Dating in WoW, Hacking in Orange and 360 goes VC – Welcome to the column that pretends to go by an acronym but then realizes it just isn’t quite cool enough known as Dare to Play the Game.
Welcome to another addition of Dare to Play the Game. I’m addicted to Puzzle Quest. Big time. So much, Sarah and I are two achievements from finishing up the whole bloody thing. Lord Bane and Level 50 are the only things left. I would venture to say Lord Bane goes down long before level 50 since we are both about level 35 and just finished rebuilding Sartek. In fact the only thing I’m really messing with in other games besides that is Smackdown vs Raw 2007 and working on some small achievements there. I’m pretty determined to crack open Half Life Orange by weekend time. I’m split on Mass Effect, I know it looks awesome and I do want it in my collection but we’ll see if I can hold out until Christmas.
Morgan is telling you to read this column. She’s looking right at the camera in a sweet and innocent way and telling you to get off your fat ass and send me some money via paypal. She could also be telling that Naruto needs a new slogan or that she had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich yesterday. Mmmmmmm, peanut butter and jam.
Xbox 360
Some of the contents of Microsoft’s Fall Update for the 360 are now public knowledge, courtesy of the Official Xbox Mag. Highlight? The 360 gets its very own Virtual Console, with original Xbox games to be added to the Marketplace. The first available games include Halo, Fahrenheit, Fable, Crimson Skies (wonderful!), Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3. Each of those will set you back 1200 Microsoft points (USD$15). Also confirmed for the update is that Europe will finally be getting the video marketplace. So! December 4’s the day. Go circle it in your best red pen. In the meantime, feel free to wonder aloud what else will be in store. And how long it’ll be until you can download Jet Set Radio Future.
This is all part of Xbox Live turns 5 and all that goodness in addition to the fall update. In an added bonus between Thursday and Friday you will also be able to download Carcassonne for free on Xbox Live Arcade. That’s great because I had almost bought that game several times and to get it for free is a nice bonus. So, onto the Xbox Download Service. I’m mixed on this and I’ll tell you why. It’s good because there are a lot of good games on the Xbox and they deserve to live on. 1200 points isn’t bad, though I think 800 or 1000 would have been a better price point. Especially when you can get Crimson Skies for $5 or Fable for $10 used in disc form. But I appreciate the effort. However, my concern is we already have something known as Backwards Compatibility. My guess is that there will be no new updates to that (cause that would shoot themselves in the foot). That is indeed unfortunate as I always look forward to new additions every three months. I think this was a nice selling point for the 360 and there were valuable titles that were left out intentionally or not. The list they are starting with on the download service are already in the BC list, every last one of them. I own Fable as well as Halo and Crash Bandicoot. I also own Burnout 3 for PS2. This service will probably have nothing for me for a very long time. In addition for those who do like the service will probably have to buy an elite or a 120gb hard drive. Xbox games probably require a couple gigs each of data. A 20 gig won’t cut it for very long. We will see how it plays out.
PC
Yes, you read that correctly. Some enterprising folks have put together a Warcraft social networking site with the specific purpose, as they put it, of ” Provide[ing] a simple and intuitive website which assists and facilitates the building of relationships between World of Warcraft enthusiasts.” Now given the name of the site, one would assume that these “relationships” are meant to be romantic in nature although whether they are meant to be real life or in-game dates is unclear. Maybe both? I just wonder if they’ll be able to drag people away from the game long enough to actually go on dates.
Well it does make sense, I’ll give it that. There are plenty of marriages on WoW; they even sell bridal gear for RP purposes. However, how long before they have a commercial similar to the EHarmony site:
“Hi, I’m Joe, I play an Undead Mage and I’m Lisa, I play a Blood Elf Hunter. We met on the world of Datecraft.com”
“Yeah, I filled out this personality profile where I mentioned that I was into playing computer games where I could be an evil character and say cool things like ‘FTW’ and name my guilds after Breakfast cereals”
“My profile featured similar things like eating Breakfast for dinner and breaking wind shortly after my Undead Mage would do this sweet dance that he always does, our profiles matched near instantly”
“We’ve been together 6 months and I proposed to her in game. She said yes!” “We are hoping to have kids soon” *worried look on Joe’s face* “In game, of course!”
Of course it won’t be them actually in the commercial. It will be their characters and their voices pre-recorded. They are way too busy raiding an Alliance camp or something.
PC
In this week’s Steam update, Valve has revealed they have updated the Source SDK for games included in The Orange Box. This means modders will now be able to easily create new maps and content for their favorite games including Half-Life 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. You can access the SDK through the “Tools” tab in your friendly neighborhood Steam client. If they like your mod enough, you may even find it featured on the Steam site. Good luck and happy modding!
Nice! Well if you have the PC version. I really wish they would include level editors with more 360 games, it is down right non-existent. The RPG Makers never did that well (even though I own all three) and regular retail games hardly ever include anything. Remember Excitebike for the NES? It had a level editor (if you don’t believe me, go look!) It was simple, but sadly so much fun. That’s all it takes. You know what I would give if Castle Wolfeinstein 3d came out for Xbox Live and included a level editor? Or like a Lode Runner game with level editor. We be all over that! Especially if we could trade levels between other users. It’s an area that console gaming really needs to explore because PC gaming has this down by leaps and bounds.
Ugh, well starting this week; pictures of the Xbox Live releases are going to be a lot harder to come by. On Xbox.com they stopped featuring screenshots of the game and just put up a silly blurb of it. Sorry folks, I don’t like it either. The first title is a Shrek….ummmm okay, are you kidding me? It’s a Shrek puzzle game. It will feature characters from the third movie. If you download this, then you either have a kid who absolutely adores the Shrek movies or you are gay. End of story. Let’s move on.
Screwjumper! besides having a cool name looks to be a much better title this week. SJ! is a platforming game where you are going into the depths of the Underworld. Your mission, drive back the aliens back to their home world by laying havoc to their mining equipment. Single player and split screen multiplayer modes are available. Oh who am I kidding, download Carcassonne this week when it becomes free. I’m just bitter about the increased effort for screenshots.
Okay, they have to be running out of NES titles or at least decent ones. Volleyball, really? It’s not even Kings of the Beach which was actually a very good volleyball game for the NES. 6 people per side with easy to use controls. So it’s not even beach volleyball, its the volleyball that you see on tv during the olympics. In other words, change the channel and move on.
Axelay was one of those games that not many people have heard about but is an excellent game. A very nice shooter that made use of Mode 7 and parallax scrolling. It was primarily sci-fi based, however bosses made uses of fantasy aspects and included witches and ogres. The weapons were well done and given to the player as you progressed through the game. The music was also expertly done by Souji Taro. Unfortunately a sequel never materialized, partly due to the collapse of the creation team.
This is not a shooter involving the dog from Blue’s Clues I swear. This is a NeoGeo title with extremely beautiful graphics that had an insectarian named Blue and his quest to save the planet and keep its inhabitants from becoming slaves. The planet had been changed into one filled with pollution. Sounds like something out of Ted Turner’s playbook. Blue’s main weapon was a leaf and this could flip enemies on their heads and throw them at other enemies. Hrmmm, okay. Different. Axelay is probably the strongest recommendation for this week.
PS2
Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
Need for Speed ProStreet
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
Boogie
Dancing with the Stars
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns
King of Fighters XI
Monster Jam
Petz Catz 2
Petz Dogz 2
Petz Horsez 2
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
PSP
Medal of Honor Heroes 2
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command
Alien vs Predator: Requiem
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus
Sonic Rivals 2
PS3
Beowulf
Need for Speed ProStreet
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
Assassin’s Creed
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
Xbox 360
Need for Speed ProStreet
Beowulf
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
Blacksite: Area 51
Assassin’s Creed
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
Monster Jam
Soldier of Fortune: Pay Back
America’s Army: True Soldiers
Wii
Cabela’s Big Game Hunter
Need for Speed ProStreet
Smarty Pants
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
Cars: Mater-National
Spongebob: Atlantis Squarepantis
Super Mario Galaxy
Geometry Wars: Galaxies
Medal of Honor Heroes 2
Petz Catz 2
Petz Dogz 2
Petz Horsez 2
Rayman Ravings Rabbids 2
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity
DS
Need for Speed ProStreet
Orcs & Elves
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends: Imagination Invaders
Mortal Kombat
Baby Pals
Contra 4
Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends
Jenga
Monster Jam
Petz Catz 2
Petz Dogz 2
Petz Hamesterz Life 2
Petz Horsez 2
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Impossible Mission
Super Fruit Fall
Word Jong
The biggest title one would think this week would be Super Mario Galaxy. Super Mario goes to space. That didn’t exactly work for the Jason movies but I digress. WWE Smackdown vs Raw comes in with another installment of what is sure to be great wrestling action. Sadly as most of you know I’m still playing the previous installment. Maybe I’ll put this on a christmas list. Two other titles of note are Assassin’s Creed which is a heavily anticipated title (but could be a disappointment if you have read some early eavesdropping) and Kane & Lynch: Dead Men which should be a very fun and interesting title. I’m not going to even mention the Petz titles. I don’t need a game about virtual Horses (with a Z at the end because I’m cool). However, I will mention Puzzle Quest for the PS2 (Wii version coming in a couple of weeks) and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, the best wrestling game in Japan (and finally coming over here) with 300 wrestlers and supposedly you can create 500 more. It’s insane trust me and is only $15. I got mine coming from Amazon and will review it soon. Promise.
DVD reviews are caught up for the time being. The last batch were not particularly kind with the exception of Poltergeist. So I’m back to game reviews for the time being. First on tap will be Orange Box. Yes, I’m playing Puzzle Quest but I need to go beat Lord Bane and then off and on grind my way to Level 50. After that, as mentioned above Fire Pro Wrestling Returns will get a go. At that point, I’m not sure; I could go back and review something like All Pro Football 2k8 (since it is still relevant) or go and purchase Mass Effect. Perhaps give a few XBLA titles a whirl. The only problem is screenshots which either requires to dive deep into the Internet (hello ign.com) or hook my 360 to my computer/tv-tuner. Ummm, perhaps not. You know, I’m not one to ask but for anybody who reads this column and knows where I could get marketing types to send me at least screenshots of upcoming games (especially xbox live arcade titles) would be appreciated. I know better than to ask for the games themselves since this part of the site is often forgotten, but I can at least try. Have fun kiddoes.
As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)
