I’ll never forget when my brother and I unwrapped our Playstation that Christmas morning 15 years ago. Amongst the cables and controllers was a disc featuring previews of several games. PLAYABLE previews of several games. This was important as all three of the games we got were fighting games (Tekken 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and Street Fighter Alpha 2) and it being the holiday, it would be a while before we would increase our collection. That was okay, because the demo disc we got held wonders beyond imagination. Playable demos of King of Fighters 95 and ESPN Extreme Games, and videos of Jet Moto and Twisted Metal 2 were among the discs’ many hidden goodies. There were also several hidden codes, and you could even listen to some tracks by putting the CD in your player. Another memorable disc came with an Official Playstation Magazine issue that I picked up the summer after my freshman year in college. It contained Threads of Fate, Deception 3, and X-men Mutant Academy. I ended up buying most of the games featured on the disc. Since the early days of disc-based gaming, a demo disc has been one of the best ways to sample games before thier release. [Read the rest of this entry…]
The original Halo is a memorable game for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the best example of the game and the best introduction one could be given to the universe is the level “The Silent Cartographer.”
Master Chief John 117 and a crew of marines are dropped on to a beach with a wide variety of Covenant enemies at the ready. This level also features the music commonly thought of as the “Halo Theme”
The demo shows a talked about feature: Classic mode. Tapping the “back” button on your Xbox controller will swap the new graphics for the original 2001 graphics. Honestly, I think the game looks pretty good either way, and the classic mode really does more to show off what they could accomplish with new textures and a few layers added on to the old engine.
This demo is what was originally shown behind closed doors at E3 last month, but is being shown to everyone at San Diego ComiCon.
Region locking is nothing new. It hasn’t taken many different forms, but wasn’t always deliberate either. Many handhelds were exempt from this scheme for the longest time (including the Game Boy and DS series), but with time all things change. SeanOrange and Vinnk discuss the very state of affairs that necessitates the existence of organizations like Operation Rainfall, how they came to be, and where they might go from here.
March 10, 2000 is widely regarded as the peak of the “dot com boom” with the Nasdaq hitting an all time high. This is an interesting historical foot note as its the day tech giant Microsoft announced they were getting into home video game business.
Going back a long time, its kind of interesting to look at how the game business evolved, or more accurately grew up. Atari and the NES were for kids. 16 bit era added a layer of complexity to keep older kids interested. In the mid 90s, Sony’s Playstation kept teenagers playing with more mature games. As the Atari and NES kids grew up it would take a big evolutionary leap to keep games in their lives and into the dorm rooms. Thats what I think of the original Xbox: the first console built for dorm rooms. [Read the rest of this entry…]
“There are those who said this day would never come… What are they to say now?”
Its true, this is the last 24 hours to play Halo 2 on Xbox Live before Microsoft shuts down multiplayer servers. Tonight, Bungie studios is going to be tracking all players who log on to play the game in Matchmaking and will supposedly be adding a reward to those players who also move on to play the next game in the series, Halo: Reach. If you want to participate, make sure you’ve downloaded or installed all the maps and updates (available free right now) and simply log in.
In your walk down memory lane, you may want to check out “Better Than Halo: The Making of Halo 2” from Eurogamer, which looks at the complete development with candid interviews from the developers.
They say there are only two things for sure in life: death and taxes. In the US, Tax day is April 15 and for original Xbox games, death comes the same day.
Microsoft has announced they’ll be shutting down online gameplay servers for all original Xbox games, including ones that are compatible with XBox 360. Star Wars Battlefront, Counter Strike, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Conker Live & Reloaded, and Halo 2 will no longer have online gameplay available.
Marc Whitten from the Xbox Live team posted an open letter to the community this morning detailing the closure and vague promises that shifting resources will allow new features in the future.
Those who don’t want to give up the original Xbox games or its community should check out XboxConnect, which has run unofficial servers for years.
Until that day comes, Powet will likely plan at least one last outing for Halo 2 so keep an eye out for a future game night.
Every inch of this sci-fi shooter screams “even though Japanese developers created me, I was made specifically for American audiences”. This sentiment would later be the driving force behind games such as Breakdown, Dead Rising, and No More Heroes, games that have achieved cult-like status. Smilebit/Sega’s Xbox shooter might not have been perfect, but its steampunk setting and science fiction vibe helped it carve an identity of its own. [Read the rest of this entry…]
PS3
Famicom Dojo
KEEP PLAYING
KEEP PLAYING: Rewind
Powet Toys
Powetcast
Hitchhiker's Guide POWETcast
I’ll never forget when my brother and I unwrapped our Playstation that Christmas morning 15 years ago. Amongst the cables and controllers was a disc featuring previews of several games. PLAYABLE previews of several games. This was important as all three of the games we got were fighting games (Tekken 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and Street Fighter Alpha 2) and it being the holiday, it would be a while before we would increase our collection. That was okay, because the demo disc we got held wonders beyond imagination. Playable demos of King of Fighters 95 and ESPN Extreme Games, and videos of Jet Moto and Twisted Metal 2 were among the discs’ many hidden goodies. There were also several hidden codes, and you could even listen to some tracks by putting the CD in your player. Another memorable disc came with an Official Playstation Magazine issue that I picked up the summer after my freshman year in college. It contained Threads of Fate, Deception 3, and X-men Mutant Academy. I ended up buying most of the games featured on the disc. Since the early days of disc-based gaming, a demo disc has been one of the best ways to sample games before thier release.
, you’ll get a bonus in game, the “Grunt Funeral Skull.” What does it do? Well, here is a video…. 
