Friday, April 29, 2011

Portal 2 DLC Will Be Free

Yesterday we reported that Portal 2 developers announced DLC would be available sometime this summer. Today even better news comes out, this sparkling new DLC will be made available to everyone for absolutely FREE! Apparently the DLC pack will include more puzzles, challenge modes, leader boards and more.

This sounds like it may fix up Portal's only weakness, its amount of content. Releasing this much content for free sounds like a pretty great deal.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

MLG Announces Full 2011 Pro Circuit Season Schedule

MLG announced the full 2011 Pro Circuit Season Schedule for the rest of the year. It looks like they'll be holding tournaments in Columbus, Anaheim, Raleigh, and Orlando and the National Championship will take place in Providence.


Schedule:
Remaining Regular Season Stops:
MLG Columbus: June 3-5
MLG Anaheim: July 29-31
MLG Raleigh: August 26-28
MLG Orlando:  October 14-16
2011 National Championships:
MLG Providence: November 18-20


Prizes for 1st place:

  • Starcraft 2 - $50,000
  • Halo: Reach - $100,000
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops - $50,000

Looks to be an exciting season. Check out MLG for full details.



Source: MLG

Portal 2 DLC Coming This Summer



The creators of Portal 2 sat down with Fast Company the other day for an interview. In said interview, the developers talked about various hurdles they encountered through the development of Portal 2. After many informative questions it was revealed that the DLC for Portal 2 will be available sometime this summer and that they will comment further in the next few weeks.

I, for one, think it's a great thing that the DLC will take months to release rather than just weeks as previously hinted at. It shows that (hopefully) development of the DLC is still an active process and that it wasn't already prepared at the time of the games release. One thing that always bugs me is nerfing games at release for the sole purpose of adding DLC immediately.

Source: Fast Company

F.E.A.R. 3 Release Delayed Until June


F.E.A.R. fans took a blow today. It seems that the third installment of the F.E.A.R. franchise won't hit the shelves next month as anticipated. The release date in Europe has been delayed until June 27. US gamers will experience a similar delay, receiving a release date of June 21st.

Source: Destructoid

"Taste of Escalation" Trailer - Black Ops DLC


We recently blogged about the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC Escalation. Black Ops recently released a new trailer entitled "Taste of Escalation" set to the same soundtrack as the famous "There's a Soldier in All of Us" trailer that aired back in November. It showcases the new maps as well as the new Zombie Mode. Take a look:





Take a look at our old post about Escalation for more info. Or Check out the "There's a Soldier in All of Us" trailer.

Source: Black Ops Blog

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Colorado Beer Statistics

This is a little outdated, (Hickenlooper is now governor of Colorado) but still very cool.

PlayStation Comes Clean About PSN Outage

It's hard to miss all of the news recently about the PSN. I'm sure you all know that the PlayStation Network has been down for that past week and PlayStation has been attempting to keep the blame off of itself. Originally it was blamed on the hacker group Anonymous for attacking and bringing down the network. You really can't blame them for trying, Anonymous has become infamous for their extreme cyber attacks on organizations they don't agree with. Anonymous spoke later and took no credit for the outage.

Today, PlayStation came clean about the reasons for the network being down. The truth is much worse than a typical cyber attack and is instead akin to mass identity theft. It appears that between April 27th and 29th certain PSN user account information was compromised. Due to this intrusion PSN was quickly shut down and security was amped up. PlayStation sent out the following message:
Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:
  1. Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
  2. Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and
  3. Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.
We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.
Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.
To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information for those who wish to consider it:
U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.
We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S. credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus place a “fraud alert” on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you, it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report, please contact any one of the agencies listed below.
Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or www.oag.state.md.us.
We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment
It sounds like PSN will be up within a week.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Monday, April 25, 2011

Mortal Kombat Review


I remember the old days when Mortal Kombat was played in 8 simple bits. I remember when those 8-bits caused so much controversy that they were censored unless a cheat code was entered. Now, when the game has truly reached it’s graphical peak (for now), the controversy seems to have disappeared and MK can, finally, show it’s true bloody colors.



Gameplay

9.0

If you’ve kept up with the Mortal Kombat franchise recently, it’s pretty plain to see how it’s slowly spiraled downward. With every new release another “gimmick” has been added. Whether it be changing stances, addition of weapons, long scripted combos or, the worst of all, the infamous Kreate-A-Fatality.

The next installment of the MK series has been hyped as rediscovering the roots of the series and returning to what made Mortal Kombat great. I, for one, was intrigued but wary. Many times games have talked about “returning to their roots” and fallen short, instead falling, once again, onto the unforgiving spikes of gimmicks.

Mortal Kombat, however, delivers on its promises. Forget the days memorizing super complicated combos and welcome the new/old system of stringing together your own combos. A few combos are still programmed into the system but most consist of stringing together short combos with special moves to preform juggle combos. This allows for much more creativity when fighting and makes the gameplay feel more fluid.

The game is also takes place in one-pane as opposed to the 3D fighting of its recent predecessors. This makes MK feel more natural and makes it easier to jump and duck quickly.

If that all sounds like old news then you’re in luck, the developers didn’t just copy the old MKs. This new MK introduces X-ray attacks! These attacks can be used when the player’s special bar is fully charged and releases a devastating string of blows on the enemy (if it lands). With every blow the opponents internal structure is shown, allowing you to truly witness the carnage being inflicted. These attacks deal devastating amounts of damage and can shift the tide of battle if used correctly.



Video / Audio

7.0

I’ll be blunt, this game has the best graphics of any Mortal Kombat released to date, but the graphics are still not great. This game really showcases what made the franchise famous: grotesque amounts of violence and gore. Every hit dealt causes a splatter of blood somewhere, and I’ll be honest, I love it.

The X-ray attacks are a nice little change from the bloody routine while still staying true to MK’s brutal nature. Everytime I see an X-ray attack, even if it’s being performed on me, I enjoy sitting back and watching the mayhem.

The voice acting, however, is pretty terrible. Most of the lines feel unnattural and many of them just made me laugh at how incredibly bad they were.



Story

7.0

The story, surprisingly, is not too bad. I actually really enjoyed watching it develope. Even the character development was well done, by the end of the game I really felt I knew the general personalities of every character.

The lines did not do much to aid the story, however. It seemed like every other sentence was some sort of terrible one-liner. On top of that, EVERYONE throughout the game has an unbelievably short temper. It ussually seems to go like this, “Ok, the fate of our world is at stake, we better be really quiet, like your mom,” “what did you say about my mom!?” Fight breaks loose. Okay, maybe I exaggerated just a little bit, but you get the gist of it.



Content

9.0

Okay, this game has A LOT of content. It consists of three main single player modes (Story Mode, Challenge Tower and Arcade) and several multiplayer modes. Story Mode takes you through the Mortal Kombat storyline. This mode is actually pretty entertaining and actually makes you switch between many different characters. This mode is surprisingly long for a fighting game. Challenge Tower consists of a whopping 300 challenges ranging from fights to minigames. This mode would take forever to complete (it took me about 2 hours to do the first 25). Arcade mode is... arcade mode (you should know what that is). Add multiplayer into this mix and you get an unbelievable amount of content.

When it all comes down to it though, it’s still all Mortal Kombat or some slight variation of it, and I, for one, get rather tired of MK after a while, long before I would get through all the game’s content.



Huevos Factor

7.5

Mortal Kombat showcases unprecedented amounts of violence exceeded only by its extraordinary amounts of blood. I love it. This installment is, without a doubt, the best installment of the series to date.

Breakdown:

Gameplay
9.0
Video / Audio
7.0
Story
7.0
Content
9.0
Huevos Factor
7.5


Total
8.3



Sunday, April 24, 2011

Portal 2 Review



If you’re reading this then you’ve probably played the first Portal. If you haven’t then seriously, stop reading this right now and go buy it! I mean it, right now! I’ll wait. Anyway, if you’ve played Portal you know the the magic of the game. The way you rack your brain flinging portal after portal, falling unprecedented distances until you finally find the solution to that test. Sometimes you just stand there staring at the room, trying to figure out exactly what it is you’re meant to do. A few minutes (or hours) later you suddenly have an epiphany. You know how to solve it!

This stumbling followed by euphoric revelation happens countless times and is one of the things that makes Portal great. If you’re like me you’ve been waiting for the release of Portal 2 in wary anticipation. Looking so forward to playing the game but worried it will suffer sequel syndrome and fall flat.

But worry no longer, Portal 2 exceeds expectations and will blow your mind once again.


Gameplay

9.5

Portal 2 captures all of the magic and mystery of the first game but with it’s own unique twist. Seriously, if they didn’t put a huge twist on it would it really still be magical and mysterious?

The basic mechanics remain constant (thank god!) and circle around the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Gun. The player must navigate through treacherous tests by strategically placing portals as a means to reach the end of each room. Sounds simple. It isn’t.

This time around the player will have to make use of several new little tweaks to the system including: lasers, three types of manipulation gel (repulsion, propulsion and conversion), light bridges and excursion funnels. Each of these little doodads add another layer of depth to the puzzles and keep the game original and entertaining.

The only real downside is later when navigating from test to test. The time in-between tests is the most frustrating part of the game. These usually consist of simply finding places to put portal so you can reach the next test but it can take several minutes to just FIND where you need to go.

These are a rarity, however, and the rest of the game shines gloriously despite this minor flaw.


Video / Audio

9.0

The graphics of Portal 2 appear very similar if not identical to it’s predecessor. Most things throughout the game are shiny, smooth and neat, creating the feel of a true testing environment. Despite the lack of obvious visual improvement, this game is beautiful. Why improve something that’s almost perfect?

The sound effects and music are also iconic. Throughout the game a certain kind of music will play as Chell accelerates, whether is be by gravity, propulsion gel or even simple springs. In this way Portal 2 combines music with sound effects in a way that I have never seen before.

Perhaps the most important aspect of video and audio in Portal (as all Portal players know) is the voice acting. Not the voice acting of the players character (Chell is mute) but of the robots and prerecorded messages you encounter throughout your testing. Anyone who has played the original would recognize GlaDOS’s voice anywhere.


Story

10

Portal 2 does something that a lot of games try but fail to accomplish: have a silent protagonist and an incredibly enthralling story. The funny thing is that a lot of the characters throughout the game actually acknowledge your “mute”ness and make fun of you for it. In the first sequence of the game it displays a tool-tip saying something like, “Press A to say your name”. A, of course, is the jump button, and instead of responding you simply jump in place. The character then assumes that you have suffered “brain damage.”

Every character shown throughout the game is iconic and memorable. Even the displaced voice of Cave Johnson, only heard through prerecorded messages, develops a life of it’s own.

The dialogue in Portal is matched only by the dialogue of Portal 2. Every sound byte is pure gold and an almost instant meme. I don’t believe there has ever been a game where nearly every single line makes me laugh.

In addition to all of this, the story of Portal 2 is compelling and full of twists. You befriend enemies, experience betrayal and even reunite with your lost love (companion cube).


Content

6.5

Portal 2 features two distinct modes: single player and co-op. Each mode has its own storyline with unique puzzles and progression.

The Single Player is about twice as long as it’s predecessor and quite a bit more complicated. This being said, the single player still only takes 4-6 hours to complete if you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately, it does not showcase a challenge mode as the first one did and thus leaves little incentive to continue playing after completion.

The Co-Op is very well done. It forces the two players to work together and brainstorm. Honestly, i thought Co-Op was much more challenging than the Single Player as it involves four portals instead of the usual two.

Despite this, once it is completed, as with the single player, there is little incentive to play again. If your friend hasn’t completed Co-Op but you have, or viceversa, Do NOT play it with them. Doing this will completely ruin the Co-Op experience because one of you already knows the solutions.

The main complaint about this game seems to be that people don’t think they’re getting what they payed for. Granted, the single player and multiplayer by themselves are only about 5 hours each, but that is a great deal more than the first game. The content is a little low for a $50 dollar game, but nearly every minute of it is gold.


Huevos Factor

10

Portal 2 is probably one of the most masterfully made and unique games that I have ever played. It provides a refreshing change from the usual shoot-em-up or grindfest of the typical FPS or RPG. I enjoyed every second of this game, and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. If you haven’t played the first Portal, go get that instead, you’ll appreciate the second more. If you have played it, I recommend you pick up Portal 2 ASAP.

Breakdown:

Gameplay
9.5
Video / Audio
9.0
Story
10
Content
6.5
Huevos Factor
10


Total
9.1




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