Get that gun out my face, don't you know I'm from Bosyorkatchewan?!?

Heavy Rain is one of the most engaging video games I’ve ever played.  To call it a video game doesn’t really do it justice.  Heavy Rain is about the story, first and foremost.  And the story is compelling.  Unlike so many titles where the story is an afterthought that seems tacked on to the game (Gears of War, anyone?); Heavy Rain feels like a rich, character driven story with a game added to it.

The game is not perfect, don’t get me wrong.  I’ll try and do this without spoilers, so feel safe to read on if you haven’t played it yet.  Heavy Rain is about a series of murders completed by the “Origami Killer”.  Named so because he leaves an origami figure with his victims.  You play as one of four characters, rotating between them as they all travel along separate – yet sometimes intermingling -paths to try and stop the killer.  There’s the good samaritan, the private investigator, the FBI agent, and the father trying to save his son.  Each one with their own vested interest in finding the murderer.  The story is well done, just what you would expect from a good mystery.  It starts off slow, and depressing (make sure you play the first couple hours on a sunny day).  Even with the slow start, the emotions that the main character was going through were palpable.  I was immersed and emotionally affected very early on in the story.  It picks up nicely a few hours in however, gradually building to the eventual set piece finale where the murderer is revealed.

That being said, the story does have some flaws.  Mainly when you finally learn who the killer is and start to recount what happened previously, there are several WTF?!? moments.  I won’t go into detail, but post in the Heavy Rain spoiler thread in the forums if you’re interested.  It almost feels as if it were a movie where some of the “set-up” scenes were cut for length.  For the most part, I think the story did a good job of keeping me engaged and moved at a good pace.  I think the game could have been a tad bit short, but the length of the game does lend itself to replayability.  Due to the myriad of possible endings, most are going to retry at least portions of the game.

The controls are….let’s see – interesting.  This is not an action game.  There are no “twitch” style controls here.  There are some new, innovative control mechanics.  I like the idea of what Quantic Dream was trying to do, which is keep the player immersed in the game.  Sure, you could hit X to punch, square to kick, circle to run, triangle to interact with items – but I think that would take you out of the story.  One of the early sequences (also in the demo) where we see the controls start to take shape is when the FBI agent, Norman Jayden, is investigating a murder scene.  There is a muddy hill that he needs to climb to check for clues.  In order to do this, you must hit a series of three buttons, holding down each one.  The idea being one button for his right leg, another for his right arm, another for his left leg, etc.  I don’t know about you, but it’s not often that I’m simultaneously holding down three or four buttons on my controller.  If you miss a button, you fail and must try again.  If the action requires you to be slow or deliberate, you may have to perform a quarter-turn on the right stick very slowly.  Put all this into a more tense situation – escaping a burning building let’s say – and your adrenaline does start to pump.  If you’re like me, and invested in these characters, you want to help them, so you pay attention and hit the right sequence of buttons.

There are some six axis controls as well, most of it nicely done.  Thrust your controller up to jump, or to the left to clear off a table, tilt the controller to steer a car, etc.  Shaking the controller up and down to brush your teeth was a little over the top, but it was during the beginning in-game tutorial, so I’ll let it slide.  The sensitivity was fine, I rarely had any issues.  In addition there are some standard quick time event controls, usually revolving around combat.  On the medium difficulty, I found these to be pretty easy.  Even if you do miss one or two prompts in a fight, you won’t necessarily fail the sequence – your character my have a bit more bumps and bruises however.

Another game mechanic I thought was well designed was the characters’ “thoughts”.  If you are interviewing someone, for instance, your character’s thoughts will circle around their head in one or two word phrases with a corresponding button.  Press the button and the character asks the pertaining question.   It’s much better than beating you over the head with a huge wall of text dialog box with 5 options, which lead to another dialog box with 4 options, which then leads back to the first list so you can try another option.    Heavy Rain does the same thing in a much less obtrusive style.  You read the three or four one word options and make a choice.  If you delay and don’t make a choice, the game makes one for you.  That’s right, no dilly dallying here, you have to think quickly.  Also, most of the time you won’t be able to go through every option.  You, as the player, must decide which of the options are pertinent and will produce the best leads.  If your character is agitated, or under duress, the options will appear shaky and difficult to read. All of this adds to the immersion.

Graphically the game is really good.  The loading screens, which focus in on the face of the character you are about to play, are particularly striking.  Some of the best graphics I can remember.  But, like most of the other aspects of the game, there are some nagging drawbacks.  Some of the voice animations are glitchy, and I did notice some weird motion capture issues that can take you out of the moment.  None of it game breaking, but could have used some more polish.

The main complaint, by far – that I have with this game is the voice over work.  Quantic Dream is a French studio.  I imagine good American (Heavy Rain is set in Philadelphia) voice actors are hard to come by in Europe.  My guess, and this is only a guess, is that they sub-contracted the voice over work to a French Canadian casting agency.  Some of the character voices are fine.  Scott Shelby, the PI, was ok.  Madison, the good samaritan, was good.  Norman Jayden however, I thought was borderline awful.  His accent fluctuated from Boston to New York City to Saskatchewan and everywhere in between.  I really had problems with him.  The children were another bad example.  They were obviously bi-lingual Canadian.  I half expected them to whip out a helmet and skates and say “How’s it goin there, eh?  You fellas see the new tuuk my mum got me there?”  (Apologies to Canadian readers.)  My point is these kids did not sound like they were from Philadelphia.  Far from it.  In addition, I noticed some “bean” instead of “been”, “oot” instead of “out”, etc.

In summary, I greatly enjoyed my experience with Heavy Rain.  I’ll take something new and innovative that needs a little polish over a perfectly executed re-tread space cowboy game any day of the week.  This game was well done, even with the flaws I mention above.  With a bit more money and time, I think all the problems could have been fixed.  This is a business however, and there are budgets and deadlines.  I applaud Quantic Dream for the effort and hope the next in this style of game can build on it.  It’s not for everybody, but I think Heavy Rain is something every well-rounded gamer should try if given the opportunity.

I took a few steps down the proverbial slippery slope and started sliding further and further. The first step we made was Halo 3. His 11 year old brother played Halo and it seemed OK. Sure it has shooting but the shooting is against aliens. It feels less real than the Call of Duty series. You’re not shooting other humans, just some scary looking monsters. The next step was Call of Duty : World at War Nazi Zombie Mode. Again his older brother and cousin were playing and he wanted to join in. It’s just zombies, again not human so it’s not that bad…right?

Well since he’s playing Nazi Zombie mode, why not play some Modern Warfare 2? OK it crosses the previously established line of not killing other humans. But is that so bad? It’s just a video game, not real bloody and not much different than when i was a kid running around the neighborhood with toy guns. Now it’s his favorite game.

And if Nazi Zombie mode and Modern Warfare 2 are ok…why not Left 4 Dead? It’s just more zombies. Scarier zombies but if he isn’t scared, why not? Yeah I’m almost to the bottom of that slippery slope now but I’m comfortable with my choices. I looked at each of these steps and it was a logical progression. There’s no ill effects to my child. He handles these games well, enjoys them and is good at them.

The opposite story is my step-son who is 11. He followed pretty much the same path as my 7 year old but a few years earlier. The difference is that he’s a poor loser. It’s just his personality, he’s high strung when it comes to these games. He’s the kid who is a poor winner always rubbing it in and he’s the kid that’s the poor loser who cries and throws his controller. He’s a great kid, just has difficulty handling the frustration that these games can bring. Because of that he slowly lost all of these privileges. It was determined by his biological parents (my wife and her ex-husband) that these games are not appropriate for him and bring about undesirable actions on his part.

So now we have a 7 year old who is allowed to play Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 while the 11 year old can’t play either. It’s a tough situation to police. The question of whether it’s fair has come up many times and we handle it. While some rules are ‘house rules’ which are for everyone, other rules are ‘parent rules’. The 7 year old can watch Glee at his mom’s house, neither child can watch Glee at my house (sexual situations). The 11 year old can watch CSI, the 7 year old can’t (parent rule). Bedtime is at 10 on weekends (house rule).

I’ve thought this out and I know where my lines are drawn. There’s only two and the first is s-e-x. I’m a stereotypical American. Violence is acceptable in my book but I get uncomfortable with the sex talk in Ghostbusters if the kids are in the room. Clash of the Titans was a great show to watch with the kids, but I fast forwarded through the 5 second breast feeding scene. The same goes with my games. I’m comfortable with my son shooting my brains out but it concerns me that he can have sex in Sims 3.

The other line is online play. The worst thing I think someone can do is to let their kids play unmonitored online. You don’t know who their online friends are, they could be the 30 year old pedophile down the block. You don’t know what’s being said to them or what they’re saying. We’ve all been in rooms where the 12 year old is screaming obscenities or generally being a jerk. Don’t let your child be that child.

So if my 7 year old can play games that my 11 year old can’t, what’s the real deciding factor on when a kid can play a game? I think it falls directly onto the parent and their ability to make informed decisions. The key word is ‘informed’. A parent needs to know what a game is about and needs to determine if it’s OK for a child to play. They also need to know what their kids are doing. Correct them if they’re shouting obscenities, even if it’s just to nameless online people. Being a parent means being involved. Keep the online stuff out of their rooms. It’s easy to dump the kids and let them fend for themselves but it’s wrong.

In this week of GamerHusbands Radio we answer some of your questions as we battle some massive tech problems. Due to these problems, and the vast number of questions we recieved, we decided to make this the first of our question episodes. So, if you don’t hear your question in this episode, check back next week as we continue. Don’t miss this unedited episode of GHR!

I would like to evict Activision, specifically Bobby Kotick, for the way they have been treating their developers and IPs the past few years.  The latest debacle involving Infinity Ward is just the final straw that breaks the camels back.

These developers made Activision hordes of cash and the only thanks they get is to make the same game over and over again or else.  Let’s list some of Kotick’s mistakes…..

Buys Red Octane instead of Harmonix, giving Neversoft the GH franchise instead, who were at the time known for skating games.  This cleared the way for MTV to purchase Harmonix and strike a publishing deal with EA (which is up soon), thus creating Rock Band which Activision scoffed at the idea of a full band game before it’s success then turned around and made GH: World Tour.  Neversoft has now been downsized, Red Octane no longer exists though it’s founders have stuck around, and the developer of the DS GH games is now the console developer as well.

Infinity Ward, founded after splitting off from the group that made the original Medal of Honor games for EA, signs a deal with Activision and makes Call of Duty 1, which did ok, then 2, which did great.  They fight with Activision to make a game set in modern times, Activision scoffs at that idea, says it will never work, blah, blah, blah….IW wins that battle, makes game, it sells millions, so Activision then says what a great series, let’s make one every other year now.  They make the second one which breaks records in sales, but IW now wants to do something else with the series or maybe even a new IP, so it’s 2 head honchos are fired for insubordination because they don’t want to make the game Activision wants them to.

So now we have a Treyarch (World at War) CoD game coming this fall and an action-adventure game from Sledgehammer Games, a new outfit formed by a group that left the Visceral Games (Dead Space).  The irony is that these guys left EA because they didn’t want to churn out sequels. What’s left of IW will be making the map packs for MW2 this year and possibly an unannounced title in the CoD series.  Rumors have been out that they may try to make some type of subscription type service for the CoD games, ala World of Warcraft.

Activision knows how to run it’s IPs into the ground.  Name me one new game, besides Blur, that isn’t CoD, a Hero game of some sort, or Tony Hawk.  It’s like the old EA reincarnated, who closed down prestigous studios Origin (Wing Commander, Ultima), Westwood (Command and Conquer, Lands of Lore), and Bullfrog (Syndicate, Populous, Dungeon Keeper).  The EA now as of late, at least tries new IPs to broaden it’s portfolio of games.  Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge are the first that come to mind.  The sports games that EA put out are exempt from being considered because the licenses require them to put out yearly games of each.

I wonder what will happen if everyone finally tires of all the Activision yearly sequels then where will they turn or should I say which company will they poach next?  The company I feel sorry for the most, besides Infinity Ward, is Blizzard who unfortunately has their names associated with Activision.  Blizzard actually cares about their product and consumers whereas Activision is only concerned with it’s bottom line.

UPDATE:  The problem seems to be resolved by the passing of time and not Sony’s technical expertise.

If you own a pre-slim PS3, do not turn it on as there seems to be a bug with the calendar of it’s OS.  It will set it to some random past date and you will not be able to log into PSN, be able to play some games, and your trophies will not sync up.  Sony is aware of the issue and is working towards a resolution.

If you have a slim PS3, you’re good to go.

For those of you who can’t pass up a good deal, it’s time to put some money into that wallet on the PSN. Street Fighter II: HD Remix is now on sale for $7.49 on the Playstation Network. Usually it sales for $15.00, so this was definitely an instant purchase.

GHR has been working towards playing more games on the PS3, and this is a perfect opportunity for Gamerhusband PS3 owners to play a game together on PS.

In this episode of GamerHusbands Radio, it just the Three Amigos as Allen takes this week off due to illness. We go over a few of the hottest games, discuss the recent “shortage” of PS3, and we add a new segment to the show. Don’t miss one second of this episode. This is GHR!

In this episode of GamerHusbands Radio, we go over one of Teetocks’ games of the week, Bioshock 2. And after some editing and cutting of some Mass Effect 2 talk, we go over 2 of this weeks top stories from the site. We hope you enjoy this episode of GHR!

I was always into small independent stores. I didn’t like Starbucks, I liked South Street Coffee. I didn’t like Borders, I liked Marlow Books. Those of you not in Philly don’t recognize two of those stores because they never grew into chains and the chains eventually killed them. The independents had atmosphere and personality that Borders and Starbucks fake. Over the years I’ve grown to enjoy Borders and Starbucks because that’s all that’s left. But it’s not what I want. I want something more personal and less corporate. I want to support the small business that appreciates it.

Now I have a crisis because Game Zombie opened up 5 minutes from my house. What’s Game Zombie? A cool little store that sells everything game related. They have Dreamcasts and Atari’s in stock. They get new releases on Day 1 but have a huge selection of old games. They do free polishing of scratched disks. They have a game club where kids come in and play after school. They also have a Wednesday night movie showing where people go and watch zombie flicks on their large TV. All in all it’s what I’ve always wanted in a game store. They’re local, personable and seem to have an appreciation for the customer.

But there’s one thing they don’t have, one thing I love, pre-order bonuses. Forget the gold lancer, I’ve never cared about the gold lancers of the world. But I do love Juggernaut in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I do love extra-outfits for Kratos and sackboy (it reminds me of playing with my Barbies growin…nevermind, TMI). I like the guns that you can only get during pre-order (Blackhole gun in Mass Effect 2 ROCKS). So much fun stuff just by putting down my $5 early. And it’s all so pretty and shiny.

And until now I’ve fallen into that trap. I go into Gamestop and I drop down my cash and a few weeks later I walk out with my added toy. But no longer. GameZombie has given me an independent option and I’m going to start taking it. As long as they continue to offer their great services I’m going to give up on all the corporate pre-order stuff and support my local game store.

I had a wonderful experience tonight. It was unexpected. To put it plainly, God revealed to me a change he wanted me to make in regard to a game I’m playing. I felt compelled to share this experience, and, I apologize in advance if I’m crossing any boundaries with respect to the owners/moderators of this site.

Since my conversion to Christianity some 14 years ago, God has made alterations in all areas of my life, including my entertainment. Aside from the obvious, there are some types of movies, anime, and TV shows the Lord simply doesn’t want me to watch, and He has pruned them from my viewing rotation. The one area He has been silent on has been the videogames I play–until now.

Just to set some background, I’ve played plenty of games with violent, dark, pseudo-religious and occult themes. From the first Silent Hill, to The Suffering, on to Jericho (which sucked) and even The Darkness. I’ve played more recent titles like Dead Space, and Darksiders, and just about everything in between–without even a hint of conviction. They simply weren’t games God brought to my attention, so I enjoyed them for what they were.

That changed tonight. My wife and I were at a party, celebrating her father’s birthday. Plenty of friends and family were present, and we had an awesome time. As the party drew to a close, a wonderful woman approached me and my wife. Her and her husband were long time friends of my father in law. After having a great conversation, and listening to her share stories about my wife as a little girl, she asked if she could pray with us and for us–to lift us up, and to keep our marriage and faith strong. We closed our eyes, and she asked me to begin by saying, “Lord forgive me my sins.” That was when it happened.

As soon as I spoke those words, specific images flashed in my mind of a game I have been playing. That game is Dante’s Inferno, and those images were as clear in my mind as if I was watching them on my 1080p television. The images, and what I can only describe as the presence of God was so intense, it made my portion of our group prayer difficult to speak. With all of the various games I play, and the variety of subject matter they address, this is the first time the Lord had anything to say about my gaming at all. It was hard hitting, and unexpected–but His message was clear.

Now, let me make this next point crystal clear. I AM NOT saying that Dante’s Inferno is an evil game, nor am I suggesting anything like that with regard to EA / Visceral Games or anyone–Christian or not, who plays this game. I AM NOT saying people shouldn’t rent or buy Dante’s Inferno. Personally, I had been enjoying the game quite a bit, though even I had to say that some of the enemies–especially some of the bosses–were somewhat disturbing in their imagery. Its a good game with some fairly deep combat mechanics, and I think it ranks high among hack-n-slashers in quality. So please, for those Christians who are playing and are not convicted, CONTINUE TO ENJOY THE GAME.

I’m not going to try to question why He doesn’t want me to play it. Frankly, it doesn’t matter what I think. I rejoice in the fact that the same God who spoke this universe into existance, who spoke to Moses, Isaac and Jacob, and who preached on a hill side of olive trees on how we should love God and each other, felt it important enough to give instruction to me on something that seems so small in my life. If He would reach out to me with regard to a game, what wouldn’t He do for me, or any of His children? God created us as individuals, and He deals with us individually. I believe that with all my heart. As God Himself said, “Who is my mother? Who is my brother? He who does the will of God.” With that in mind, I will obey.

So, when I return home, Dante’s Inferno will be converted into store credit somewhere, and I will choose another game. As much as I enjoy gaming, nothing in this world can compare to communing with God and doing His will–even in little things like this. I just wanted to share this experience with others of Faith. This is one forum of two that I felt comfortable about posting this. Forgive the long post, and again–my apologies to the forum admins and site owners if I crossed any boundaries.

For FREEEEEEE?

After a few weeks of patient waiting, THQ announced today that the code included in new retail copies of Darksiders will allow you to get a free ($5 shipping) copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla!  Awesome news, and even more reason to go out and buy Darksiders.  Both are great games.  Check out my review of Darksiders if you’re curious.

Offer ends March 7th, and is only good in the U.S.

A lot of game release announcements were made at Microsoft’s X10 event yesterday, (1Up has all the info lined up on their face page) but the “shocker” of sorts was the announcement of the Final Fantasy XIII 360 bundle for North America.

In 1Up’s update write-up of the announcement, here’s what you’re going to get for your $400 bucks (okay, $399.99):

2 wireless controllers
250 gig HD with the Final Fantasy logo etched in
Standard edition of the game
“Exclusive” avatar items

Now, I’m no RPG fan, but I do understand 2 things about this franchise: 1) What a heavy hitter this game is worldwide, and 2) For many years, Final Fantasy titles have been synonomous with Playstation hardware. Much like GTA 3 was an influencing factor for me to get a PS2, those that remember Square’s Final Fantasy games on Nintendo made the jump to the Playstation brand to continue to enjoy a series of games that have gone on to become legendary as industry standard setters in the RPG genre.

I’m no industry insider, but this Microsoft “coup-de-bundle” is the JRPG equivalent of hearing that there will be a Gears of War 3 bundle for Playstation. Not every gamer has jumped onboard for this gen, and I would guess that more than just a few are waiting for Final Fantasy XIII before jumping in. I have no idea what back room deals went down between Square/Enix and Microsoft to get this done, but Microsoft may have stolen Sony’s lunch money when it comes to the future of this franchise. I think it is a mistake for Sony not to bring out a bundle to the US–particularly the Lightning Edition. I would be absolutely shocked if the NPDs following FFXIII’s release reveal that more copies were sold on Xbox than Playstation. Again, time will tell.

Scott goes emo on us in this episode of GamerHusbands Radio. Join us as we answer a few questions from TigersEye85, and discuss prejudice behavior on social networks. All this and more on this episode of GHR!

In this episode of GamerHusbands Radio, we invite AceBlack back for another week, as we work Mass Effect 2 out of our systems. Warning, does not contain any spoilers. We also talk a little bit about Bioshock 2, and how you can make the gaming publishers work for you. All this and more in this episode of GHR!

PAX East is going to be the first major gaming convention on the East Coast and I am pumped for it. If you’re coming make sure to log into the forums and throw your name up on the GHR Meetup. Currently the following people are confirmed:  GHR_Maverick, Teetocks, GHR_Superman, Full Tilt 101, JDSBlackBox, VinceXombie, SirJMcWild, BulletHound. Between GHR and all the other communities, it should be a great turnout and lots of fun.

If you’re thinking about attending…HURRY!!! AND BUY YOUR TICKETS 60,000 attendees are expected and only 1000 tickets remain.

Note that the stuff below is a partial list of items that have been confirmed. Much more coming!

The following music acts have been confirmed from Joystig:

* Anamanaguchi
* Jonathan Coulton (I will be seeing his show)
* MC Frontalot
* Metroid Metal
* Paul and Storm
* Protomen
* The Video Game Orchestra

The following Exhibitors have been confirmed. The potential games are guesses based on the relative release dates. Thanks to Mentok1982 over at the PAX East Forum for the following information:

* 2K Games:
o Mafia II
o Spec Ops: The Line

* EA
o APB
o Battlefield: Bad Company 2
o Dante’s Inferno: Trials of St Lucia
o Skate 3
o Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
o Medal of Honor
o Crysis 2
o Dead Space 2

* Harmonix
o Green Day: Rock Band

* Microsoft
o Super Street Fighter IV
o Lost Planet 2
o Alan Wake
o Dead Rising 2
o Fable III
o Halo Reach
o Micorsoft Game Room
o Natal

* Nintendo
o WarioWare D.I.Y.
o Monster Hunter Tri
o Super Meat Boy
o Sin and Punishment 2
o Metroid: Other M
o Epic Mickey

* NVIDIA
o Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
o Dark Void
o Resident Evil 5
o Alan Wake
o Crysis 2

* Rockstar Games
o GTA IV: The Lost and Damned (PS3)
o GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (PS3)
o Red Dead Redemption
o Max Payne 3
o Agent

* Sega
o SONIC 4!?!
o Yakuza 3
o Iron Man 2
o Valkyria Chronicles 2
o After Burner Climax
o Alpha Protocol
o Resonance of Fate

* The Behemoth
o BattleBlock Theater

* Turbine
o Turbine Next-Gen MMO Project

* Twisted Pixel Games
o Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley

* Ubisoft
o Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 4
o Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction
o Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
o Tom Clancy’s HAWX

* Wizards of the Coast
o Unknown

PANELS (thanks to The Subterranean Engineer for this compiled info)

* Stephen Toulouse (Stepto), Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE tentatively Sunday 11:30am

* Major Nelson (Larry), Machete Betty (Mckenzie Eakin), Fourzerotwo (Robert Bowling) Friday

* Jason Scott of textfiles Friday 9:30pm Naga Theater

* Joystiq Podcast live Friday 9:30pm The Manticore Theater

* Bill Amend FOXTROT!!!

* Retronauts Saturday night

* GeekDad (Wired magazine) panel w/ Doug Cornelius

* oltyan of http://www.zeitgeistgames.com

* Chris Paladino of Promethium Marketing, Arne of Naughty Dog, Aram Jabbari of Atlus, Stephanie Schopp of Interactive Entertainment. PR Panel

* Game journalism panel w/ Kyle Orland of Crispy Gamer, Gus Mastrapa (Wired, Crispy Gamer, The Onion AV Club, Past, X-Play, Edge), Susan Arendt of The Escapist, Chris Grant of Joystiq (Editor in Chief), Lev Grossman of Techland and Time Magazine
Sunday 2:30 to 3:30

* Meghan Rodberg, Community Manager for Turbine

* Jeff Green (Greenspeak) and Shawn Elliot

* Game Scoop! Live Podcast

* Bleep Bloop panel

* Indies Will Shoot You In The Knees – Why We Don’t Play Fair — Everyone is talking about Indie games — titles like World of Goo, Braid, and aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity are making press and making money. But they’re fighting against games with $200 million dollar budgets and 100+ person dev teams. How do Indies compete? Three Boston-based Indie developers will check their water-guns at the door and tell you why and how Indie games are kicking more ass, taking more names, and chewing more bubblegum than their AAA rivals. You will hear from the Ichiro Lambe (IGF Finalist Dejobaan Games, Aaaaa!), Scott Macmillan (Macguffin Games, All Heroes Die) and ex-Bungie AI wizard Damián Isla, founder of the new indie Moonshot Games. The panel will be moderated by Eitan Glinert, founder of Fire Hose Games.

PARTIES

* PAX East BYOC LAN

* SFX360 Gamers Gone Wild PAX East Party

Capcom is releasing a movie on Xbox Live in Japan. Unfortunately current stats have only 12 Xboxes sold in Japan so the audience will be limited. I’m hoping it has a US release sometime in the near future!

Dark Horse Comics is releasing a 4 part story set between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. The first book is free today only from the iTunes App store.

Vote now to determine what exclusive outfit will come with a pre-order of Red Dead Redemption from Gamestop. You can see all three in action in this video.

Vote here!
The Savvy Merchant gives you all ammo and guns at half price.
The Deadly Assassin recharges your “Dead Eye” targeting twice as fast.
And the Expert Hunter gives you double the price for any hides you collect.

My wife recently got Facebook and saw all of her friends sending her invites to Mafia Wars and Farmville and Blood Wars and a ton of other games. She signed up and asked me to show her what it was. I happily explained everything and she said, “So you just hit this button over and over.” “Yeah, basically. Sometimes you hit that button too.” After my 7 year old and her made fun of me and I realized that I didn’t understand why I liked these games. I play them and I guess I enjoy it, but I don’t know why. There’s no skill. No story. There is a sense of accomplishment to completing some things and I guess that is enough because I still log in and hit that button. I’ve become George Jetson.

Farmville is my other secret shame. It’s on my iPhone and religiously I plant and hoe and plant and hoe and plant and hoe. So while I have to tell you that Farmville is one of my favorite iPhone games. I can’t tell you why. It’s free until you get suckered into buying all the additional content. I already purchased a medium sized farm for $1. And the ‘drag to plow’ for $1. And the ‘drag to seed’ for $1. And the ‘drag to plant’ for $1. And right now I am trying my best not to buy the large farm for another $1. This ‘free’ iPhone game is going to be my most expensive iPhone purchase at the end. And I love it, I just don’t know why.

No Mass Effect 2 spoilers in this:

Wrex, my Mass Effect 2 universe is a darker place without you in it. In ME1 I never did the Krogan armor quest and my Paragon level was never high enough to save you. I tried to save you over and over but you kept dying. I looked at old saves but I was sloppy and relied on auto-save too much.

So at every turn I remember having to kill you Wrex. I didn’t want to. I would have even let Saren cure the genophage because you really were that cool. The rest of my party were a bunch of stiffs (except the blue one that I got it on with). Wrex, you are my greatest gaming regret (#2 is not ‘breaking up the party’ in Arkham Asylum).

War. He speaks softly but carries a BIG SCYTHE.

One of the main things I like about Darksiders was how it really surprised me.  Surprised me by how good it was in a below the radar dark horse (pardon the pun) sort of way.  I feel this game stands up well against your triple-A high profile titles like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta.  That being said, this game is not simply a brawler.  It is a true adventure game in the style of the popular Zelda series.  Having read and heard a few reviews of the game while deciding if I should buy it or not, I heard the Zelda comparison often.  But the similarities are obvious and in-your-face – from the grappling hook, to the horse, to the boomerang.  All the other aspects are there as well – puzzle solving, exploration, collecting health boosts (not hearts :p ), and of course the combat.  I’m not a Zelda expert, but I do enjoy the series, most recently having played through Twilight Princess on the Wii.

In Darksiders, you play as one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, War.  The game starts off with War coming to Earth believing that the apocalypse is at hand, ready to crack some skulls.  He finds it odd that his three horsemen brethren aren’t there with him, and soon learns that he was duped into believing that the seventh seal was broken and that in fact there is no apocalypse.  Don’t tell that to the humans though, because they’re wiped out in the aftermath of the fighting between the demons and angels.  War gets called before the Charred Council, who the Horsemen work for to keep the peace.  War takes the heat for the screw-up but convinces the council to let him go back to Earth to clear his name.  The council reluctantly agrees, with limitations.  War must be followed by “The Watcher”, a demon who keeps a tight leash on War, making sure that he keeps the council’s best interests at heart.  The Watcher is voiced by Mark “The Joker” Hamill, who does a pretty good job with it.  Also, most of War’s powers and weapons/skills are stripped from him – which of course you regain as you play though the story.  So War goes back to Earth – and thus ends the first 15 minutes of the game.

The rest of the game proceeds similar to your standard Zelda game – go to dungeon, solve various puzzles, beat dungeon boss, collect object, get rewarded with item/skill that allows you to beat the next dungeon – rinse/repeat.  The game does vary a bit with some arena style battles- kill x number of enemies using this skill, etc.  Also, there is an in game economy – the currency being souls – which you can trade with a demon merchant for skill combos and powerups.

The combat is fun – not too difficult (I played on the medium difficulty).  You can get technical by using certain combos in order to keep enemies at bay, or you can get by with simple button mashing with the occasional dodge thrown in.  There is good variety in the combat as well, with three different primary weapons combining with a handful of secondary weapons.  The three main weapons – sword, scythe, and a gauntlet/fist weapon – each have a powerup slot that you can use to boost the weapons damage, soul collecting ability, etc.  The enemy variety is good, fighting angels (who think you started this whole mess) and all manners of demons.  The boss battles are fun and varied – one on horseback with your hand gun, Western style for example.

Graphically the game is good, the 360 version had obvious screen tearing and frame rate issues, but they seem to be fixed with the recent patch, and weren’t game breaking.  No complaints.  The voiceover work was another pleasant surprise, I enjoyed listening to War’s dialogues with the various characters he came across in the game.

The final boss battle was a bit on the easy side, maybe because I had the pimped out armor and legendary weapon mods, but it set up for a nice sequel if one gets made.  I surely hope it does.

All in all, I put about 20 hours into this game, spilled thousands of gallons of demon blood (it keeps track, there’s an achievement at 3000 gallons) and enjoyed every minute of it.  If you’re into the Zelda style adventure games with a twist, you can’t go wrong with Darksiders.  I’d recommend it to anybody.

GameStop hits a homerun this week with two of its price drops. XBox 360 and PS3 fans should be smiling across the 50 states with some of these! Ok, check them out!

God of War Collection – $29.99(New)/ $24.99(Used)

Call of Duty:World at War – $19.99 (Used)

Assassins Creed II(360/PS3) – $39.99 (New)/ $32.99 (Used)

The Beatles Rockband(360/PS3) – $39.99(New)/ $32.99(Used)

DarkSider - $49.99(Used)

IL 2 Sturmovik (360/PS3) – $29.99(New)/ $24.99((Used)

In this episode of GamerHusbands Radio we roll out another episode as Maverick and Bumblb19 go into an extensive talk about Mass Effect 2. We also praise the gaming community for their unity during trying times. All that and more on this episode of GHR!

Community member stickygreen83 will be hosting a Modern Warfare 2 gaming night each Monday on the 360. So look for him on XBL around 10-11PM EST each Monday to join the action.

In this Episode of GamerHusbands Radio, we welcome xxAceBlackxx to the show. This week we cover a few of the stories from the website. And as Ace can tell you, we have a great time as we bring you our 104th episode. This is GHR!

SyFy is doing a special on Mass Effect 2. Here is a trailer to kick things off. Don’t worry, No spoilers here for those of you who are on a ME2 blackout.

I love a good gaming deal, and I want to help everyone build their gaming collection before everything moves to digital. The inevitable demise of physical media is closing in so I will spend some time each week focusing on Gaming Deals. Click on the jump to see the list!

Here’s the list;

Grand Theft Auto IV – $12.99(Used)

Fable 2  -  $17.99(Used)

Gears of War 2  -  $19.99(Used)

NBA 2k10  -  $32.99(Used) $39.99(New)

Prototype  -  $32.99(Used)

Details are sketchy, but rumor has it that Disney, the parent company of the ESPN networks, is planning to stream live sports via XBOX Live.  According to the short article that I read, it will be similar to the ESPN360 service that is currently available online.  As an avid sports fan, ESPN is one of the major reasons that I still have cable at all.  If this plan comes to fruition, I will almost definitely kiss my cable bill goodbye.  Between Hulu, Netflix, and this, my entertainment needs will be satisfied.

Delay has been the common denominator often associated with Gran Turismo 5 since it’s announcement a few years ago.  After 5 years of development, Spring 2010 was slated to be the official release of Sony’s top selling franchise. Uh…Wait, It’s just been delayed again. Before everyone begins to pick up rocks in an effort to stone Sony, the light should be shown on the creator of the game.  Kazunori Yamauchi’s perfection my be the main culprit in the delays.  His tireless pursuit for perfection is fascinating, and most gamers aren’t aware of the how much of the developer’s soul goes into each game.

During an interview at CES,  Kazunori Yamauchi explains;

Games have kind of branched out into very detailed genres since 15 years ago when I first started developing games. And because they have branched out into these categories they have started to lose their individuality. It’s hard to differentiate between one game and another. I want Gran Turismo 5 to be something really special so we are doing something to really revolutionize car games and racing games in Gran Turismo 5.

In an Interview with USA today, Yamauchi describes his affinity for cars and the freedom they allow.

Out of all the industrial products out there, cars are very special. One, because you control the car and it allows you to travel at amazing speeds, basically enhancing what you do. And as an object, a car is beautiful in design.
The other thing is that cars are something that let you cross the bounds of society. For example, I drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for this trip and as long as you are driving under 65 miles an hour you are within the bounds of society. Once you go a little bit over you are kind of crossing those bounds and I can’t think of anything else in the world that lets you do something like that.

For example, like knives or guns, if you make the wrong decisions they will take you out of the bounds. But it’s not like cars where before you realize it, wait, I am out of the bounds.

For all those types of meanings, cars are special, I think. Because cars have that attraction is what drove me to make a video game out of them.

Yamauchi is a perfectionist when it comes to the Gran Turismo series, but the game has been in development for 6 years and has already cost around $60 million dollars. After reading the article, it is clear that his game is a work of art, and he doesn’t want to release an unfinished masterpiece. Developers often express the notion that  a games aren’t ever finished in their eyes. Will GT5 be the masterpiece that Yamauchi envisions? Every iteration of it’s rival, Forza, has been released during the production of Gran Turismo 5. Forza 3 is a crowning achievement for Turn 10 studios, and Gran Turismo 5 is being compared to Forza 3 as well as previous GT games. In many ways Forza has perfected the formula that GT created.  GT5 faces another hurdle too.  Sony’s struggles in having huge sales success with it’s first party titles.  Gran Turismo has a long drive ahead of it, and it might have arrived to the track too late.

Source: USA Today

So you’re an achievement whore too…
Well here’s your last chance at an easy 100 achievement points. See the deal is that on February 2nd EA is shutting down the servers for NBA Live 2007. There is a 100 point achievement for being online when 1000 people are online. This is impossible these days because the servers are a ghost town. But on January 31st, Xbox360Achievements.org is scheduling times for when everyone can go online. They’ve tried (and failed) several times before but this time I heard it on GiantBomb so they have a good shot. I know I’ll be ‘renting’ from gamestop that week.
I thought about rephrasing this post and calling it “Achievement Farming” like I do with my 7 year old…but really, there is no other correct name for whoring.

Get it on your Gamefly que and wear your fishnet stockings because January 31st we’re going to the red light district of Xbox Live and turning one last trick in NBA Live 2007.
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