Who said playing games never paid off?

Any kid who's played video games long enough has heard it over and
over - why don't you get a job and stop wasting your time playing
video games? The only thing gamers had to show in defense of their
hobby was the 90-minute Nintendo commercial/feature length movie
"The Wizard." And even then, you'd be hard pressed to convince anyone
you can legitimately make money playing "Super Mario 3."

That was, of course, until gamers like Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel
and Tom "Tsquared" Taylor started getting signed to sponsorship
deals and contracts worth insane amounts of money. Well, insane for
just being great at video games. For example, Tsquared, most well
known for his skills at the "Halo" series, signed a $250,000 contract
with Major League Gaming while Fatal1ty is sponsored by such companies
as Full Tilt Poker, he also turned his professional gaming fame into
a brand that sells all manner of PC/gaming related equipment.

Most recently, the man who is recognized as one of the top "Street
Fighter" players in the world, Daigo Umehara, recently announced that
he is partnering with Mad Catz, a third-party peripheral manufacturer,
to be the official controller he uses in competitions. Hundred
thousand dollar contracts, sponsorships and lines of merchandise?
We are still talking about video games, right?

Don't get too excited yet. Though video games are becoming more and
more popular every day, don't expect to see any of these competitions
on TV any time soon (G4, a network devoted to video game/geek culture,
barely ever runs any) nor should you ever really expect to be able to
compete on their level. These guys are the elite of the elite and
even then there is only room at the top for a select few who can
actually make a living solely by playing video games. If you ever
need to be reminded of that fact, simply play any "Halo" or "Call of
Duty" on Xbox Live and you'll undoubtedly get dominated by a
14-year-old who's not only better than you at "Modern Warfare" but
can simultaneously question your sexuality and graphically describe
what he'd like to do to your mother. Isn't technology great?

Gaming on the cheap - Prototype

Since this is a new blog, I’m still trying out new ideas for
recurring columns. In keeping with my desire to constantly play
new games combined with my desire to not spend money, ever, I’m
trying out the idea of going to GameStop, Best Buy or wherever
and picking up a cheap game every now and then. And you’re about
to read the story of how it came about, whether you like it or not.
(That’s not really a threat, you’ll like it.)


I’m a big fan of open-world, sandbox games. Ever since me and a
friend spent hours upon hours discovering the different ways we
could cause chaos in the top-down, original “Grand Theft Auto,”
I’ve always made it a point to check out every new sandbox game
that I can. I even managed to have fun with the “Saints Row”
series, despite it being a second-rate “GTA.” Ok fine, that’s not
fair – “Saints Row 2” was pretty cool.


Back in June, I found myself in Best Buy, money in hand, staring
at two games that sat next to each other on the rack – “Red Faction:
Guerilla” and “Prototype.” I knew both were sandbox games and I
knew both had been getting fairly good reviews, from magazines and
from word of mouth. I’m a big fan of the original “Red Faction”
but also knew that “Guerilla” was a third-person sandbox game,
not a first-person shooter like the original. On the other hand,
I was also a big fan of “Crackdown” and was eager for another
taste of open-world superheroing that I’d been hearing was
“Prototype’s” strongest point.


The minutes passed and I just couldn’t decide. Did I want to get
my ass to Mars or was I more in the mood to throw a car through a
helicopter? If this is a question you’ve ever found yourself asking,
you know it is not an easy one to answer. Eventually I made a
decision and ended up buying “Guerilla,” a decision which I ended
up being pretty happy with.


What does my consumer indecision have to do with anything, you ask?
To which I say, settle down, I’m getting to the point. Being that
this time of the year is usually slow when it comes to new game
releases (“this time of the year” being anytime between Christmas
and, well, next Christmas) or the time of the year games get delayed
for no good reason (I’m looking at you, “Red Dead Redemption”),
it’s the perfect time to rediscover some old favorites or pick up
some cheap, used games. Taking a trip to GameStop with a friend
recently, I decided to pick up “Prototype” to see if I made the
right decision months earlier.


Let me start off by saying I had, indeed, made the right decision.
As I see it, “Prototype” is fun, but it doesn’t offer near the level
of freedom, character progression, story or overall fun that
“Guerilla” offered. That being said, “Prototype” has plenty of
redeeming factors. But let’s start at the beginning.


In “Prototype,” you take control of Alex Mercer. At the start of the
game you know only two things, really, that Mercer has a bad case of
amnesia and has developed a few new…abilities. Set on the Manhattan
Island, Mercer finds himself in the same position as a majority of
the island’s population – stuck in the middle of a war between
military forces, strange monsters and a mysterious infection that
is most likely the cause of the monsters, only Mercer has more in
common with the vicious monsters than the human populace these days.
With the ability to transform into various implements of destruction
(think along the lines of a T1000) and regenerative powers, Mercer
sets out to discover his past and just what caused the infection on
Manhattan. Don’t worry, Mercer’s brand of investigation involves more
than just a little bit of the old ultraviolence. Along with the
copious explosions and bloodshed Mercer will cause on his quest for
answers, “Prototype” also includes elements of stealth. Perhaps
Mercer’s most interesting ability is that of shape-shifting. By
absorbing people, Mercer not only gains their likeness to use at will
but also their knowledge which extends to memories that serve to
further the story or as ability upgrades.


After playing a few hours of “Prototype,” I almost thought I made the
wrong decision back in June. Almost. With a few more hours of playing,
I began to realize that being able to throw box trucks through Apache
helicopters could, in fact, get old. Though the action in “Prototype”
is unmatched by any sandbox game except “Crackdown,” beyond the
action, the game falls a bit flat. Being set on Manhattan, don’t
except to see anything but buildings, buildings and more buildings.
It doesn’t really matter much, though, as what you’re bounding off of
and throwing through choppers or tanks is pretty irrelevant to the
action. Being little more than a vessel for ridiculous carnage,
Mercer is a fairly shallow character in terms of the story and of
the voice acting. And while on the subject of the story, there’s
hardly one to speak of. It’s clear some crazy infection is turning
people into monsters and Mercer is part of it, somehow – I honestly
couldn’t tell you more than that because the story is told in such a
disjointed manner and is so mundane, the details don’t even matter.
The same boring irrelevance affects the missions as well. Aside from
the handful of side-missions, main missions tend to boil down to
tracking someone down, consuming them, then attacking/defending
someone/something or a combination of those.


But you know what? It was only about $25 used at GameStop and with
no new games on my horizon until “Alan Wake,” “Red Dead Redemption,”
and “UFC Undisputed 2010” you can’t beat “Prototype” at that price.
Don’t expect “Bioshock” levels of story depth or the kind of
tried-and-true sandbox gameplay you’d get from a “GTA” game and
there’s a surprising amount of fun to be had with “Prototype.”

Guinness - Modern Warfare 2 "all-time most successful entertainment launch"

Despite internal turmoil, evidenced by the firing/quitting of many Infinity Ward (developer of "COD4" and "Modern Warfare 2" employees, horribly ill-conceived ad campaigns (most gamers will still remember IW's "F.A.G.S.," or Friends Against Grenade Spam, an ad [that I've only ever seen on YouTube] that starred Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels pitching Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in the form of a P.S.A.), or just the generally immature, homophobic flamebaiters that troll Modern Warfare 2 on a daily basis, there is actually some good news today for Infinity Ward.

The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed Wednesday that "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" earned the title of Most Successfull All-Time Entertainment launch, beating out such worthy contenders as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows" book sales and ticket sales of "The Dark Knight." According to the record keeping organization, "COD:MW2" totalled more than $401 million in first-day sales, surpassing "Grand Theft Auto IV" ($310 million) and "Halo 3" ($170 million).

"Video game releases such as the Call of Duty series have outperformed the launches of major
Hollywood blockbusters for several years and the day-one sales for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 proved once again that video games have become cultural events in their own right,” said Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition Editor, Gaz Deaves."

Source - http://tinyurl.com/2c7rxwg

Capcom felt "Dead Rising" was "too Japanese" and looks to give its sequel more Western appeal

Zombies seem to be everywhere these days. From smash hit movies like “Zombieland,” to the recent announcement of a show centering around survivors of a zombie apocalypse called “The Walking Dead” on AMC, zombies are a pop-culture phenomenon that is as persistent as the undead themselves. Unsurprisingly, zombie themed video games have seen a spike in frequency in recent years, popping up in such genres as third person action (“Resident Evil”), first person shooting (“Left 4 Dead”), and adventure (“Stubbs the Zombie”) titles to name a few.

For all its shortcomings, Capcom’s “Dead Rising” did what few games before it had – recreating the sensation of being one of a handful to survive in a town-encompassing zombie outbreak. Though it suffered from idiotic NPC A.I. (non-player character artificial intelligence), a painful shortage of save points and only a 72-hour (in-game) story mode (which is unfortunately returning in the sequel), not to mention the fact that often times, critical mission info was delivered only in text form, text that was only readable on an HDTV (which were not nearly as prevalent in 2006), I will always remember “Dead Rising” for all it could have been, and not necessarily what it delivered.

Capcom is looking to right all (well most) of the wrongs in the upcoming sequel “Dead Rising 2” for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. In a recent interview, producer Shinsaku Ohara stated that Capcom felt the first “Dead Rising” was “too Japanese” and are taking steps to make the sequel bigger, badder and with all the over-the-top violence American fans expect from the “Dead Rising” series. The original’s main strength was allowing gamers to use nearly any item found in the game world as a weapon against the undead. “Dead Rising 2” plans on turning the bloodshed to 11 by not only expanding the amount of weapons available, but allowing various items to be combined to create outlandish weapons of mutilation. Nails can be added to propane tanks to create devastating nail bombs, knives can be added to boxing gloves for additional punching power and chainsaws can even be added to a dirt bike’s handlebars to cut bloody swathes through the ever advancing zombie crowds of “Dead Rising 2’s” new setting.

Though the first title limited your exploration to a single, admittedly gigantic, shopping mall, “Dead Rising 2” is set in a Las Vegas rip-off called Fortune City and follows former motocross champion Chuck Greene. It’s unclear why exactly Greene is in Fortune City to begin with, but his motivation for staying is obvious. Soon after arriving in Fortune City, Greene’s young daughter, Katey, is bitten and needs daily doses of a drug called Zombrex to keep the infection at bay. Though many details of the story are still under wraps, we do know that Greene will take part in a challenge-based reality TV show called “Terror is Reality” and features numerous zombie-mangling minigames that will also be the basis for the game’s multiplayer modes.

While on the topic of multiplayer, Capcom also recently announced that gamers will be able to use “in-game devices” to trigger an online co-operative play mode so you and a friend can help cure Fortune City’s zombie epidemic, one rotting corpse at a time. Though “Dead Rising 2’s” single-player mode will only be three days (72-hours) long, the addition of weapon creation and an online co-op mode, “Dead Rising 2” is a game for any zombie aficionado to keep their eyes on.

Halo: The Fall of Reach

As odd as it may sound to some, video games will often times spawn books based on the lore surrounding that particular series. Game series’ such as “Gears of War,” “Diablo,” and “Mass Effect” have all been turned into novels that serve to expand the history of the series or to explore events that happened between games. As the kind of gamer who usually gets sucked into a good story, these novels are great sources of information for fans who need to know everything about their favorite games. Of all that I’ve read, though, “Halo: The Fall of Reach” has always been a favorite of mine.

“The Fall of Reach” serves to explain the origins of Halo’s protagonist, Spartan-117, or as he is more commonly known, the Master Chief. Along with providing a previously unexplored backstory for the game’s main character, the book also introduced the series’ main antagonists, a race of aliens known as The Covenant. Though the book is regarded as canon, we gamers have never been able to experience the events of this book - events which ultimately lead up to the first game in the series, “Halo: Combat Evolved.” We haven’t been able to…until now.

Well…not necessarily right now, but soon. Relatively soon, anyway. Microsoft and Bungie (the developers of the Halo series) haven’t given the game an official release date yet, but have stated it will be out in Fall 2010. For those who bought “Halo 3: ODST,” a special multiplayer-only beta test of “Halo: Reach” is going on right now. For the rest of us, though, we’ll just have to get by on what details Bungie is willing to release from time to time – and the latest bit of news is (almost) worth the wait.

In the spirit of the current multiplayer beta, Bungie has finally released a few details on its newest competitive multiplayer mode titled “Invasion.” All that was known about it before a few days ago was that maps for Invasion would be much larger than normal maps and would feature numerous vehicles.

With the grand unveiling of Invasion on the show GameTrailers TV, Bungie let a few nuggets slip about the new game mode. To start, Invasion will feature a team of Spartans (genetically enhanced super-soldiers) facing off against a team of Elites (physically imposing creatures who serve as officers and elite soldiers for The Covenant) to defend/attack a series of objectives – very similar to the “Rush” mode in the “Battlefield” game series. From the looks of it, each objective has two points that must be taken before the attacking team can move on to the next point. Bungie also noted that new vehicles and weapon loadouts will be available as the objectives are taken.

Though it’s unfortunate that “ODST’s” Firefight mode apparently won’t be included in “Reach” (a mode which pits you and friends against increasingly difficult waves of enemies), Invasion has a lot of potential. Rush is one of the most entertaining modes in “Battlefield: Bad Company 2” and Invasion introduces a tactical game-type to the standard deathmatch and capture-the-flag games that are most popular in the “Halo” series. This will also be one of the only multiplayer modes in “Reach” that features Elites as playable characters. Bungie noted that the Elites in “Reach” are much bigger, nastier and uglier than Elites in previous “Halo” games and are tougher to kill than even the Master Chief himself.

As a big fan of FPSes and of the “Halo” series, I’m eating up every detail and screenshot of “Reach” that I can find. Everything I’ve heard so far about the game makes it sound like Bungie is taking its cues in the making of “Reach” more from “Halo: CE” than from its two sequels – which means, to those who aren’t familiar with the entire collection of “Halo” games, more emphasis on large open environments and a more visceral experience overall. And, always a company to keep their fans eager for more, Bungie will soon be releasing more information about “Reach’s” single-player campaign, saying only “in June” in terms of when this info will reach (I crack myself up sometimes) the masses.