Scrabulous is back! Well sort of
The makers of the incredibly popular Scrabulous application for Facebook were told to remove the application or face legal action by Hasbro, the makers of the original dusty Scrabble board. Hasbro lacking any vision of their own waited until they had their own Scrabble application. Reports are saying that this application is not near as polished as Scrabulous was.
Diablo 3 announced
First Star Craft II and now Diablo III! I really hope these games don’t come out at the same time, there’s only so much awesomeness one person can be expected to experience in any given time frame. It was announced at Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational 2008 in Paris.
Call of Duty: World at War debut trailer
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was and still is one of my favourite online FPS games. Not since Quake 3 Arena has a game managed to grab my attention for so long. I think it’s due to the extreme intensity of the game, it really is a rush to play.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Beta June 25
I’ve followed this followed this game from the start. I was a hardcore Street Fighter fan back in the days when there were lines-ups around the Street Fighter II arcade machines, and I have owned various version of this game on earlier consoles like the Super Nintendo. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Wow that’s a mouthful) will be released in beta if you buy Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on Xbox Live arcade for the 360. I have tried Commando 3 and it’s really not my kind of game, but I think I may have to bite the bullet and buy it just so I can play the Beta of Street Fighter, I’m that much of a Street Fighter geek.
Every single frame of animation has been redone in this game, and it aims to tweak game play and add a few new moves while still staying true to the original. The game will even run in wide screen. Capcom has also mentioned the possibility of expansions in the future. The original Xbox live file size restrictions have also been overcome.
Now for the bad news, the controllers. For some horribly bizarre and sadistic reason you cannot use a high end controller on the 360. If you have a 500 dollar DDR mat or a 200 dollar arcade joystick, it’s pretty much useless on the 360 unless you want to do some serious modding that will require an extra 360 pad. This really sucks, and it’s always been a huge beef of players on the 360, why do they even use a USB plug? Last time I checked the U stood for Universal.
Anyway, enough of my rant, I will still give in and buy this game because I can taste it. Check our the screenshots on IGN and there are a few game play videos on Gametrailers.
Check out my last article on Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Duke Nukem Forever video?
A video is online called The Jace Hall Show claiming to have video footage of Duke Nukem Forever. Okay, stop laughing for a minute, it looks like it really is some footage of some video game. There is an interview with the developers George Broussard and Scott Miller of 3D Realms and blurry footage of “the game”, it’s quite funny, so check it out. Could it be possible that after 12 years of development they might actually have something? Still not holding my breath.
GTA IV episode coming in early 2009
Kotaku has news of a whole new episode coming out for the Xbox360 version of GTA IV in early 2009. This will be add-on will be in the form of a DLC package. or I still haven’t even completed 50% of this game yet, but this is great news that there is more to come. If episode 1 is popular there may be more. Half-Life has also taken this approach in the past with Half-Life 2, episode 1, episode 2, and an episode 3 that is yet unreleased.
GTA IV is one of the most popular games of the year with over 8.5 million sold as of May 31, and 6 million copies sold in it’s first week racking in $500 million in net sales. GTA IV offers one of the most compelling single player experiences on the Xbox 360 to date, and the muliplayer is pretty fun too.
GTA 4 unknown contact bug fix
A friend of mine ran into a serious problem where they could no longer progress in the missions of Grand Theft Auto 4. When they went to the yellow way point arrows nothing happened and the mission would not trigger. It seems to happen after “The Puerto Rican Connection” mission when you receive a call from an unknown person. I did a few searches on the web and found several other people having the same problem. Many had to start the game over, but the good news is there is a fix.
In order to trigger the missions again you need to call one of your contacts. It’s probably best to call Roman and book something with him. This should trigger the stories progress. I’ve also read that a manual save can work too, but I know for sure a call too Roman will work. I have not actually experienced the bug myself, but this work for my friend. The bug also seems to effect both PS3 and 360 versions of the game. GTA 4 is still a fantastic game, and hopefully not too many people experience this bug and if they do I hope this helps and hopefully Rockstar will have a fix for it soon.
GTA IV – Does it live up to the hype?
GTA IV was released yesterday, and I managed to put in several hours last night. I played the single player for about 30 minutes and then went straight into the multi player free mode. I haven’t played it long enough to write up a review, but at first glance does it live up to the hype? Definitely, definitely definitely! That means yes.
The polish on this game is stunning. The AI is great, the graphics are fantastic, the fun level is through the roof, what more could you ask for. The attention to detail is what blows me away the most. Things they didn’t need to add, but did anyway, like dripping water when you come out of a lake, or mud tracks on the beach. Hilarious politically charged commentators on the TV and radios. The sound track should have something for everyone too. Let’s not forget the helicopters, bikes, mopeds, buses, trucks, boats, and who knows what else awaits.
If you are still on the fence about this game, GameTrailers has a fairly in depth review.
Street Fighter 4
Well I’ve been posting about Super Steer Fight II Turbo HD Remix; I thought I would also mention Street Fighter 4.
Although this doesn’t get me quite as excited as the Remix version, it’s still pretty cool. I may not get to play Street Fighter 4 for awhile since this will be an arcade only title at first. I’m sure it will make it to the consoles soon after though.
The big problem for us in North America is in many areas the arcade is dead. It’s more of a place where junkies hang out than game geeks. I guess Arcades are still big in Asia, and Capcom has even mentioned that it will be hard to distribute in North America. I’m not sure I would even want to go to an arcade to play, but I will wait in eager anticipation for a console version.
There are some great screenshots at Gamersyde and some trailers of it in action at Gamtrailers. The screenshots sadly do not get me near as excited as the Remix versions though. I find the characters a little too bulky and chunky, but this is of course still a work in process.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
I have been following the progress of this game for quite some time. For those who haven’t, Capcom has been painstakingly re-drawing every single Super Street Fighter II Turbo sprite in beautiful HD goodness while maintaining the original look and feel. When I look at the screenshots for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix I often find myself wiping drool from the corner of my lip.
The game will be released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 arcade platforms. A big issue with the 360 version was the file restriction on live arcade games. Today it’s official; there will be no file size issues on the 360 version. You can also read Capcom’s official blog update on the progress of the game so far. Now the only real issue facing the 360 is a good arcade stick. I may by this game based solely on whichever console has the best fighter stick at the time of release.
