My most anticipated titles of 2007

Let's face it, the year is barely underway and large number of the games we were talking about at last year's E3 we're still talking about now. We're continuously running into the problem of having two many friends for the games we love to play. So as a reminder, I thought I would put out my top 5 rather than a top 10 because 5 is probably all I can afford between now and next year:

5. Assassin's Creed - Also due out on the PS3 with "TBD 2007" release date. The stunning middle age visuals and rumored combat systems make this a very interesting title. Multiplayer potential - Mmmmmmmmmm, not so much. Probably along the lines of Oblivian. Lots of fun by yourself, not so much with friends.

4. Half Life 2: Orange Pack. What's in the box? Looks like we get Episode One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. Remember that Part Two was the unanimous 2004 Game of the Year industry wide and made most PC's choke to death on its stunning visuals and physics. Multiplayer Potential - developers are promising that the included Team Fortress 2 will surpass Halo 2 as the greatest multiplayer game of all time. All for one low price. Winner.

3. Bioshock - Ok, a FPS epic where the citizens of a disintegrating underwater dystopia take mind altering drugs to survive? Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Multiplayer Potential - Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet, but probably limited to eight.

2. Halo 3 - Epic storyline, greatest multiplayer ever, infinite hype? It's Halo 3, nuff said. Multiplayer potential - Unlimited.

1. Mass Effect. It's an RPG, no wait, it's a FPS, no wait, it's a galactic epic spanning an entire fictional galaxy that may change the way games are designed. Apparently Bioware is considering putting this game on multiple discs because you can't fit a universe on a 9.7 GB dual layer DVD. Wasn't it Microsoft that told us they never saw a practical need for larger storage media? Seriously, this looks like the GoW of 2007. Sorry Halo 3. Multiplayer potential - given it's FPS capabilities, probably not bad.

If I'm rating them strictly according to Multiplayer potential, the list would change a bit. Probably look like:

5. Assassin's Creed

4. Mass Effect

3. Bioshock

2. Halo 3

1. Half Life 2: Orange Pack. I honostly believe the guys at Valve are a hair more talented than the guys at Bungie. Team Fortress was the gold standard for online multiplayer long before Halo 2. From early looks, these guys are combining the right mix of ability, tactics, graphics, and humor that will probably keep us laughing every Friday night until three in the morning.

Sorry honey.

Global Gears of War Tournament Via Xbox Live

Hears the Press Release From Microsoft:

REDMOND, Wash. — March 29, 2007 — Microsoft® Game Studios and Epic Games, Inc. today announced the “Gears of War®” 2007 Global Xbox LIVE® Tournament, presented by the World Cyber Games, offering gamers the opportunity to curb-stomp and chain saw their way to the Grand Final in Prague, Czech Republic. The tournament promises nonstop thrills over Xbox LIVE.

“Gears of War” players across the globe will have the opportunity to compete in ranked matches on Xbox LIVE for four weeks of leaderboard play. The top 11 finalists in the world with the highest individual scores will receive the grand prize, a trip for two to Prague — the setting that influenced the game’s “Destroyed Beauty” scenic imagery — to compete in the Grand Final in July. The grand prize includes a four-day, three-night trip to Prague with round-trip coach air transportation for the winner and a guest, standard hotel accommodations, basic ground transportation in Prague, and a $200 Visa gift card.

The top four eligible ranked players from each participating country will win a three-day, two-night trip to their country’s 2007 World Cyber Games National Championship event. The trip includes round-trip transportation for the winner, standard hotel accommodations and a $300 Visa gift card. Secondary prizes include an Xbox 360™ package — boasting an Xbox 360 Pro System console, “Viva Piñata™,” “Project Gotham Racing® 3,” “Xbox LIVE Arcade Unplugged Volume 1,” “Kameo™: Elements of Power™” and a 12-month Xbox LIVE subscription, as well as “Gears of War” bonuses such as faceplates.

Registration for the tournament begins March 29 and continues through April 29, while official play begins April 9 and continues through May 6. Winners will be announced in May. More detailed information including full eligibility requirements, official rules and registration can be found at http://xboxlivetournament.com starting March 29.

“We are thrilled to offer the chance for gamers across the world to come together and share the glories of blowing apart someone into little chunks,” said Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer for “Gears of War.” “May the best man, or Locust, win.”

DiRT

Welcom to Colin McRae:DiRT. I think I've already forgotten about that Motor-whatever game for the PS3. I'm a huge sucker for Rally games. IGN is raving about this game already and it's supposedly due out this month??? Hmmmmmm. Have we ever thought about our little club getting it on behind a wheel?

NEW RPG's comming out

I do not know if anyone is a big fan of RPG's but there is one in particular that I am very interested in. Two Worlds is coming out June 26, 2007. It will be off line and online up to 8 players.

In the game, you'll play as a mercenary adventurer in a fantasy world where humans coexist with dwarves, orcs, and other fantasy races.

With Two Worlds, Reality Pump aims to combine traditional role-playing mechanics with some interesting new features. For instance, the gameworld will be persistent; burned grass and trees will stay burned until they grow back later after rainfall. Unlike in Oblivion, you'll be able to seamlessly enter and exit buildings with no load times, which means that you won't be able to escape from botched thievery attempts just by sneaking out the door. But you might attempt to escape pursuers by ducking into a house and locking the door behind you.

Two Worlds will also have a deep role-playing system that is based primarily on open-ended character skills. You will need to choose a starting character class but will then be free to advance your character in any line of skills. These skills include picking locks, using various weapons, or casting magic spells from one of five schools of magic, which include elemental sorceries and the dark arts of necromancy.

Two Worlds is being designed for online multi player. Apparently, pending approval from Microsoft, the game will also be playable over Xbox Live for up to eight players in a single game session. You'll be able to create multi player saved games that store your characters (and any unique item recipes you've discovered that have your name on them) so that you can hunker down with some friends for a session, save your game, then come back to it the next time your buddies are available.

Here is the Games official site: http://www.2-worlds.com/

How About Teams?

How would yall feel about splitting up into teams of 4 either randomly or a vote type style. Then different teams could meet on different nights and kind of have a league. I enjoy the more competitive matches like we had the other night and I think this would produce more of them.

Plus you get used to the people your playing with, and can play off your teamates strenghts and weaknesses.

Sound off. What do yall think?

C&C 3

Due to the recent discussion over email, I decided to find some info on C&C 3. Heres what I came up with. Gamespot.com had a hands on demo.

From Gamespot.com:

Command & Conquer 3
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: EA LA
Release Date: May 8, 2007

This new entry aims to give fans of the series what they want with the return of full-motion video sequences--a cheesy staple of the earlier games--along with cutting-edge visuals and refined gameplay. The third entry in the series finds things getting a little dark for the GDI and NOD forces. The conflict between the two military powers has gotten considerably more complicated since they first started clashing. Besides the fact that the mysterious tiberium, a crystal resource central to the game's economy, is starting to overrun the planet, an alien race known as the Scrin has appeared on the scene, adding a whole set of problems to be dealt with. While this is not so fun for humans currently living on the planet, it makes for a good setup for a C&C game.



You'll be able to see the looks of anguish on your opponents' faces as you crush them in four multiplayer modes.
While the core game content will be the same as in the PC version and will feature more than 30 single-player missions, EALA has had to adapt the game's control scheme for the 360. Fortunately the team is building on the successful control system used in Battle for Middle-earth last year, which made smart use of the 360 controller. The core scheme is returning, but a number of tweaks based on user feedback from BFME are being implemented, the most significant of which is improved grouping options and quicker access to various functions.

Besides the control scheme, the 360 game will feature exclusive multiplayer modes, as well as support for the Xbox Live Vision camera. We had the chance to check out the modes and the camera functionality and were impressed by how they're coming together. The game features four multiplayer modes: siege, capture the flag, capture and hold, and king of the hill. Siege seems like it's going to be a recipe for the fun kind of multiplayer disaster. A five-minute energy wall will be erected between you and your enemies, preventing anyone from attacking. In that time you'll have to build like the wind to prepare for the inevitable onslaught from your foes. Capture the flag is pretty straightforward and challenges you to find a hidden flag on the map and get it back to your base. Once collected and dropped off, the flag respawns and the process repeats until you reach a set number of points. King of the hill requires you to hold one point in the middle of the map for the longest time. Capture and hold is a team-based variation on that theme and requires a team to hold five points on a map for the longest period of time. The games will play out on one of 20 included multiplayer maps, with more maps likely to come via downloadable content on Xbox Live Marketplace.

On top of all of the above, C&C3's multiplayer game also offers support for the Xbox Live Vision camera, allowing you to see your opponents onscreen as you play. The game will pop up a window with everyone's face (provided that's what they aimed their camera at) in each corner of the screen. At the end of a match, the windows will move to form a virtual "winner's circle" with the victorious player's window growing to suitably large "in your face" proportions. Though the feature doesn't seem totally practical for serious players (we were much more focused on stamping our foes out of existence), it's funny for those watching, and if you get taken out, you can mess with your fellow players by making faces at them (or engaging in other unmentionable camera-related hijinks).



Keep the cameras on your faces, people.
Though our version of the game was still early, and there were a number of "work-in-progress" rough spots, the game looked good and ran surprisingly smoothly. The level of detail on the units was slick--though, granted, we were playing on a large TV, so it was easy to see the details. We were especially impressed by the stable frame rate when the screen was flooded with units in a four-player game, which was something that BFMEII had issues with.

Based on what we played and saw, Command & Conquer 3 is looking like a solid RTS for the 360 and a nifty evolution of EALA's strategy control scheme. The 360's multiplayer modes seem to cover the right bases to satisfy our online rumbling needs, and the Xbox Live Vision support is a fun, albeit goofy, extra to the experience that seems like a nifty way to rub people's faces in your victories. Given how well BFMEII turned out, we're pretty excited to see how C&C3 comes together on the 360. The Xbox 360 version of the game is slated to ship this May. Look for more on the game in the coming months.

More Pics Here

Gears of War to be a Movie

So apparently CliffyB is going to be the exec producer for a film adaptation of Gears of War. That could be really good or really bad; I am not too sure which.

I would probably go see it.

Now what I really want to know is the Halo Movie ever going to be made. I was really depressed when they pulled the plug on that one.

Hot Pocket

Some one I was playing with mentioned this last night, and I couldn't help but laugh. For all of those who were out of the loop, you can watch it here.

The Zephyr is real! Maybe! Huh?

These images are rumored to be cuts from a well know gaming magazine showing off what appears to be Microsoft's long-denied upgrade to the 360. Sporting a 120 gb HDD, HDMI output, and a cooler running processor, this is apparently the box we've all be eagerly anticipating. A "source" inside Microsoft states that HD-DVD is not part of the equation as the format is still "unproven" (If you've been paying attantion you'll have noticed that the last couple months have been great for BluRay, and very bad for HD-DVD).

Of course, this will probably all be denied tomorrow as yet another random Microsot R&D project.

Octopus Stole Master Chief's Cammo

Check out this video - This octopus has Master Chief's active cammo. You know in the future technology will catch up and imitate nature and active cammo will be used in our military.

Gears of War Cheats?

Does anyone know any GOW Cheats? I played a little more last week than just the usual Friday night, and saw some people doing some pretty cool stuff. Do yall know any?

SNL - Laser Cats

If you haven't seen this already it is a low budget sci-fi skit that is hilarious!

Crackdown (Crackdown Achievements) & Halo 3 Beta

So I secured my spot in the Halo 3 Beta this weekend.

I bought Crackdown.

So far I have enjoyed the gameplay of Crackdown. Trying to get my character to increase his skills is a lot of fun. I especially enjoy the jumping from building to building, roof top to roof top trying to get more agility orbs! I have a long way to go in this game. Right now my best skills are at 2 Stars with 4 or 5 Stars as the top. The achievements look to be pretty fun as well. It is all about mayhem. Disrupting the criminal elements ability to wage war. Killing with style. Launching bodies into the air and keeping them there, or creating an explosion that starts a chain reaction.

The link is the the achievements for the game. Click on it to see what I mean about the type of kills, and style needed to get them. Should be tons of fun.

I have yet to try multiplayer co-op. That is the only mode of multiplayer available. It might be easier to get some achievements with some help. Does anyone have this game? If so we need to get together and try the co-op out.

Frontlines: Fuel of War

Read the linked article. Looks very, very interesting for those people into the Multiplayer aspect as it supports up to 32 players in a variety of different roles and HUGE maps. The next great thing? Initial impression is that it looks much cooler than Battlefield 2. Unlike Gears of War, the environment looks completely interactive and very destructable. This one seriously gets a high level of interest. To be released sometime in the fall.... Check out the vids at the bottom of the article.