So Activision is going all out with Modern Warfare 2. Day one DLC, $150 limited editions, mulitple planned mappacks, raising prices worldwide... the list keeps growing and growing. Why can they do this? Simple, people will buy into it.

Thus it is up to us, the gamers to tell our more casual friends how badly Activision is ripping us off. This is unacceptable. Not all casual players will fall prey to this, but many will. Three mappacks have been released for Call of Duty World at War, all three are very popular amongst the casual crowd. This only means that the casuals will buy as much DLC as they can for CoD MW2.

We need to try to inform people. They need to know parts of the game are being with-held and will be still available day 1 for $15 more bringing the total cost of the full game up to $75. The only reason why Activsion can get away with this is because CoD 4 was just so popular. They keep showing new footage of CoD MW2 and it gets people going all sorts of crazy. They don't care that the game is just now a spamfest for kids with ADD, no they just want sticky grenades and prettier graphics. These casual gamers don't realize that are buying into pure milkage that is ruining gaming.

Its bad enough that the series has strayed so far from its roots, but to just recycle the same game and charge $60 for it is just unacceptable. The market is still to young for any sort of economics to apply. It may take years for the market to finally regulate itself and for people to stop buying into this becuase they are getting less and less for their money.

So it comes back to us. We need to help inform people. Sure we cannot change whats inevitably going to happen, but we can at least make some people aware of what gaming is becoming. Maybe if we inform enough people, we will be able to stop the game market from suffocating itself.

Well its time for another blog post. I haven't had one for a while so I guess I will do one right now.

Well my life has just been peachy. I broke up with my girlfriend about a month back (I broke up with her) and haven't been happier. I have been working out on a more regular basis, and ever since I hit 21 I have been drinking a lot more. Not in a bad way, but in a social way. The only cons to that is how empty my wallet has gotten. I guess working at the bakery at my Super Target here in Eau Claire hasn't been the most profitable thing I have ever done.

Anyways enough with my boring life and onto my video game life. I have been playing a lot of X3 Reunion. Yes I know that X3 Terran Conflict is out, but Reunion is what I have. Its a great game. Think EVE Online without the online. It has a very deep economy that runs in the background as well as a massive galaxy to explore. It has taken me about 10 game hours, but I have finally started my automatic trade routes and will start generating a slow, but steady income.

I have also been playing a lot of BF 1943. I loved BF 1942. It was nearly online gaming perfection. Now, DICE brought parts of 1942 to the Xbox 360 and PS3 with help of the o-so-glorious Frostbite Engine. The game isn't the best looking of all time, but blowing a hole in a wall of a building is very fun. The arcady mix of 3 classes, infinite health regeneration and ammo keeps it fast pace. The maps are smaller and accommodate the 24 players very nicely. I have had a hell of a fun time with the game. For only $15, you can't go wrong.

I also have been playing a lot of ArmA 2. I could dive into how amazing that game is, instead I will just link you all to a video I made displaying the teamwork needed in ArmA 2. Heres that video.

Aside from that I am also still playing WWII Online. Though I don't know how much longer it will keep me occupied before I need to take a break.

Well thats it for gaming news and my boring life. I hope to see you all next week when I dissect a pony.

-Wasdie

Whats more fun than spending the first 18 years of your life in a hole in the ground underneath an oppressive, power-hungry leader? How about the realization that you had it easy. That is if you don't mind bathing in nuclear radiation, fighting off freakish mutants who will tear you limb from limb and snack on your liver, snacking off of heavily radiated, 200 year old processed food, and solving the worlds problems by your little teenage self...

This is the bleak future as told by Fallout 3. You play... well you, or at least whatever escapes from your sick and twisted mind with the aid of a rather robust character creation section. After emerging from the comfort and safety of Vault 101 (with a few incentives physically gnawing on your heels) you enter a post apocalyptic Washington D.C. conveniently named the Capital Wasteland. This radiated wonderland filled with little less than certain death will become your new home.

The Capital Wasteland is definitely a shadow of its pseudo art deco past. Setting it in the former nation's capital just adds to the feeling of a broken world as there is a sense of total anarchy with the destruction of human society. Destroyed, decaying buildings dot the landscape as well as the makeshift shelters of the post-war human existence. There is this sense of a dark history to the relatively newly made apocalyptic landscape. Evidence is literally splattered all of the walls of the buildings. I found myself being sidetracked out of pure curiosity to see what every little part of the world had in store for me. I was never disappointed.

If this waste of a land doesn't convince you that society has crumbled with only shreds of hope, then meager population will. The part of the fledgling population that won't make a brain and kidney smoothy out of you reeks of a dieing population who has all but given up on the future. The many different characters that populate the world are pale or have a nice green tint, underfed, diseased, and have no real hope for the future and only focus on surviving. As in most RPGs, the characters can't seem to actually solve many problems without your assistance. Its a wonder why society hasn't rebuilt itself when the population dumps all of its burdens on some teenager...

When it comes down to the actual gameplay, Fallout 3 differs greatly from its predecessors. Instead of being a tried and true, hardcore RPG, Fallout 3 takes a new approach for the role playing game. While you do quests, level up your character, explore dungeons, and look for better armor and weapons for whatever kind of character you have decided to play, the way you do all of that is much different. Fallout 3 occurs in the first person and play very similar to modern first-person-shooters that are on the market today. It is much more of an action/RPG hybrid than a traditional RPG or a traditional FPS.

The combat, while using firearms of all sorts, is still heavily dependent on stats. A combination of weapon damage, skill level, and weapon condition will all determine the total amount of damage that you deal to enemies. Just because you have that big, badass assault rifle doesn't mean your character is going to do tons of damage with it. Heck you will be lucky if you hit the target. To help with your aiming, Fallout 3 has a is a special aiming mode called V.A.T.S. With V.A.T.S. you go into a lock-on mode that targets the selected character and allows you to pinpoint your shots (or blows with a melee weapon) on certain parts of the enemy character. You aim at the arms or legs to cripple these parts, or go for the kill by aiming for the chest and head to have a much more significant impact on the enemies HP. If you kill an enemy while using the V.A.T.S system, you go to a cinematic camera view of the dieing enemy in a slow motion view that seems to be ripped right from the movie 300. Not to mention following a bullet from the barrel of your gun into the the head of your enemy in slow motion never gets old.

The downside of the combat is the enemy AI. A majority of the creatures will just bluntly attack you from up front with some generic attack animations. Seeing that these creatures usually consist of ghoulish, mutated humans and animals, a blunt front attack is pretty believable. The AI on the wanna be intelligent creatures and beings is extremely disappointing. Enemy's try to take cover the best they can, but usually they just run straight at you guns blazing and somehow seeming to hit you very accurately. The world is filled with plenty of cover. Its to bad that the AI does not take advantage of the open world and flank you from time to time. A bit more robust AI would have been appreciated. I also noticed that the AI would often get hung up on the environment.

Scattered throughout the ruins of Washington D.C. are tons of weapons and armor to beef your character up. Weapons include a taped upped hunting rifle, a pseudo futuristic pistol, assortment of blunt objects to bash skulls in with, a mini-nuke gun (tons of fun, great for kids), and some laser weapons. There are also a lot of different kinds of drugs and food that you can digest to improve stats or heal yourself in different ways. Be careful what you ingest though, drugs are addicting and food is usually radiated. Weapons and armor take damage as well as radiated food increases your radiation level which could negatively impact your character if it goes unchecked. I guess eating radiated food is probably not the best of ideas, but it is a quick fix if you are hungry. Though I never understood how eating radiated sugar bombs could somehow repair the damage I just took from getting riddle by 5mm bullets from a super mutant's minigun. Or for that fact, how the hell does a mount fit in your freaken backpack?

Leveling up in Fallout 3 wanders a separate trail than most RPGs today. You get a number of skill point to improve your level in various skills (like melee, lockpicking, stealth, ect.). In addition to the skill points, you get to pick a perk. Perks enhance different skills and abilities or give you different powers. Its a fresh approach to leveling up that fits right with the high action of the game. Some of the perks have some pretty cool powers like the ability to heal in the sun and be much more immune to radiation allowing you to explore the world even better.

The game really allows for freedom without hindering your experience. A PipBoy 9000 is strapped to your arms at all times and you can easily search through your inventory, quests, examine your health, and use the world map all via the PipBoy. This is adds another level of immersion as well as a very handy tools for keeping the many sidequests nice and organized. The hud also does a good job of of directing you in which way to go. Some could argue that it linearizes the game and takes out the exploration, but it is a really valuable tool in finding where to go through the twisted, radiated ruins.

Building upon the game engine behind TES: Oblivion, Fallout 3 is a very good looking game. Excellent textures, lighting, character models, and objects that clutter the world keep you in the experience. The physics on the dead characters and objects are a bit wonky and can go crazy on you sometimes. For the most part these physics add to the experience, but every once in awhile you will marvel at your ability to kick a shopping cart 50 yards in the air. For the most part of the game you say in a first party view, but when the V.A.T.S. combat system comes into play, the camera switches to a very cinematic camera with multiple viewing angles that enhances the action. Add some top notch voice acting by all of the characters to the mix and you have a very well built game with high production values. (Note: I know many other people experienced bug, I didn't seem to notice these bugs)

Overall Fallout 3 delivers. High production values combined with a very intriguing open world and story as well as tons of well written sidequests and lore spread throughout the Capital Wasteland really come together to be a unique, memorable experience. It blends the FPS genre with the RPG genre very well and never seems to get boring or repetitive with the diverse amount of enemies and open world that you can explore. I highly recommend this game to anybody who is sick of just shooting up enemies and wants a more rich experience. A few problems aside, Fallout 3 is one of the best action RPGs I have ever played and has definitely raised the standards for open world adventure games.

9.0/10

http://farewell.filefront.com/

It seems that FileFront is shutting down. A damn shame if you ask me. One of the finest websites a geek has ever known. It's ability to upload and store files so quickly and efficently and get great download speeds. Not to mention the millions and millions of files you could find on that website.

It will be sorely missed.

Well I got some beef with Battlefield 2. For such a highly rated online shooter, I was amazed to find so many problems with it. Maybe I just dont get it. Maybe I am a newb. Anyways these are a few of the things I find wrong with Battlefield 2.

• Lag. I know this may just be on my end, but I found that lag was a big issue when playing the larger 64 player games. Usually it wasn't horrible, but it was there constantly. Some people would jump all over the place or vehicles would just skip from place to place. I know to stay in low ping games, but finding them sometimes could be difficult.
• The game browser was slow and clunky. This is frustrating when trying to find a good game to play. Clicking on a server made your computer fetch the details of that server. That would take a second or two. During that second or two you couldn't do anything. Usually it isn't a problem, but after awhile it seems to get annoying.
• The hitboxes are absolutely horrible. They seem to lag constantly behind the player. Moving targets would often seem to be impossible to hit on occasions
• The guns were way to weak and extremely inaccurate. I cant count the number of times I have been prone, put my crosshair on an enemy, and slowly fired shot after shot, relineing the shot each time and still not hit anything but air. Often I would aim at proned targets and hit them only once out of an entire clip.
• Grenades are way overpowered. Seriously, in infantry only matches the amount of grenades spammed is insane. Also they have way to much damage and way to large of an AOE to be balanced.
• The medals and awards are competely skewed towards solo play. In a game so focused on teamwork, its suprising to see the medals and awards being so geared towards solo play. They really make it so players want to stat pad rather than play as a team.
• The air units are completely overpowered. A decent player can completely keep one side suppressed with a single aircraft. The abiltiy to fly over the initial takeoff point and reload weapon and health then fly back into battle make them an unstoppable force. Not to mention the lack of good infantry controlled anti-air.
• Horrible infantry animations. When a player jumps and goes prone, their animation suggests that their gun is pointed in the air and tey don't have control. This is infact a lie. What happens instead, they keep fireing straight at you and you end up getting a load of bullets in the face.
• The horrible community. This isn't a knock on the game persay, just more of a note on how elitest the community has gotten. Its not fun anymore because the people who play just hate every newer player and every casual player.

Luckly I found a mod called Project Reality. Though it sufferes similar issues with the engine, it is a completely fresh experiance that gave me a reason to install BF2 again.

Damnit I have no internet until the 27th. My main computer line has been banned by the network for 14 days for me downloading a game. I own the game, my CDs just don't work but they still banned me. Oh well. I will be making updates as my girlfriend has wireless and I have a laptop.

Until then I don't know how much I will get to post.

Since the NXE update I have really began to notice how solid of a platform that XBL really is. Aside from a few games having horrible matchmaking (Gears 2 comes to mind), it usually is an extremely stable and fast platform for online gaming. Integrated friends lists and scoreboards are really well done.

If you think about it, that $50 a year really gets you some stuff nobody else offers. You get a lot of features that are simply taken for granted. Coming from a PC gamer a lot of the features of XBL seem more like luxuries. With PC gaming you need to use outside program to have friends lists, you need to create an account for every single game you play online, you need to usually use an outside program for VoIP and usually then you need to connect to some dedicated server. For the experienced PC gamer like myself it is no problem, but it can be an hassle.

With XBL you get all of that integrated. Now with the Party feature it is even more integrated. You can talk to anybody on XBL playing any game at any time. It is one method of communications that is absolutely wonderful.

I used to see a lot of people bashing XBL. They say that PSN and the PC offer all of the same features. Collectively the two platforms do, independently they don't offer the features that XBL has. With XBL your not just paying for the features, your paying for the ease of use and accessibility that comes with those features to really enhance your gameplay experience.

Not bashing PSN here. I know it is also an extremely excellent platform with a lot of key features that XBL offers. Just saying that XBL is a more complete package that is actually worth the money to somebody like me.

On March 20, 2003 the United States of America invaded the country of Iraq with force. Quickly the war spread to Iraq's neighboring countries. Desperate for help, Iran and the newly formed Middle East Coalition (MEC) have called upon Russia for support.

In many attempts to sanction the US's war efforts with the UN and possible European allies, Russia reluctantly enters the war for the MEC. Soon after NATO removes Russia's membership and enters the war for the US. World War Three has finally begun.

Unlike what many thought, WWIII did not bring upon the destruction of the planet with nuclear arms. Instead the two sides, the MEC and NATO, worked out a nuclear treaty with the Arctic Strategic Arms Treaty.

After Russia and NATO's entrance into the war, Russia invaded Europe creating the eastern front. Following a massive US and NATO offensive into southern Iran from the Persian gulf into Southern Syria and recently occupied Turkey, the Southern Front was forged, spreading from the Mediterranean to the eastern border of India.

Sitting off the cost of Syria and Lebanon lies the small island of Sahrani. As set down in the Arctic Strategic Arms treaty, the island of Sahrani must stay neutral (among other Mediterranean Islands) and has since become a haven for refugees. Utilizing Paraiso International Airport for airlifting humanitarian aid to the war affected countries, the UN has set up supply bases and refugee camps on the small island.

As Russia's southern front forces start to weakening, Russia begins mobilizing a strike force to secure the island of Sara and secure the airport so that they can launch close range support fighters and bombers to aid in the defense of the southern front. The UN and NATO sends negotiators to Moscow to uphold the Arctic Strategic Arms Treat.

As a precaution, the US, by orders of the UN, sends a small strike force to a small island of Antigua north of Sahrani.

I don't understand. We are taught to hate them. We are told that they are all the same. The masses disapprove of the constant publishing of them. Reviewers downgrade them all. People constantly critisize and bash them. Why not me?!

I just don't understand why I love WWII games! I can storm the beaches of Normandy 20 times and it will still be as fun as the first time I did it! I think it is because I know so much about the technologies and tactics as well as the history of the WWII time era that I really enjoy playing those games.

I don't really understand what is with all of the hate though. The Medal of Honor series and the Call of Duty series have been extremely strong and diverse. Other games like Brothers in Arms and Company of Heroes really do different things and have expanded the genere of WWII games. On the whole I think they are pretty good.

I have lately been playing Call of Duty World at War and I have to say I was extremely impressed. They really made a damn fine war game. Every level was extremely well thought out and believeable. No more special ops mission where you took on the whole enemy army. Every level was just big and full of war. Something you should defeantly play through.

The online is even hooking me more as I find the maps excellent in their design. They really feel like they are built for tactics. Flanking an enemy is much easier in these maps as they aren't just shooting galleries. The online does have a few problems, tanks are a bit unbalanced as well as a few guns need small tweaks (when could you walk around with an MG34 and kill at a range of 50m+?)

Why should you care about Gears 2? I got two words for you... "Horde Mode".

Horde mode puts you up against wave after wave after wave of increasingly difficult enemies in overwhelming odds. When played on hardcore mode or higher this is an extremely difficult task to overcome requiring 5 well coordinated people. As the rounds go on you will be really having to scrounge for ammo and supplies.

When I played 5 of us would secure a fortified position, dig in, and hold out. When we were actually together it was almost a work of art. Everybody covered each others back, lines of tracer fire filled the area between us and the enemies, and everybody moved as a team when necessary. This was one of the most glorious gaming moments of my life.

Even if you do not like how Gears of War is played, you owe it to yourself to try this game-mode out. This single handedly is worth $60. Each map you can play up to 50 waves and each requires a different strategy. Hardcore mode isn't even the toughest difficulty but it really kicks even seasoned veterans asses if they are not coordinated.

On top of that the rest of the game is just stellar. Gears of War 2 features by far some of the best level design I have ever seen in the game. Each level is incredibly unique and extremely well built. This game is really a blast to play. The pace is always steady and broken up with awesome vehicle sequences.

I am addicted to the game. I am on nearly the last level and the only thing holding me back from beating the game for the first time is the fact I have a crap ton of homework to finish.

As soon as I get done with the game expect a full review. Until then, buy the game and play it.