LIVE Now Free For Windows Games - What About Xbox?

It was announced earlier today that LIVE will become free for all "Games for Windows". Obviously charging PC gamers to play online didn't go over so well. Xbox 360 gamers everywhere are now asking themselves when LIVE will become free for them. Don't get your hopes up.

Source: Gamerscore Blog

Pro Bull Riders: An Immersive Experience Like No Other

You think you know it all when it comes to the latest and greatest games of E3? Well get off your high horse and get on the beautifully rendered bull that is "Pro Bull Riders: Out of the Chute". That's right, while you were drooling over Final Fantasy XIII and Fable II, you missed out on the some major bull riding simulator news!

Let's not kid ourselves, the bull riding simulator market is booming and the intensity of this trailer proves how immersive this game will truly be:



"We're going to battle...against a 2000 pound animal."

"It's man...versus beast."

"Everytime I'm preparin', I'm preparin' for my last time...'cause I dunno if I'm gonna be alive tomorrow."

Son of a bitch. Repair your armor and cast those healing spells kiddies, 'cause this is gonna be one hell of a ride. Sure we haven't seen a single bit of gameplay...but I think it's clear that this will be an RPG/Survival Horror masterpiece.

KOTOR goes MMO!

As E3 was winding down today, EA's CEO John Riccitello had one final big announcement. The KOTOR series will now officially expand into MMO territory. It is set for release sometime in 2009 and is being developed by original KOTOR developer, Bioware, in collaboration with Lucas Arts.

The two original KOTOR games were both critically acclaimed and since their release many fans have speculated on the possibility of an MMO. With the hopes of the large KOTOR fanbase confirmed, 2009 may have a top contender for MMORPG of the year. In fact, John Riccitello stated it may be "quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry."

Source: Gamespot

God of War III Announced!

Sony announced God of War III at their E3 Press Conference this morning. A brief trailer showed Kratos standing atop a ruined city yelling, "In the end, there will be only chaos!"

No news of when the game will be released but at least now we know that it's on the way.

[UPDATE:] Here's the trailer:

Wii Music Announced!

Wii Music was announced this morning at Nintendo's E3 Press Conference. Apparently something that has been in the works alongside Wii Sports and Wii Fit, Wii Music will allow players who have no musical experience whatsoever to play over 50 different instruments. All you have to do is hold the Wii remote and move around as if you were actually playing the instrument. The game will interpret your movements and play the correct notes.

Although it won't evaluate your performances, the game will allow you to record your performances and share them with people. Prepare yourself for some ear-bleedingly awesome home music.

Source: Nintendo E3 Press Conference

NEW GRAND THEFT AUTO COMING TO NINTENDO DS!

A brand new Grand Theft Auto for the Nintendo DS has been announced this morning at the Nintendo E3 Press Conference.

The new game will be entitled Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. It will be set in modern day Liberty City and will be running on a new custom engine. The game will feature new characters a new story and a new GTA experience specifically designed for the Nintendo DS.

Currently GTA: Chinatown Wars is slated for a Winter '08 release.

Source: Nintendo E3 Press Conference

New Animal Crossing Details Released!

At Nintendo's E3 Press Conference, details were unveiled for the new Animal Crossing game that is coming to the Wii later this year. Even more emphasis is being put on communication and providing players with a place to connect with each other in this iteration of the game.

New communication features include the ability to write letters and send pictures to other players as well as the ability to post to the Wii message board. Players will also have the ability to untilize Nintendo's new "Wii Speak". Wii Speak is being described as a community microphone system where players can enter various channels and speak with a variety of other players at one time. A good idea in theory; however, with the slew of issues other systems have with voice chat it will be interesting to see what measures Nintendo will take to keep their voicechat profanity/racisim free.

Source: Nintendo E3 Press Conference

Final Fantasy XIII Coming to the Xbox 360!

At Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, it was announced by Square Enix's Yoichi Wada, that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming to the Xbox 360.

Source: Microsoft E3 Press Conference

[UPDATE:] Here's the trailer for FFXIII from GameTrailers.com

Portal: Still Alive Announced!

At Microsoft's E3 Press Conference this morning, a version of Portal entitled "Portal: Still Alive" was announced for the Xbox Live Arcade. The game will feature new levels and achievements. It is currently unclear on whether this is a rehash of the original or simply an XBLA version of the game.

[UPDATE:] Here's a video of the announcement from GameTrailers.com



Source: Microsoft E3 Press Conference

Microsoft Unveils New Xbox 360 Dashboard!

During their E3 Press Conference, Microsoft's John Schappert unveiled an entirely new Xbox 360 Dashboard system. The first major announcement concerned the introduction of player avatars into the Xbox Live experience. Avatars (Microsoft's response to Nintendo's Miis) had been rumored in previous months but now we know how much of the Xbox Live experience will include avatars.

- Players will be able to customize their avatars with "thousands" of items/clothing that can be won in certain games.
- The friends list will now be a 3D area where your friends' avatars will pop up as they come online. No word on whether you'll be able to move around in this space but that may be a possibility if Microsoft wants to have their answer to Playstation Home.
- Players will be able to start parties in their avatar forms where they can share media with friends as well as gather before entering a multiplayer game.


Microsoft's new direction appears to be centered around a casual appearence and they're pushing the 360 experience as "tailored for the living room". Schappert emphasized the simplicity of navigating through the new dashboard. Although this simplicity may attract a new audience of casual gamers to the Xbox 360, it remains to be seen how the new Xbox 360 Dashboard will be recieved by the hardcore gaming community.

Source: Microsoft E3 Press Conference

WAR Cuts Classes and Cities From Launch!

In a recent interview with MMORPG.com, Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs announced that four classes, as well as four capital cities would not be ready for the game's launch. The four classes cut are the Greenskin Choppa, Dwarf Hammerer, Dark Elf Blackguard, and Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun. With four of the cities still in development, players will only be able to explore two remaining capital cities when the game is released sometime this Fall.

“I wish we didn’t have to do it,” Mark said, “I really do. Unlike the capital cities [which provided a silver lining in the end], I can honestly say that I really wish we didn’t have to cut them out, but it’s better for them to be cut out than to have classes that aren’t great and that we would spend more time trying to make them great post-launch than we should have to.”

In the end, the team felt that adding careers into the game that weren’t up to their standards would have hurt not only the game and the company, but the players as well. Trying to fix classes (that are already in the game) post-launch can cause a boatload of nightmares as players not only of the careers involved, but of other careers as well. Many MMO players have experienced the nerfing and other annoyances that are often involved in a great deal of tinkering with an existing class, and Mythic didn’t want to put anyone through that experience unnecessarily.

Despite an expected negative response from fans, many prospective players admit that they are happy that Mythic Entertainment appears committed to delivering a quality MMO experience. With the Guild Beta under way, others are eager to learn how this announcement will affect the balance of gameplay. Regardless, the pressure on Mythic is greater than ever and if what they deliver on launch is not extremely polished there will likely be a huge backlash from players.

Source

Top 5: Reasons Not to Buy Games Based on Movies

I don't know who would throw their money away by buying a game tie-in to a recently released movie, but rumor has it that people actually do it. Of course, anyone who actually shells out $50 for one of these games probably has the impaired judgement and poor decision making skills of a frat guy that wakes up on a front lawn in a urine-soaked polo shirt but still insists on popping his collar before trying to scrub numerous pictures of dicks off his face. If you still think the only way to live out your sick Superman/Wall-E/Hulk fantasies is to buy the game, here are 5 reasons why you should think again:

5. These games are developed alongside the movie. While the movie was being filmed, the game was already being developed and that can only be bad news. If a game developer doesn't know what the final film will be like, how can they possibly capture its greatness in game form? Other than main plot points, the developers often throw in whole lot of unrelated gameplay which is tedious to get through and amounts to filler.

4. There is absolutely no innovation. The developers that get the deals to make these games are really just trying to cash in. With movie games they don't make any attempts to include unique gameplay mechanics that might make the game somewhat enjoyable. Not even really gimmicky ones. You get boring, unoriginal level design and repetitive mission structures that amount to gameplay which feels like gamechore.

3. Finished or not, the game ships. Unlike normal games, the developers of movie games have no choice but to ship the game when the movie is released. The people marketing the movie's merchandise won't let the developer delay the product and the end result is almost always a buggy, hastily put together "game".

2. You're paying $60+ for one movie! Pretty much all movie games are simply the movie in game format minus anything that was impossible to translate into gameplay. The difference is that you paid around $10 for the movie ticket but you paid $50 for the exact same movie in game format...except this time around everything sucks and you know what happens in the end.

1. You're only encouraging the production of more crap! Basically any movie that can be made into a game, will be made into a game these days. Obviously the only reason that this is done is because apparently these games still sell. If there's a market for it, they'll keep pumping out sub-standard titles. Let's stop the trend, huh?

This is not to say that games based on movies can't be good. There have definitely been solid movie games such as the Godfather game and The Warriors game among others. The successes in this genre prove that developing a movie-based game can work well if only the product is not forced out of the gate immediately upon the movie's release. With a little innovation we can get great movie game experiences like the LEGO Star Wars series. These gems let us relive the cinematic experience in a whole new way and are surely well worth the wait.

Itching to Unpause

Just wanted to post a quick update and let people know that after an incredibly busy past few months, I Are Gamer will soon be back with consistent updates and a new approach that will hopefully see the birth of great new content.

Stay tuned!