Hey you, on Xbox Live -- Soulja Boy has called you out! That's right, every one's favorite game reviewer has made an official announcement via his YouTube page that he can destroy anyone at online gaming. Take your pick kids: Halo 3? You're done. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare? Don't bother. Gears of War? Put down the controller and walk away. Soulja Boy is so confident that he throws out the challenge to anyone willing to find him on Live. Want to go head-to-head with the artist? Check out the video after the jump for his Gamertag -- of course the video is NSFW. Good luck, kids.
There is little doubt that fighting games and arcades go hand-in-hand, so the death of arcades should mean the death of the genre, right? No! Thanks to the advent of online competition, fighting games have been given a new lease on life. One of the many fighting titles still battling for console attention is the upcoming Street Fighter IV from Capcom. Bringing the series back to the quarter-stealing roots of Street Fighter II, SFIV is one of our most anticipated titles of ... whenever Capcom decides to release it!
With the beta for the PS3 create-a-platformer Little Big Planet underway, it looks like many PS3 owners are dedicating their time to building levels designed to denigrate our console of choice, the Xbox 360. A quick search on YouTube reveals videos like the one above, which centers (perhaps justifiably) on the Red Ring of Death. There may be more of these anti-360 levels out there. We don't know and, quite frankly, don't care. What we do care about is a pro-360 level sent to us by a reader. We like it for its panache, creativity and, particularly, its toilet humor. Find it after the break.
Video games and politics aren't strangers to one another. Since the days of the crusades against Mortal Kombat -- pretty tame nowadays -- and extending into the storied and humorous career of one Jack Thompson, video games have lingered in the halls of politics (let's not get into all the unsuccessful and costly legislation attempts). We think this is, however, the first time that claiming a political opponent plays Halo has been used as a smear tactic. And yet, there it is. In a politcal fact sheet produced for Arizona's Maricopa County District 1 Supervisor race, the fact that 26-year-old Ed Hermes is an avid Halo player is used in an effort to defame him.
"Skilled player of the popular video game Halo," the flyer reads, opposite a more politically relevant statment about Fulton Brock -- Hermes' 56-year-old opponent. It continues with a quote from Hermes made in a university newspaper: "I am addicted to Halo, and play almost every night."
We find ourselves wondering if a young Fulton Brock was once accused by an elder statesmen of "Watching the boob tube," or "Reading the Devil's picture books."
Using poll information gathered from Gearheads this past February, GearsofWar.com just posted a new top five video, where they count down the top five Locust types as chosen by fans. The video (conveniently embedded above) is voiced by the one and only Damon Baird and starts off the top five countdown fun with those "dumb" Boomers. We won't spoil the countdown by telling you anymore, but we will say it's nice to see vintage clips of the original Gears. And for the record, it's more than apparent that Gears 2 is no Gears 1.5 ... just saying.
Want to know a secret? Videogame adaptations of war can be pretty violent. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is the recently released first-person shooter from UbiSoft that proves our point. Setting itself apart in gameplay style, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway features a light tactical overlay within its squad based system that allows players to control nearly all aspect of the soldiers under their command. According to Metacritic, if that's your thing, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway has been given generally favorable reviews; currently sitting with a score of 76. The trailer, found after the jump, showcases some of the more violent action in the game. Looking to see how insane war can be or just want to watch sheep react to physics through a grenade blast? Jump in.
When you stop to think about iconic characters for each of the big three a few easy ones come to mind. Master Chief owning on Xbox, Super Mario fighting for Nintendo and Kratos breaking dudes on the PlayStation (or insert your own characters if these examples don't work for you). One character that had the potential to be a huge gaming icon after his introduction was Earthworm Jim.
Jim had it all. Fun games, ridiculous cartoon and even action figures. Then one day the team that owned the rights to Earthworm Jim decided to call it a night and sell the character off for fear they wouldn't be able to bring him into the 3D world. David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, has recently come clean on one of the biggest mistakes his company ever made; letting Jim get away.
"[Selling the rights of Earthworm Jim to Interplay] turned out to be the dumbest move ever," Perry said in an interview with Kikizo. "There's been other versions of Earthwork Jim done that were done without our permission really, licensing deals, and I was very unhappy about them." We'd be happy enough to see the original titles added to the Xbox Live Arcade or any news on the announced fourth title in the series.
You know, it's funny to hear losing Earthworm Jim was the biggest mistake in Shiny's history. We could have sworn it was just being involved with Enter the Matrix. Just saying.
There are a few things that are wrong about the trailer you just watched, if you haven't watched it yet we'll wait. The montage of female actors taking on roles in Red Alert 3 is criminally short with a disclaimer that players can witness more by purchasing the special edition of the game. Now, we're not saying it's criminally short because we just want to look at beautiful women but can these actors get a name card?
Quick blurry images of female actors and not one mentions them by name but the male actor portion of the video is complete with multiple shots of each actor, their credits and spends so much time showing off one actor we could have read their biography if included. We know Electronic Arts wants to hype up the anticipated sequel and the Collector's Edition but let's use a little tact, shall we? We're not mad though because George Takei is one sexy beast of a man.
Welcome to the bottom of this ginormous image! Since you're here we might as well tell you all about the Prince of Persia graphic novel which recently released to book and comic stores everywhere. The $17, 190-page novel includes two parallel storylines of a Prince in the 9th century and another in the 14th -- meaning this Prince is completely different from the guy you know now and the one you'll know soon.
Written by A.B. Sina and illustrated by LeUyen Pham and her husband, Alex Puvilland, the Prince of Persia graphic novel is said to examine the "legend of the Prince," created by Jordan Mechner. Check out excerpts from the novel in the gallery below.
If you only listen to one gaming podcast it should be the Xbox 360 Fancast. If you were going to listen to another we recommend the Big Download podcast. Have some extra time? The third best podcast on the internet is the Xbox 360 Fancast Friends Defense Force Podcast. Sure the name is ridiculously long but the podcast spawned out of the love of our own deserves your respect. They also need your help.
The X3FFDF (wow) team has a big interview with Sean Baptiste, manager of community development at Harmonix and need your questions for the momentous occasion. Have a question for the team behind Rock Band 2? Add your inquires to the comments of this post and the X3FFDF team will credit you during the episode. So, what do you want to ask Harmonix?!
EDGE Online knows what you want. Cracking the games industry is no easy task but the folks at EDGE Online have discussed how the process is possible with some of the most respected professionals in the field. From the low levels of QA to designing that Furry RPG you've always dreamed of; EDGE hopes to educate your dreams.
The 2008 edition of cracking the gaming cookie doesn't hold back and outlines the truth and some of the hardships along the way. Looking into a career in the industry? You should check it out.
It's late night and we thought we could get a little more personal with those of you still searching for news morsels before you hit the sack. Our friends at AOL GameDaily run an ongoing discussion column called The HUD that poses four questions to ten games writers each week. Fans and regular commenters at X3F know our readership aren't comprised of your garden variety "FIRST!" posting knuckleheads and actually have smart and well informed opinions. It's with those types of readers in mind GameDaily has launched this discussion platform.
This week on the HUD they examine a hot topic around the X3F water cooler, movie tie-ins. With the recently released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed under our belt they discuss if the game could stand on its own without the Star Wars name. Also, another hot topic of DRM woes and Activision's litigation against pirates sneaks in as well as whether or not gamers can trust their news sources.
Check out the GameDaily HUD and take a look at the responses from such videogame journalists as Chris Grant of Joystiq, N'Gai Croal of Newsweek, Stephen Totilo of MTV Multiplayer Blog, Libe Goad of AOL GameDaily and more including X3F's own third-person loving, Xav de Matos. Then, jump into this post to see this week's four questions and let us know your thoughts on the subjects discussed this week on the HUD.
Looking for a good change of pace to your regular Xbox Live schedule this weekend? Remember Rockstar is hosting a Grand Theft Auto IV weekend which began Friday, September 26 at 12:01AM EST and runs through to Sunday, September 28 at 11:59PM EST.
The weekend affords gamers the opportunity to school or be schooled by a Rockstar employee in some GTA IV multiplayer madness as well as win a truck-load of prizes just for playing the game. It's play and win in GTA IV this weekend and Rockstar has a ton of treats to go around. A full listing of Rockstar employee gamertags are available after the jump.
There has never been a movie based on a videogame that wasn't ... oh what's the word... non-ass. Sure, game-based films are always entertaining but that's always for the wrong reasons. After watching the new Max Payne trailer, titled Angels & Demons, we're starting to get hopeful for the flick. Taking the story from both Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Paynethe film look promising but like a short guy at a urinal, we're going to stay on our toes. Just in case.
In a new encoded post on the official Bungie site a string of text teases what many anticipate was Bungie's canceled E3 reveal. Playing out like a snippet of a Hollywood script, the string of text details a conversation between a Captain - Codenamed: DARE.V.500341(S1) - following up on a squad request to an Admiral - Codenamed: SMN.ACTUAL - calling the shots from a location currently under siege.
At the time of this writing speculation continues to run wild within the Bungie Forums. Popular theories point to new campaign levels, a map pack retail disc with a new cinematic (as seen in Halo 2's map pack) or an entirely new title within the Halo Universe, specifically due to references of the MAC weapon. Some of the more interesting tidbits could easily be gleaned from scanning the string of text (available after the break). The primary, DARE, is given a code number which ends in S1 leading some to believe the string of text occurs prior to Covenant attacks during the SPARTAN-1 era (yr.2491) -- way before John-117 joins the program in 2517.
Which theory gets us excited? The mention of squads could point to a pre-Halo era tactical shooter in the original SPARTAN phase that led to the creation of Master Chief. Wild thinking and speculation but we can't wait to see where this one is going.