The time has finally come! Because of the increasing popularity of our ezine, we’ve decided to give unlimited access of it to the public! That’s right, no restrictions on ezine access anymore because we figured everyone should be able to see how awesome we are! So have at them! Every ezine we’ve ever published is available!
When Netflix was first launched I was skeptical about getting movies in the mail, but time proved that this, and its eventual move to instant streaming, was the future of movie rentals. Well, if you didn’t guess it would happen before now you should have because someone is looking to make this same thing happen for video games.
That someone is OnLive and they are about to launch (June 17th, 2010) their service for PC and MAC, with the promise of a micro console coming soon for TV hookup. Now, while I do believe that this truly is the future of gaming, I have a few hesitations about OnLive. But there are good things about the service, so let’s take a look at both the good and the bad:
System Requirements: OnLive runs completely on their external servers so there is no system requirements other than a broadband internet connection. Since the service isn’t running yet there’s no telling what kind of problems might arise from that though. But, this also means no installations either, which makes me very happy.
Multiplayer: The service supports multiplayer, which is probably the most important thing in gaming right now.
Game Demos: Yep, OnLive claims that you’ll be able to play demos before you buy.
Monthly Fee+: Alright, so they charge a monthly fee, I expected that… But they also charge to “rent” or “buy” the games. So, wait a minute, I have to pay every month for access to their servers and then pay again to buy or rent the game? What happens if I cancel the service? Do I lose access to the game I just paid for? Are the games going to cost the standard $60? They don’t answer those questions and no matter what you think of the service, this part sounds pretty sucky.
Multiplayer: Yeah I put this in here twice, because while support for multiplayer is a good thing, the lack of participating gamers (compared to say, Xbox Live) might still make it hard to find a game. Also, it’s going to be pretty hard to match the content and user base of Xbox Live, especially when Live only costs $50 a year while OnLive is Roughly $240 a year.
So, if you’re interested, go check out OnLive and see what you think for yourself.You can also check out the videos below for more information.
So, since there isn’t anything too large going on in the gaming industry (unless you consider Little Big Planet 2 big, which I don’t), we’re going to take a look at this summer’s blockbuster movie releases, plus a little bit about what I expect from them:
Robin Hood
So, I may be a little biased, but I’m kinda sick of Robin Hood stories. We get it… He robs from the rich and gives to the poor… And the rich hate him and the poor love him, blah blah blah. It seems like yet another story re-hash in an attempt to make money. I’ll wait for Netflix to have it.
Shrek Forever After
I would have thought that Dreamworks knew that the Shrek kick was over after them made Shrek 3… Well, apparently they are they are following in the footsteps of Rocky and making two more movies than they should.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Direct from the video game franchise comes Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. All I have to say about this movie is that it’s an adaptation of a video game… Name a single one that’s good.
I’m waiting…
(Don’t even bother trying to mention Pirates of the Caribbean. Those were based on the ride, and they also made two more than they should have.)
UPDATE (6/26/2010): Alright, so this movie has successfully increased the list of really good video game movie adaptations to 1. No matter what you might think, you should watch this movie. It has great characters, a good albeit predictable plot and a satisfying ending. This movie gets an “A” from me!
Karate Kid
Well, if you consider the fact that there is absolutely no Karate happening in the movie at all, it at least looks interesting. As a member of the generation that grew up watching Karate Kid movies, I’m not so sure how I’ll like it. Hopefully though, this new generation of kids is smart enough to realize that this should have been name “The Kung Fu Kid.”
UPDATE (6/26/2010): I am really happy with how they made this move. Yeah, there was no karate in it at all, but who cares!? It’s a perfect re-telling of the original and both Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith are great and have a good dynamic on screen. “A+” for Karate Kid (even though it still should have been called The Kung Fu Kid).
A-Team
This looks like a great popcorn movie. I never really got into the show, but this movie looks good as long as you’re not looking for realism or intriguing plot lines. But al least the dialogue should be good!
UPDATE (6/26/2010): I was right on the money with this movie. Great dialogue and great characters and even though the plot was fairly predictable it was a fun ride and well worth watching. “B+” for the A-Team.
Toy Story 3
At least one thing we know is that Pixar has a difficult time making crap movies. I was surprised by the quality of the second movie and I hope that the third continues that streak. It’s pretty much unheard of to make so many good movies in a row and considering that Ratatouille is their lowest quality movie to date, I think we can expect good things from Toy Story 3.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Well, since I’m not a 12-year-old girl who thinks that everything that happens in their lives is worth killing themselves over, I probably won’t like this movie at all! But, if you enjoy wining about everything that happens as if the whole world revolves around you and death is probably better than this terrible existence were you have food enough to eat, toys, games and friends who like you, then you should see this movie.
The Last Airbender
Alright, so I’m the most excited about this movie, but I’m sort of cautiously optimistic about it. I love the original cartoon and from what I’ve discovered, the possible plot of the movie is different, but an acceptable change. If it’s even remotely close the the source material, this is a movie you mus see!
For years, I subscribed to both Game Informer and Electronic Gaming Monthly. As far as content, the two magazines were very similar. However, when EGM closed its doors forever after the February issue of 2009, I felt a crushing loss, since I assumed it meant the end of reading Seanbaby’s: The Rest of the Crap, my favorite column by my favorite columnist. Only recently did I think of Google searching Seanbaby, and much to my delight, the very first search result was Seanbaby.com, which has a veritable smorgasbord of hilarious, unedited Seanbaby awesomeness! Whether you’ve heard of him or not, do yourselves a favor and give this site a look-see.
-Matty out
It’s been twelve years since we were introduced to what would become the most popular real-time strategy game of all time. StarCraft was and remains at the pinnacle of the RTS genre. Right now Blizzard is working feverishly (at least we hope they are anyway) to finish StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and as usual, their taking their sweet time doing it.
While we have all come to expect the frustratingly long delays that precede a Blizzard release, we begrudgingly accept them because of Blizzards track record to make quality games. Well, for those of you who don’t want to wait any longer, there is a way that you can get in on the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta… Just go to Game Stop, reserve the game for $5 and you’ll get an invite to the beta!
There seems to be a catch to this though… On Blizzards StarCraft II beta FAQs page they posted this question:
I attended BlizzCon 2008 and received a code for the StarCraft II beta. Do I have to go through this process?
There is a separate process in place for players who received StarCraft II beta codes from BlizzCon 2008. To redeem your BlizzCon 2008 beta code, visit the beta sign-up page (don’t worry that the page says World of Warcraft), and enter the code from your BlizzCon 2008 card, along with a valid email address that you check often.
Once you’ve completed these steps, we will contact you via email at some point during the StarCraft II testing process with further instructions. Please note that in order to participate after your receive the invitation, you will need to sign up for a new Battle.net account (if you haven’t done so already).
While they don’t specifically mention anything about a Game Stop beta code, I can only assume that it will work the same with this those as the BlizzCon codes. So if you want in you’d better head over to battle.net and get signed up.
Remember when the original Xbox came out and they started catching themselves on fire? Well, the 360 has been no stranger to hardware malfunctions because of overheating, and even the PlayStation 3 has it’s problems. Over the last few years we’ve all circulated different dos and don’ts when it comes to keeping these malfunctions from happening, and recently I read a news report that listed six ways you could kill your console. I have to say that I agree with each and every one of them, but the “airborne controllers” happen to be my personal favorite way to kill your console!
I took the time to fix our Game Ratings page. Now you can view the detailed ratings of all the games we’ve rated with our new system (Including the ones from the March 2010 Ezine). Make sure you check out our ratings and if you have a beef with one of them, subscribe to the Ezine (if you haven’t already that is) and send us you’re rating for it. We’ll feature the average user ratings for each game in the Cafe Section.
Yesterday I finally executed the marketing campaign that I’ve been talking to people about for months: I pretended to be a bum and stood on the street corner with a moderately humorous sign explaining how games made me destitute. Check out the short video of some of the prep work for this and a view of me standing on the roadside.
Also, if you saw me out there and came to the website, thanks and we hope to see you again soon!
So part of my job here is to keep an eye out on our comeptition and see what their doing so we can be better and while I was doing that the other day I noticed that one of the major game magazines that shall remain nameless (It was Game Informer) mentioned that Clash of the Titans was a rip off of God of War. My immediate reaction was “What the *expletive*!?”
Just to set the record straight here, Clash of the Titans (2010) is a remake of the old movie, Clash of the Titans (1981). According to IMBD the 1981 version was a “film adaptation of the myth of Perseus.” Not to mention that Greek mythology is much older than God of War which originally released in 2005.
So, while it may be true that this re-make might have been possible because of the success of the God of War franchise, it should be made clear that it has absolutely nothing to do with the game. So next time you write an article about something nameless magazine (Game Informer), perhaps you should get your story straight!
We’ve updated the game ratings section! I wanted to have this up so that when the Ezine releases everyone will have a comparison for the ratings. We have a 0-100% rating scale and we plan on using all of it, so if a game get’s anything over 50% it’s an above average game. This should be reflected in the ratings posted as all of them (save one) is an above average game.
Also, if you think that we’re wring about a game, I’ve added a section where you can submit your own ratings and see the average reader ratings on games which will be posted online in the reader ratings section (Soon to come).
