OK, so GTA IV is merely days away. Saints Row proved itself to be a worthy contender to the open world genre when it debuted, and the sequel looks to amplify that. Of course, no personality is more amped than Gary Busey, so the following videos show off some of Saint’s Row 2’s improvements with comments from Gary.

More after the break…
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This is the sequel to Capcom’s Rival Schools: United by Fate, one of the most underrated 3-d fighting games ever. Before Bully, Rival Schools and Project Justice made use of a high school setting, risking post some serious post-Columbine controversy. Thankfully, there was no big uproar, as the game was off-beat and hilarious instead of simply being violent. It made use of the same unique gameplay as its predecessor, and its presentation made served to make it one of the most unique fighting games available.
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I don’t watch the Tyra Banks Show, simply because it’s Tyra Banks and I have no interest in anything she says, as it tends to come out sounding like the adults in Peanuts cartoons to me. However I happened to watch a little clip from the show that had a segment on “Decoding Your Man”, where a poor hapless gamer geek is verbally castrated by his girlfriend and Tyra both. Then to add insult to injury, “Gaming Goddess” Morgan Webb is brought in as the expert opinion.

Here’s the clip:

Basically, Webb disses and degrades the very genre that gave her the popularity and stardom she [unfortunately for us] now enjoys. Rather than helping the girlfriend understand why her guy plays video games like he does and come to a mutual agreement, Webb re-enforces the girlfriend’s desire to all-out change her man altogether as she sees fit. Morgan spouts a whole lot of nonsense about gaming genres and tries sounding like some kind of psychologist on the subject, and fails miserably. I had little regard for Webb to begin with, since I see her as being a poser when it comes to trying to act like some kind of gaming expert. This just knocks any respect I had for her down to 0% as she proves she’s just another bimbo who thinks she knows her stuff, but instead is just flailing her ego around.

Guys, not all women are like this. Honestly. This is a poor representation of women understanding guys, and more importantly understanding gaming. This video is just an estrogen-filled globe of stereotyping on all gamers as being “obsessed” with their games. Obviously this is not true, as the majority are casual in their gaming exploits. If more women took the time to try and get inside their guys heads and understand their man, rather than control him and mold him into their own personal plaything, then there would be alot more happy gamers out there with happy girlfriends.

You all got a peak over a week ago of the Sonic Unleashed video leaked onto the internet. After a stir up on SEGA’s part over the video and various screenshot images being posted on numerous blogs, the bigwigs decided to cut the attempted cover-up charade and just come clean by formally announcing that the game is indeed real and upcoming.

Because we didn’t know that already.

Making use of the aptly titled “Hedgehog Engine” to deliver a supposed combination of oldschool gameplay with 3D graphics, Sonic Unleashed is being claimed as the new way to infuse the series with an injection of it’s past glory. (a over-used claim already tried with Sonic Next-Gen and Sonic and the Secret Rings)

“Sonic Unleashed will introduce a new, unexpected storyline along with innovative gameplay that compliments traditional skills and features, allowing players to experiment and engage in new ways.” says Vice President of Marketing at SEGA of America, Sean Ratcliffe.

If they’ve decided to dub the already notorious news about Sonic changing into a were-hedgehog as “new and unexpected”, then I guess they hit the nail on the head, though probably not in the positive way they meant. Regardless, the game is slated for a release during the holidays for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and Wii.

You have got to give props to IGN for their ability to create pretty convincing fakes. It appears as a April Fools joke, the media news giant released a supposed “World Debut” of a live-action Legend of Zelda film trailer to trick fans.

It also appears they have way too much time on their hands to make such a realistic full-length trailer for a movie that’s not, in fact, real. But, kudos to them.

Read more at The Daily Page: Going old school at the 2008 Midwest Gaming Classic

See also
midwestgamingclassic.com
www.twingalaxies.com

Saturday morning cartoons are a staple of every child’s life. Nearly every good (and even some not-so-good) Saturday morning animated feature had a video game tie-in to go along with it. Along with kid-favorites such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, there were also shows such as Exo-Squad and Gargoyles which, while they were still intended for children, contained themes which were more complex than what one would find on shows like Pokemon. Phantom 2040, which debuted in the mid 90s, was one of the shows in the latter category. It told the story of Kit Walker, who was the 24th Phantom. In the distant future, he was charged with saving the city of Metropia from collapse. It was bought to an end after only 2 seasons, mostly due to it’s themes of environmentalism, corporate greed, and social structure going over viewer’s heads. This was especially unfortunate considering that the show had a lot going for it. It had a stylish art style (thanks to Aeon Flux creator Peter Chung), solid writing, and a vocal cast featuring the likes of Mark Hamil, Margot Kider, and Deborah Harry to name a few. Most impressive of all, it featured a 16-bit era video game tie-in that didn’t suck. This was indeed impressive, especially given the dismal track record of 16-bit games based on existing intellectual properties back then.

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A While after Age of Empires II, Ensemble game studios went to work on another RTS. Although it has similar gameplay mechanics to Age of Empires, it’s a different experience. For one, there are are only three civilizations as compared to the many civilizations from Age of Empires. Players can choose between the Greeks, the Norse, and the Egyptians. However, each civilization has it’s own set of powers, units, and structures. Each civilization has three gods, one of which you select before a match. Also, there is only one single-player campaign, although it’s huge and expansive. You follow the adventures of Atlantean general Arkantos as he attempts to regain the favor of the god Poseidon. You’ll travel through each of the three lands and meet each of the three civilizations.
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