Fulfilling (belatedly) New Year’s Resolution

I vowed back during the summer that I’d get this site up and running soon…”soon” turned into “later,” and now it’s a whole new year. Which brings me to my New Year’s Resolution (one of them, at least): I will post something here every day (when possible). See you soon…and this time, I mean it!

FINALLY BACK!

After a password issue (not the fault of WordPress, but my own), I am back online and will be contributing more. I know this site has had few visitors, but that’s going to change. Now that everything’s back to being copacetic, expect more posts and greater promotion. I love doing this, and I intend to do it a lot more often.

New Star Ocean 4 Pics

Great new pics from Star Ocean 4. Click on the link for more info.

http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-208725.aspx

At this time, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a 360-exclusive title. But exclusivity is quickly becoming a thing of the past in the face of rising developments costs and increasing competition, so PS3 owners shouldn’t despair. They’ll probably get this game at some point in the future.

Gears of War 2: Horde Mode Preview

It’s becoming apparent that November 7th can’t get here fast enough. Gears 2 is shaping up to be the biggest, baddest shooter of the year (apologies to Resistance 2).

Check out this preview from GamePro ( http://www.gamepro.com/article/previews/207367/gears-of-war-2-five-things-youll-love-about-horde-mode/ ) of the Horde mode, where Locust come at you in droves and players try to survive as long as possible. Downed players can crawl to a teammate to be revived…as long as they’re not spotted by a Locust eager for the kill. Mixing up weapons and tactics seems to be the key to survival…and it’s obvious that players who don’t buy into the team mentality will not last long.

Also watch the video at the end. It’s nearly six minutes of interviews and footage showcasing many of the new weapons and features of the game.

Dammit, Nintendo

You’re not going to catch me criticizing Nintendo very often…they’ve done so many positive things for the gaming industry, and have done a wonderful job bringing gaming into the hands of casual gamers.

But this article (http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News-210003.aspx) details how Nintendo is basically holding back what many gamers want: the classic shooter Goldeneye brought to Xbox Live Arcade AND Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console. Rare had finished the game, and both Microsoft and Activision (the current owners of the James Bond license) have agreed to its release.

But Nintendo hasn’t. And we don’t know why.

There’s bushels of money to be made here…no doubt there are plenty of gamers nostalgic for this game, along with many more who’ve heard about its greatness and want to give it try. So there’s definitely a built-in audience. And classic shooters tend to do well with revamps…look at the popularity of Doom and Duke Nukem on XBLA, for example.

So profitability is probably not the reason.

Nintendo’s been pretty silent on the issue. Indeed, as the above article states, “Ever since the GoldenEye issue heated up back in January, no website or printed magazine on a worldwide basis has been able to get a single statement from them.”

So what’s going one here? For now, the game remains in limbo. Maybe Nintendo will relent and allow its release someday soon. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

On the plue side, we get Rare’s twin classics Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo Tooie released on XBLA before much longer. That should tie me over for a while.

(Credit to Mundorare for the original story and for the pic).

Finally getting things rolling

I created this site more than two months ago, and I’m finally finding the time to work on it and post on a regular basis. Between work and family, my time has been limited, but I will manage to find a little time to post each day, even if it’s just a brief post on a recent game or a breaking story.

I will also post reviews when the opportunity presents itself, from  both myself and others.

In addition, I will also throw in the occasional story about something related to geek popular culture, such as movies and TV shows. No, I’m not trying to be AICN (see Links if you’re unfamiliar with that site), but I’d like for this site to be well-rounded and periodically offer something above and beyond just gaming. From time to time, I may throw in an odd story or two. But I won’t do that often; I have another blog (http://theangrylibertarian.wordpress.com/) that I use for everything outside of gaming.

When it comes to comments, please keep it (relatively) clean and on-topic; I don’t mind language, but hateful comments will be edited or deleted. Also, this a fanboy-free site; if you’re looking to flame people over their console choice, you’ve come to the wrong place. There’s a difference between enjoying your console(s) and having an irrational love for it and a vehement hatred for others. Please keep that in mind when posting a comment.

Thanks for reading. I will be updating and posting as often as my schedule allows.