Presenting…

…The Top Five Signs That a DLC Should Have Just Been Free

Brought to you by Fedora Man

Well it finally April and you have to love how easy it is to open an article with the lines “so it’s finally whatever month we’re in right now”. It’s time for the next step in my great journey to earn money through a video game blog. Now I know you might be wondering “I thought you had billions! Were you lying to me?” The answer is of course, no. Stupid. Why would I make something like that up? But the difference between that money and the money I’ll earn on this site is I actually had to do work to earn it, unlike my corporation where I really don’t do any work at all. I can show all my friend “yeah this is the ten dollars I earned THROUGH WORK!” and if they say that they also have a job and have made more money, I’ll pull out my emergency one million dollars that I always keep stashed in my pants and laugh at them, probably while rubbing the money all over myself. (continue reading…)

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of bullshit about this generation sucking and people waxing nostalgic about the last gen as the pinnacle of gaming. Let me just say, I’ve been around the block for a long time. I can assure you, this generation isn’t as good as the last generation; Not because this generation sucks, but because it isn’t even over yet. We are only 3/4 years into what will ultimately be an approximately a 10 year generation. Now, I’m going to field a couple of complaints about this generation and tell you why you all suck for complaining.

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Not much going on in the world of music gaming right now, which is rare. Harmonix recently confirmed that Rock Band 3 isn’t coming this year – they’re focusing on some British band instead. RB2 Wii has DLC, finally, though the weekly releases are having some issues. Watch for updates on the Wii DLC here every week whenever they get those fixed. Activision’s got another cash cow coming out in late March (why is it getting Queen instead of a main-series game?), and has released a rather subpar DLC schedule for February. So let’s focus on this week’s batch of fairly good songs!

February 3, 2009 (360) / February 5, 2009 (PS3)

Thin Lizzy Pack 01 ($5.50 / 440 MSP or $2 / 160 MSP each)

• Thin Lizzy – Boys Are Back In Town (Live)
• Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak (Live)
• Thin Lizzy – Cowboy Song (Live)

Singles ($2 / 160 MSP each)

• Pat Benatar – Hit Me With Your Best Shot
• The Pretenders – Precious

Singles ($1 / 80 MSP each)

• Nikko – Don’t Tell Me
• Nikko – Break My Heart

Videos and tier information after the break.

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It is 2006. Several years of inconsistent announcements, numerous delays and a growing association with Duke Nukem Forever indicates that an actual release of Team Fortress 2 is extremely unlikely. Then from out of the blue Gabe Newell (managing director of Valve) thrusts a teaser trailer into our faces confirming that TF2 is indeed on its way. Sporting a venturesome art style with what appeared to be innovative game play, the new look TF2 quickly soared to the top of many “most anticipated” lists. Launching in October of 2007, it became an instant favourite among reviewers, achieving a plethora of awards alongside its partner in success The Orange Box.

As an avid PC gamer, the desire for a new class based multiplayer game was immense. I desperately needed to escape the grenade spamming insta-prone aids festivity that was Battlefield 2. To my delight, and many other likeminded gamers, TF2 delivered just that. Besides the attractive stylized graphics and often comical game play, it shipped with a secret weapon, one which would inevitably be the key to TF2’s ongoing success and development.

Steam, the popular content delivery service functions as the core of TF2, supplying speedy updates and flawless content delivery. Gamer profiles and statistic pages are accessible through a simple yet faultless social network. Hell, you can even browse the web in-game using the Steam overlay. It is undoubtable TF2 would not be as popular as it is on PC today, if it was not for Steam. This is clear when we examine the unfortunate situation our console brethren currently face, which I’ll touch on a little later.

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After a long hiatus, GEB’s Rock Band DLC previews are back. The reason? I was too lazy to type those huge posts with tons of details for every song. The solution? Shorter posts! Let’s get right back into the action with next week’s content: Grateful Dead 02.

January 27, 2009 (360) / January 29, 2009 (PS3)

Grateful Dead Pack 02 ($10 / 800 MSP or $2 / 160 MSP each)

• Grateful Dead – Hell In a Bucket
• Grateful Dead – Don’t Ease Me In
• Grateful Dead – Cold Rain and Snow
• Grateful Dead – Doin’ That Rag
• Grateful Dead – Fire On the Mountain
• Grateful Dead – Uncle John’s Band

Videos and tier information after the break.

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For those that have been playing Burnout Paradise for the last year or so, all the announcements on the addition of cost to additional content has probably been a bit of a hampering. Well, Criterion has just announced that they still have one last massive update to provide that includes a bevy of new dealies.

On the Same day they’re releasing the Party Pack, they’re making available an update, which includes an in-game website and an in-game store. Pretty cool, huh?! No? Well, they’ve also updated the visuals, game modes, and “the entire vehicle dynamics system.”

Kinda’ cool? Still just feeling lukewarm, huh?

Well, how about a RESTART FEATURE, FUCK YEAH!

For anyone who’s ever played the game, a failed event due to a random chance or fluke can be quite frustrating. That frustration is only escalated when you have to drive all the way back to the other side of the map just to try the event again. Well, feel the alleviation, my friends! No longer do you have to steer through the drive of shame!

I’m particularly excited, as I’ve just recently begun the game anew as discussed in our first podcast.

Of course, in addition to all the goodies, they’ve included a new, short, video podcast that shows off their first paid content, which actually alleviates some of my fears of purchasing products with cash money.

Click to see some rad cars.

It’s been said before, but why can’t all developers be like Criterion?

What ho, vault dwellers. Having a buggy time in Fallout 3? Well, no matter what your version of it is, things should be looking up right about now, as Bethesda has just released a very big patch update for the post-apocalyptic RPG. Yes, they just released it yesterday, and it fixes whatever flavor of the game you’ve got: the PC, the PS3, and even the Xbox 360 one. It’s also available in five different languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) and will be required to play the upcoming DLC pack that’s slated for January 27, Operation: Anchorage.

Here’s a list of the fixes:
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It’s finally getting on my nerves.

When I first heard about the Microsoft Xbox and all the potential it was going to have in an EGM article, I was particularly thrilled. It had some pictures of games that looked like they could have been on the PC, like a very free form house sim and an RTS. The Sega Dreamcast was still around at the time and kicking up some heat, so I was all about the alternative market. It touted developer-friendly SDKs that would allow even upstart developers to get their heads around the device, opening up an even greater market for interesting and unique games. To this end, the games wouldn’t cost as much, but would garner profit from things like micro-payments for additional game content. At the time, I thought that might be doable, but I didn’t like the idea of paying an additional fee for a product that normally had one set price, but if the products were cheaper, then it might be worth the cost of admission.
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Here it is!

THREEEEEEEEEDOG, Bethesda released the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K. ) for PC players, the G.E.C.K. is basically a developer kit that gives players access to game tools so that they may create their own content for the game.

Woo! Bethesda would have made a pretty grave error if they decided not to release it. I mean, yes, Fallout 3 is a great stand-alone game but with the addition of the modding community, this game can become much more than it currently is. I mean look at Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the game itself was mediocre at best, but once combined with the modding community, Oblivion changed for the better, adding new quests, new factions, new places, and revamping many of Oblivion’s systems for the better.

So my question to you, the readers, is what would you like to see in terms of mods for Fallout 3?

Personally I think one of the musts is more radio stations, because I’d love to get more music while I’m kick some ass in the wastelands.

Weapons? I’d like to see some unique guns, nothing from anime or from movies, something original maybe even more realistic, something that really bugged me in Fallout 3 was that the upgraded versions of normal weapons looked the exact same as the normal weapons. You know like I went to get the Terrible Shotgun, I found it, equiped it, and it’s the exact same. I thought with a name like TERRIBLE Shotgun you’d have skulls hanging off it or at least some kind of design on it. With the addition of the G.E.C.K. to the game, this will most likely be fixed in no time.

Now that's a special weapon

Places? Eh, I’d like to see a new town, or maybe a stronghold. Yeah, a stronghold of robots, that after the apocalypse decided to rebel against man and start anew. Kind of building on that A.I. side quest.

As for general improvements, I’d like to see a bit of color added to the wasteland. I know apocalypse setting = auto brown and gray but it’d be nice to see a bit more variety, because when I’m strolling around, exploring, and listening to some Butcher Pete, I’d like to see more than rock, rock, rock, more rocks, highway, rock.

I’m happy to know that within a few weeks of months, Fallout 3 will be much improved.

So what about you? What’d you like to see?

Criterion, the creators behind the Burnout series, have been nothing but awesome so far. Not only did they deliver on their promises for Burnout Paradise on the first go – a massive free-roaming city with hundreds of secrets and thousands of car-wrecking possibilities – but they’ve been spoiling us with free downloadable content that any other game developer would be forcing us to pay through the nose for.  While we’ve been enjoying that, we can’t help but feel guilty about it. Thankfully they’ve given us an opportunity to give back to them what little we could, with the very first purchasable downloadable content pack that they’re busting out, and even then it’s literally a steal.

Presenting: the Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island DLC pack!

What’s the big deal about Big Surf Island, anyway? Well for one, it’s a huge island that connects to Paradise City, and its emphasis is letting you grab the biggest amount of air possible with your car via its ridiculously-awesome jumps. Here’s the statement from Criterion themselves:

Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience – the highlight of a year of incredible premium content. Burnout already delivers incredible value for money – literally hundreds of hours of gameplay with your original disk or PSN purchase, plus more with the free Cagney Pack and free Burnout Paradise Bikes.

Awesome, Criterion. Why can’t other game developers be like you?