Would you wait nine years before you bought a console of your own?

I’d like to think that the universe sends you signs when the time for something is right. For example, I noticed certain hints in the past few weeks, and all of them had at least one common denominator.

Sign Number One: a friend of mine who owns an Internet cafe (the very same cafe where I’ve been renting his PS2 per hour) said “maybe you should get your own console.”

Sign Number Two: I received a little news item when I logged on to Windows Live Messenger. Sony had apparently slashed the price of the PlayStation 2 down to US$100.

Sign Number Three: An ad on the Internet mentioned that someone was selling her PS2 for a little over US$50.

I figured these three signals were enough for me to go around. It was time. (continue reading…)

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…)

Bioshock, now infamous amongst gamers of all seasoning, shook the industry by proving singleplayer gaming was NOT dead. It proved Co-op was not necessary to be interesting, that multiplayer modes were not mandatory in an FPS, and that stupid plot lines and outrageous characters would not feel out of place in a serious tone. For lots of reasons, Bioshock was a great game, but for one, it killed the experience for me. Right now, I’m going to warn you, if you have not played the game, I cannot assure you I won’t spoil it. I’m going to talk as if you have finished it, so spoilers potentially start HERE.====================== (continue reading…)

CPL, CAL, MLG, WGS, TWL, ED, i38.. stop me if you’re getting bored already. Here, I will attempt to provide you all a little insight into what ‘Pro’ gaming actually is, the people– the money (or lack thereof), the fame and the failures.

2009 is the year, and we’ve got teams all over the bloody shop. MeetYourMakers, Fnatic, Complexity 20ID, Salvo, Dignitas, 4K, Reason and the list trails off into the ether with some successful.. and some less successful pro gaming teams. What does this mean? Does this mean professional gaming is now viable as a career? Can you earn money for headshots in todays world? Will I ever stop name dropping? How many commas can I write before you close this tab? Hit the jump to find out. (continue reading…)

*WARNING: CONTAINS METAL GEAR SERIES SPOILERS*

After playing through Metal Gear Solid 4, I decided it was high time to give the full series another run-through.  So for the first time in years, I played the most controversial game in the series:  Metal Gear Solid 2:  Sons of Liberty.  You can imagine my surprise when I realized it’s actually brilliant.

If you’re unfamiliar with the game, it catches flak for several reasons.  First and foremost, many fans of the first game were displeased with Kojima’s decision to replace Solid Snake with Raiden as the main playable character in the game.  Snake was and is a popular character, and Raiden seemed more like the main character of the latest Final Fantasy than a Metal Gear game.  He’s inexperienced, emotional, and shockingly pretty for a man.  His sappy dialogue with Rose is cringe inducing, and you’re asked to listen to it both at points in the story and every time you want to save. (continue reading…)

Are you ready to tread through horrible voice acting and predictable story line to get to the mech on mech action? Hope you are because Robot Alchemic Drive (RAD) for the Playstation 2 contains all the above; developed by Sandlot and published by Enix (not Square Enix you pre-teen gaming mongoloid). RAD offers something different to the mech fans out there as well to those who are nostalgic for bad anime dubbing.

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What’s that? More RPGs? Alright, alright… I’ve got more RPGs for yah. Sit back, relax and prepare for some good ones!

Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2

I’m not gonna lie to you. If you want a challenge, if you want a serious RPG, then this is the game for you. There aren’t flashy graphics, there are only stats, items, monsters and a very cool map-making system. You and your party of adventurers goes down into a dungeon few go into to find the treasure. You can pick classes, have as many members as you want. but can only carry a few around. The monsters get viciously difficult to kill very quickly. The battle system is your standard turns based on speed/surprise factor. Lots of fun, but I’m warning you now: Almost as addictive as an MMO(but so much cheaper!). I thoroughly enjoyed them, even if the god damn F.O.E.s obliterated me for days.
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The magic of beat/rhythm/music games is strong. Nothing makes you feel good like playing your favorite song, rocking out and getting the highest score you can. Well, not everyone knows what good music games there are out there, so here’s something that might point you in the right direction. Get ready to boogie!

Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan

If you haven’t heard of EBA, you probably need to come out of your cave. This game is totally amazing. The song selection is a bit… Odd, yes, but solid. Every second of this game is hilarious. The EBA go around the world and cheer on people who are in tough situations. How this would help someone steal back plans for their business or help a cat save a baby from a construction zone is beyond me, but I won’t complain. The game gives you numbered circles, and you have to tap them in sequence and rhythm with the playing song. Easy, right? For a while, sure, but you’ll be crying when you fail at the last stretch of “Without a Fight”. This game is on the DS only, has an American version(EBA) and two Japanese versions with different characters, scenarios, music, but that same awesome gameplay. There’s even a custom song game with gameplay very much like it on the PC called “Osu!”, but unless you have a touch screen PC you’re gonna be mousin’ it.
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I was never really into the shooter scene until recently. I’ve taken notice to the fair number of them coming out of the last two or three years. Yeah, there are a lot of shooters before now, but it just feels like we’re overwhelmed with them, huh? No worries, I’ll give you the low-down on what to get from now and then.

Duke Nukem 3D

If you’ve ever played a Duke Nukem game, you’d know why I’m recommending it. The games are pretty damn good. You play as the lovable Duke, who returns from fighting aliens to find his lovable planet turned into a not so lovable wasteland. You gotta shoot the aliens up, saves the babes, watch the porn, drink the brews. The game has an amazing sense of humor, quoting movies like Dirty Harry and Duke’s phrases. If anything, pick this one up for the laughs. It’s originally on the PC where it has a ton of expansions, and it was on the PS1, N64 and a few other consoles under different names.
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Lets get one thing out of the way up front. “Awesome” means something that’s completely retarded, but appeals to that twelve year old boy in all of us. We can’t help loving it, even if thinking even the slightest amount detracts from its quality. Lightsabers are awesome. Metal is awesome. Dinosaurs are awesome. NanoBreaker is awesome.

NanoBreaker was released on the Playstation 2 a few years ago by Konami. It failed miserably. At least I think it did. Mostly because I got it for five dollars. The awful thing is, this game is easily worth ten dollars.

The main gimmicks of NanoBreaker are the truly excessive, downright silly blood splatter and the titular weapon, an fancy energy beatstick with the ability to shift into different weapons during special attacks.

The mechanics are solid, though far from impressive. It’s a generic action beat-em-up deal. Throw combos at monsters, advance. Luckily, a couple of interesting things are thrown in to keep you from having Streets of Rage flashbacks.
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