Haven't done one of these in a couple years.. I've been revisiting everything Mortal Kombat 9 has to offer because I had to replace my xbox hard drive which wasn't fun considering I had to beat Shao Kahn twice in story mode (probably the most punishing-yet-rewarding game experience I have ever dealt with besides the last level of Jedi Outcast). Since I normally play first person shooters like Halo Reach, MW3, BF3, etc, this was a great change of pace since I have never been a fan of fighting games until exploring most of Mortal Kombat's "kotent;" I haven't even scratched the surface. The challenge towers are also mostly challenging in a good way.. There is so much variety in this game that its unbeliable how much effort and creativity was placed in MK9.. Even the DLCs are worth checking out at 400 MS points per character (I believe there were 5 DLCs released).

Even if you aren't a fan of fighting games, you will be impressed with MK9. If you haven't picked it up, I highly recommend it, just be sure to save up on controllers.. I'm not joking here; I accidently cracked my wireless controller during a heated fight with Shao Kahn (who is one of the cheapest bosses of all time, he drops it like its hammer-time) and shockingly it still works.

... I just recently achieved 1337 posts a couple seconds ago!

Before I continue, I would like to show ya'll a comic strip from IGN's Cube Toons.

Very funny. So, in short, SEGA has a reputation of putting the Sonic franchise into crappable scales and awful gameplay (as fun as Sonic Heroes was, the controls were annoying.) So far, two Sonic games are coming out this year (Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Unleashed.) From what I've seen, SEGA might be realizing a quality product is much better than a money product (the only reason why 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog was the family game of the year, despite the poor quality is mostly because of the large Sonic fanbase that has been built for so many years.) Now, Unleashed appears to be a simple Sonic game that many of us has been expecting because what good is a series when there is nothing but bad ideas. Of all the Sonic games, I think Sonic Chronicles will be better because if you didn't know, its a RPG and those go well. If you disagree with me, look how fun Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga was. They added a ton of new stuff that was flat out awesome (I could keep playing that game because there is always. If the new Sonic games turn out to be awesome, then maybe we'll respect SEGA for producing a memorable game.

Brazil is a place famous for topless beaches and the "anything goes" attitude there. As life goes on, all kinds of violent bloody games are on display for people aged 17 and up. But you cannot play Bully, the controversial banned-from-Brazil game that features a kid at a rather rough boarding school. So, in order to get a ton of money, I'm gonna make a video game called "Serial Killer" and even though you play a cop going after serial killers, it will be controversial from people who never played the game.

http://money.aol.com/news/articles/tech-news/_a/video-game-bully-banned-in-brazil/20080410162309990001

"The devil came down to Georgia, he was lookin' for a soul to steal..."

Charlie Daniels is not the guy on the left

If you have been under a rock, Guitar Hero is currently one of the most popular party games out there. Charlie Daniels is the country star responsible for the 70s hit "Devil Came Down to Georgia." What do they have in common? Charlie Daniels seems to be angry at Guitar Hero for this:

http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox-2008-040408.htm

Well, at least he asks us to pray for the troops... If there is anything I have learned in that quote, its that the boys at Guitar Hero did not get permission from Charlie Daniels. Personally, a small reason why I dislike GH is some of the devil images and symbols seem to pop up (of course, thats rock history for us since bands ranging from Black Sabbath to Slayer had plenty of controversial incidents.) When its the devil not corrupting young kids and giving bad ideas, its more likely TV.

That lovable yellow ape we all know as Homer Simpson is now banned from a Veunezuelan TV channel because Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, Maggie, and the rest of the Springfield gang were considered innapropiate for children. Plenty of fans of The Simpsons will weep due to this shocking move! Meanwhile, The Simpsons will be replaced with Baywatch: Hawaii which includes bikini girls and beef cakes alike! What? Sexy girls with bikinis isn't offensive to children?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,347910,00.html

After many months, I've finally downloaded the F.E.A.R Perseus Mandate demo. If you haven't heard, F.E.A.R is a creepy FPS that pits you against cloned soldiers and a spicy girl (If you've played F.E.A.R, you know what I'm talking about) named Alma. This stand-alone expansion pack (you don't need the original copy of F.E.A.R) starts after the events of Extraction Point. I'm not revealing the plot because it will have spoilers. If you haven't finished Extraction Point, don't download the demo yet. Anyway, the gameplay and graphics are the same. Nothing too new exceptI get a chance to try out the Grenade Launcher and a new assault rifle from a new enemy. I recommend giving this a try because this stand-alone expansion is heading towards a fine line of horror. Anyway, you still have the slow-mo action, Replica soldiers, repeated locations, etc, so don't expect something 100% new.

[pictures coming soon]

4/5

note: sorry for late review on Asian Dynasties.

Remember 2005's Age of Empires III? It was the third installment of the popular RTS series involving empires flinging fearsome weapons of mass destruction (not really, but you get the point) against their enemies. Age of Empires 3 was a success due to its amazing graphics, gameplay, campaign, etc. After the release of the expansion pack, "The War Chiefs", Ensemble Online decided to release its 2nd expansion pack for Age of Empires 3. Rather than doing it on their own, they chose Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends) to take this expansion pack with new gameplay. After playing the demo, I am amazed at BHG's attempt at Age of Empires 3. In the demo, you can play the British or Japanese on one of the new maps (Hoesheo or something like that). If you get tired of skirmish mode, you can use King of the Hill (fort in the middle of the map. First one who controls it wins). Its exciting to see a demo with a different mode, more points due to having King of the Hill mode. I haven't played the campaign, but when I do, I bet it will be fun.

4/5

Finally, after a while, I decided to check out the demo of the latest Clive Barker shooter, Jericho. All I can say is that its pretty good.

Basically, this is somehow an interesting type of FPS. In the demo, you can play three characters and depending on what situation, you have a choice of controlling three characters (I think five in the full version). Anyway, the plot is a bit lame because in the beginning before God made Adam and Eve, he made a child in his own image that nobody liked. So, he just tossed this kid in an abyss and he turns evil. Soon, a city is going to be affected and multilated by some sort of zombie creatures. Seriously, I did not make this stuff up.

Despite its poor plot, Jericho is fun to play. The most awesome thing about Jericho is Church. She dual-wields a sword and a pistol and slashing monsters is fun, just trust me. Most importantly, my computer can run a partially-laggy game on everything at max (I need to have the lowest resolution). The good thing about the demo is that its about 1GB, so it won't be a long process. I can see this getting a lot of positive acclaim for its graphics, design, gameplay, etc. Though probably very few for its plot.

3/5

Many people think that Halo is overrated. Look at Halo 3's immediate success! $170 millon on day one. Surely there's something about Halo thats exciting and challenging for anyone who wants to play it.

I'll explain why everyone is on about Halo:

1. Gameplay. Yes, it consists of mostly shooting aliens and the Flood. However, its one thing just shooting aliens, but its another when you shoot really good A.I monsters. Even after the campaign is done, Halo has some amazing MP that you can play for a long time.Who knows if I'll like Halo 3 once I get a chance to play it.

2. Graphics. Sure, Halo 1 and 2 are outdated, but you can just see people at the time Halo 1 and 2 were made. Halo 3 looks amazing no doubt, can't wait until its announced for the PC

3. Storyline, pacing, and acting. What makes this great is you mix the gameplay with cool graphics and an intelligent sci-fi story. There are quite a few twists in the story occasionally. Unlike other games, you actually care for pixelated characters in-game. Shame you can't be awe-struck about the pixelated floating Big Rigs trucks.

However great the series is, you get many people that can spoil the online experience. Mostly immature people that do not know how to play fair and hackers. I hope that Halo 3 doesn't have as much of the silly people like on Halo 1 and 2.

After hearing of a Quake-version of RTCW: ET, I decided that I should check out the demo. I'll get some screenies posted on the blog soon, so be patient about that. Anyway, if you are curious, here are my specs:

Intel (R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7100 @ 1.80GHz

4.44 GHz

2.0 GB

Windows Vista Home Edition

NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS

3.5/5