Summertime is in full effect, and this is the best time to attack that pile of shame. New games are right around the corner, so we are playing catch-up. Have you been waiting for us to give a final opinion of Final Fantasy XIII? Alfred goes against the grain and explains why game reviewers missed the true jewel that FFXIII is.  He also talks about a Friday Night fantasy with Scott…Oh, it’s not what you think. It involves video games. Is PlayStation Plus really worth the $$$money$$$? I think you will be surprised by our answers. Is the summertime harmful to Podcasts and Gaming Communities, because our focus shifts to other things. We get honest on this one. We throw in some of our current Netflix favorites, and our summer activities. This is definitely not one to miss. Let us know what you think. Check out the forums to leave comments pertaining to this show. Enjoy!

We would love to have your opinion on this show! GHR Show Topic

Guitar Hero 5 is $12.21 on Amazon today. So, even if you are one of the legion of Activision haters, you’re conscience will still be clear.  Amazon Link. Sorry PS3 fanboys, this deal is only for the Xbox 360. Hurry up and order, this deal might be a 1 day only special.

As the Sun rises in the east, a showdown will be brewing between two highly anticipated titles. Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake. The summer is usually void of AAA game releases, but publishers are forging new paths in hopes for big returns. For those who are on limited gaming budgets, here are some reviews summaries that might help in your purchasing decision;

Red Dead Reviews

The side missions and quests range from the little things like playing horse shoes or poker to big shootouts at bandit hideouts. There are even some that are fleshed out enough to be a part of the main storyline. You could spend hours just riding around trying to track down all of the components of a new outfit for Marston, or hunting wild game and picking herbs and desert flowers. The Rockstar Social Club, a free online community that connects to the game, offers additional challenges and leaderboards to encourage even more replay. If you’re looking for one game to occupy you for months, this is it.  -  IGN

That said, life is perhaps a little easy in the old west. Some in-game systems get a touch lost along the way. The focus on skinning animals rarely comes into play outside of specific missions and pursuing character upgrades. A hint of an economy – pelts sell better where those animals aren’t readily available – seems redundant in a world where money is rarely a problem. The same goes for morality. Helping strangers earns you store discounts; murdering innocents lines your pockets faster. Echoing Fable II’s similar reputation system, nothing is permanent. Shoot a train driver and murder his passengers as they spill out into the desert, and you need only give rides to three old ladies for all to be forgiven. Flexibility allows Marston to have his ‘off days’, but the easy sway makes it rather pointless. -  Edge-Online

To succeed where other Western games have failed, Red Dead Redemption deftly recreates a sandbox playground of a tumultuous historical period swept away by technological progress. The game perfectly captures the expansiveness of frontier life and the gritty gunplay of spaghetti westerns, rightfully earning its place alongside the great Western films and the best Rockstar games. – Game informer

Click on the Jump to read the Alan Wake Reviews

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For those who are currently in recovery after Isaac Clarke’s first adventure might consider moving on to the next article.  The Necromorphs aren’t finished yet.  Of course they’re not.  Is it humanly possible to rid the planet of a symbiotic organism that multiplies a million times faster than the cockroach. At least Isaac has been tapped to carry the small burden of mankind’s extinction on his shoulder in Dead Space 2.  EA has promised to do a full unveiling at E3. The details swirling around are sparse, but here is what we know so far, courtesy of  The Dead Space Wiki;

Dead Space 2 takes place three years after the events of Dead Space. Isaac will be arriving on The Sprawl, a civillian space station from the remains of Saturn’s moon Titan, where the Necromorph outbreak begins. It is stated that Isaac will be able to witness the panic that overtakes the station from the start, which will apparently result in the game having more Necromorphs as the game progresses.

Dead Space 2 will be the first game in the Dead Space series to have an online multiplayer component.^[1]

The Zero Gravity feature has been tweaked, allowing the player to control the direction of their drifting through space and firing their weapons at the same time.

Isaac will speak in Dead Space 2, and will also be able to display a greater range of emotion

Here is  a Gamespot Interview with Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of Dead Space 2. Click on the jump to watch

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