Thursday 31 May 2012

Halo 4: "Armour"

I've got a couple of articles on the way that are unusually optimistic(or at least positive-thinking) by my standards. Garrus, the Gamecube, and Phantasy Star Online are all on their way to this blog.

But for now, let's shoot some more fish in a barrel:




Monday 28 May 2012

"Batman: Under The Red Hood" Review

by Alex Hill


Via fangirlisms.com

I had an idea for a Batman movie featuring a villain who only kills criminals, or convinces criminals to eliminate each other. This was honestly how I thought the last of the Nolan trilogy would go down. Someone who "cleans up" Gotham by doing whatever Batman wouldn't do. It would ask whether or not everyone is worth saving.

I thought it was a mildly clever idea. Turns out I wasn't the only one who thought so. "Batman: Under The Red Hood" tackles this concept. It is a chilling and effective thriller, a story about the repercussions of guilt.



Saturday 26 May 2012

Sony, Ladies And Gentlemen...

Sony patented a thing where they could literally halt your game, at any given moment, right when you're trying to have fun... so they can show you an unskippable commercial. Remember how stupid and out-of-place that Verizon commercial was in Alan Wake? Now image it happened right when you were in the middle of an important fight or something.


I want you to understand something. I mean to really stop and think about this for a moment: These guys are still employed, but the people who made Kingdoms of Amalur are all out of a job now. That is the world we live in.

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Saturday 19 May 2012

Mass Effect 3: "Not Bad, For A Human"

Lance Henrikson talks about the extended Mass Effect 3 Ending DLC in the works. I'm surprised, since I'd heard they weren't going to bring back any of the voice cast for it. Tricia Helfer's coming back for it too, apparently.

This is going to be another addition to my series of rants about why the Mass Effect 3 ending is garbage, but it's also an excuse to gush about Lance Henrikson. What can I say? The man's paid his dues in a cruel line of work, and brought a lot to science-fiction. And as Alien Vs. Predator showed us, he can make the most out of crap. "Not bad, for a human."

But he's got his work cut out for him here.



Thursday 17 May 2012

Activision: "Project Icebreaker"

EA and Activision are like two horses in the Kentucky Derby who are maintaining a steady tie for the lead. Except if the goal for the horses was to be the bigger video game industry scumbag. Sometimes EA will catch a second-wind and pull ahead.

And then we'll find out about Bobby Kotick, Activision CEO hiring shady third-parties to access the computers of two guys he was planning on firing, who helped launch their biggest franchise, weeks before they were about to ink a deal with EA, their competitors. I especially like the part about how they considered, no shit, planning a "fake fumigation" so they could sneak in and access West and Zampella's computers for their e-mail accounts.


And Activision takes the lead!

END OF LINE

~A.H.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Halo 4 Wallpaper

So I get an e-mail from Microsoft telling me about "my piece of the Halo 4 puzzle". Forgive me if I can hardly contain my excitement. <_<


Well, if nothing else, the Halo series usually has some decent Alternate Reality Game promotions. Hell, Halo 2's "I love bees" practically put them on the map. This could be somewhere just barely not approaching the level of fun if I somehow found other people with other pieces to put this thing togeth-

Wait, what's this? If you open a new tab with the picture, it literally says something like: "h4_11"? And if I just adjust the numbers in there, I can get the entire picture?

So, they're confident enough to give you a vague puzzle to promote their upcoming software, but not confident enough that anyone would cheat? No wonder 99% of Reach players are console-modders. Well, I've got nothing better to do:




Thursday 3 May 2012

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Mass Effect 3: "Things I Liked"

This may sound hard to believe, but the ending to Mass Effect 3 didn't go back and destroy everything that was good and pure about this series. But that's not for a lack of trying. I can still enjoy the events that lead up to it, even as it tries desperately to make everything I did across 90 hours completely pointless.

Here is a small list of things the ending could not ruin for me(in no particular order).

(MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU BEEN WARNED):