendous success of the console, there hasn't been much need to alter or change anything.

Well, there are rumors that Nintendo is going to alter the Wii SKU. A few people at Codename Revolution have found a UPC code that one anonymous source claims is the new Wii console SKU


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News, Nintendo Wii
   


Californians Sue Over Xbox 360 Flaw

November 2nd 2008 18:59
It was bound to happen at some point in time. A lawsuit has been filled over an XBOX 360 flaw. Silly, if you ask me, but hey, some people find their gaming more of a passion that I do. California inhabitants filled the lawsuit becuase of the Xbox 360 Ring of Death, or RROD.

Basically, the lawsuit alleges that there too many Xbox 360 consoles have experienced hardware failures, and that Microsoft knowingly manufactured the faulty game consoles


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Posted By: Whitney - Category: News, Xbox 360
   


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