Steve Jobs health fading?

There's a really big rumor going around right now that Steve Jobs' Pancreatic cancer has returned and his health is fading fast.

Read

I seriously hope he's going to be okay. Jobs is a true visionary in my mind and pretty much singlehandedly saved Apple from the scrap heap in the last decade. The loss would hurt Apple badly, I don't want to say cripple, but it wouldn't be good. I've also known people with Panc and to say it's bad is a massive understatement. I'm definitely going to keep Mr.Jobs in my prayers-

Get well soon man.

Dropping like flies...

Are the game companies. Factor 5 just cut half of their staff and then promptly went belly up. Read all about it on Kotaku. And this stellar news comes right on the heel s of the death of former industry big and Timesplitters creators, Free Radical.

This is going to snowball. Trust me.

Ahhh, the first snowfall of the season-

What a joy for a boy to behold.

No, it's not tech related. I'm in a good mood, sue me.

Gears of War 3 tidbits-

Gears of War 3 is already popping it's head out of it's emergence hole and GoW 2 has only been out for a little more than a month-

XBOX 360 Fanboy is reporting that Gears 3 will have FIVE PLAYER CO-OP play. That's frikkin' awesome by anyone's count. Bring it on.

Home for the Holiday's?

Put this one in the weird but true catagory.

It looks like the Playstation 3's long awaited and not very well described (I'm still not sure exactly what it is) social interfacing tool, Home, will be available in beta form on December 17th. Yep, it's not your imagination- there was no hype at all for it. No press to speak of for a piece of software that hasn't really been well promoted up till this time and yet is supposed to be a keystone for the console.

Enjoy?

Sunday, it's my happy-go-funday

Played a little Fable 2 today. I thought it was wrapping up but it looks like the main quest is actually a lot longer than I thought. Which is a good thing. Mainly because I was about to complain that F2 was really, really short for this type of game.

Now the only problem is that I've still got to finish Spider-Man and I still haven't really gotten into Fallout 3. I know they came out a while ago but I chose to plunge into Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 first and I'm dying to move on.

Right now though, it's NY Giants football (please destroy the Eagles) and pizza, then I'll move on to some work that's left over from the week. Later? Maybe out to Ikea with the gal for some good old fashioned Swedish boredom.

Who ya gonna call?

Holy. Crap.

Now that's cool. I'm not even going to spoil it by posting the picture here. Just hit the link and prepare to be amazed. Really.

Hey, how's it going?

My current avatar- these things are too much fun.

An iPhone battery extender that doesn't suck

...And looks cool too. Dig those LED's on the back- soooo futuristic.

NXE Impressions

So I've had a while to play around with the beta of the New XBOX Experience (ie the new ui) and it's really cool. The entire thing just seems more fluid than the original one with the 'blades' interface. I think it'll go over really well.

The blades are actually still around for all those that love them. they exist in the new guide that pops up when you hit the '360' button. This I'm not so crazy about. It seems like like there wasn't much thought put into the look of it. The functionality is there all right, it works perfectly well, but the look just seems a bit... off. The plain blue toned screen looks out of place surrounded by the slick flow of the NXE.

In the end it's a very small complaint but still.

Oh and Avatars are super happy fun time. Avatars > Miis. Better looking and more of a presence on the dash. Kudos to MS for this.

In Progress Review : Spiderman:Web of Shadows

So I've been playing a lot of stuff lately, so many things have come out that it's hard to see through all of the triple A titles. As a result, I'm sure many of you have overlooked the recent Spiderman game that dropped last week- Web of Shadows.

It has a few issues, don't get me wrong, (and chief among them are the inconsistent graphics and cringe-inducing voice work) but it's a fun game that pretty much any Spidey fan will enjoy. This is a solid action title and has probably my faveorite web-swinging mechanic from all of the Spidey games- once you get the hang of it. There is a bit of a learning curve. There's a pretty good story here too, involving a symbiote invasion of NYC. But that's just the main plotline, it's not all that you'll find here- there are plenty of other cool bits that include Black Cat, Moon Knight, the Kingpin, Wolverine, and quite a few others.

Definately worth a rental, worth a buy if you're a comic junkie.


Spider-man: Web of Shadows is out now for all consoles, next week for the PC

Castlevania returns with a bang!

In a short trailer today at the Tokyo Game Show, Konami showed off the newest Castlevania coming to home consoles- the 360 and PS3 to be exact. There's no name yet but reportedly the game will feature Alucard, Dracula's son as the main character!

Al was the hero of 'Symphony of the Night'- arguably the best Castlevania in the series, and my all time fave. Sign me up on this one if Alucard is in it and, of course, it actually looks enjoyable. Which is not something that any other 3D 'Vania can boast.

As more comes in, I'll report on it right here-

I want you all to get up...

Get out of your chairs and yell- I'm damn sick of LEGO games and I'm not going to play them anymore!

Maybe that's too strong. I've been playing Batman and I haven't been enjoying it to much. I don't know what happened either, I used to love LEGO games so I had no problem buying Batman, but... And it's not because it's Batman either- my favorite super-hero of all time.

It just seems like the magic is gone. Two Star Wars games, an Indy game... I think they maybe just pushed it too far too soon.

Oh well...

Turn those boring car trips into a never-ending shooter!

The headline says it all- but read this anyway.

Freakin. Cool.

Vista is not quite such a beast

Here's a fantastic piece on Dvice, the Sci-Fi channel's tech site, about some very famous false beliefs concerning Windows Vista.

Most of this stuff really is bunk. Read the article, compare it with your own experiences.

***Special bonus***

Check out the (mostly) laughable comment string when you finish the article. People, stop being biased towards multi-national companies. It's just silly.

Whoa, under the radar Haloz

This seems like it's a much bigger bombshell than Kotaku is treating it.

If Yu has really taken Gearbox over and set it up as the heir apparent to the Halo franchise, that's monster news!

"I was offered and recruited to the position of Principle (Lead) Engine Architect of Halo Franchise Team at Microsoft. I accepted the offer to lead the team to build the engines and games for future Halo's on Xbox'es and PC's at Microsoft." -Corrinne Yu

I think that pretty much says it all right there. And personally, I think Gearbox is a pretty good choice if MS feels that Bungie can't (or doesn't want to) handle their flagship anymore.

Live free or... play all by yourself.

I just read Don Reisinger's column on cNet about Xbox Live and it's status as the only pay-to-play network service on the current crop of home consoles. Now, I'm not a big online multi guy, but it's a pretty good read other than a few opinions that aren't exactly realistic. Playing online with the Wii is comparable to LIVE on the 360? If you say so Don.

Several months ago I had stated that the Live service would become free to all for PC AND Xbox. This was what I was hearing at the time. It turned out that only the former was the case- for now. I still firmly believe that the Live service will switch over to a free to all part of the Xbox experience. The reasons are well stated in Mr. Reisinger's work and are as valid today as they were a few months ago. Look for this to happen either by the holidays or fall of '09.

Yes, I'm sticking to it.

Digital-Un-Life

Caroline McCarthy has a post up on cNet about 2008's Digital Life expo at the Javitz center. Namely, the fact that it's been canceled. Show organizer Ziff Davis says it's all because of a lack of interest in 2007's version... and current economic issues. Ouch. it's too bad because, there was supposed to be a renewed focus on games this year. I was actually looking forward to it.

I was just talking, in 'random thought', about the economic condition in this country and the world in general. There's only so long that the electronic industry in general can go before it starts to suffer. Is this the beginning? I hope not...

Celebrity is out - NOW!

The brand new August/September issue of Celebrity & Entertainment magazine is out now. There's a really cool interview with Stan 'The Man' lee and, of course, the best little tech column on the planet is stuck in there too.

This issue, take a look at the launch of the iPhone 3G and I wrap up E3 with a glance at how the big three performed (with grades and everything! WOW!)

Camballs?

I just saw this over on Dvice.

How soon do you think it will be before we get an interior view of somebody's ass?

Anybody seen an iPhone anywhere around here?

I STILL can't get one. Unbelievable. Four hour lines and it's been out for almost a month.

Great Article

This is a great piece about the state of the tech industry and how it's changing. Beautiful stuff, fun too.

Batman Returns

No, I didn't get the name of the stunningly godlike movie wrong. I'm talking about the new Batman video game coming to consoles. Apparently this was a super-secret, hush hush project but Gary Oldman let some info slip out during an interview for 'The Dark knight'. He didn't say much except that he was providing the voice for Lt. Gordon and that there were some cool gliding segments.

Personally, I'm very excited. I know this probably has very little chance of being good, but I likes me some Batman. Actually, I'll pretty much buy any superhero game that comes out. I have a problem.

Wow

This says a lot about the entertainment industry and where it's heading.

E3 '08 Impressions

Wow, it's been a pretty good show so far! That's especially so for Microsoft. In fact, without them, it'd be a pretty dull show so far.

MS comes out on top so far with not only the games they've shown off for this coming holiday, (great lineup, impressive amout of AA-AAA titles) but also for the completely unexpected re-do for the Xbox Dashboard. It looks absolutely phenominal! The new sliding, "Vista-like" window design in place of the blades was an excellent choice to give the system a whole new look- it's on par with the PS3's dash and just as pretty. It'll be out in the fall update.

The only thing that leaves me scratching my head is the decision to leave the new Halo branded games off of the table. Makes no sense. Why not go for the knockout punch?

On the other side, while there's nothing really earthshaking coming out of Sony's camp except to say that the games coming down the pike look good, they still impress over the complete debacle that was Nintendo.

What was in their conference? I can't even remember off hand. That motion plus thing looks like a laughable little gimmick from Mad-Catz or something. Although that might be a little rough on Mad-Catz. I'm so disappointed by them this year. No new Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Punch out=CRAP. Thanks Reggie.

Xbox 360 price cut is official

The 360 pro will now only cost you $299 at retail. $50 may not be the biggest drop in the world, but it just makes Microsoft's console look even tastier to the masses. Sony already announced no price drop will be forthcoming for the PS3. I wonder how smart that is.

Finally... Killzone 2

Okay, impressions time.

The AI seems disturbingly stupid and it's very easy to tell what's scripted/pre-animated and what's gameplay. Other than that, it looks great. I'm not too sure if it'll be one of the all-time greats (I'm still kind of meh on it), but it shows promise. I just hope that the AI is still a work in progress thing, which it probably is. Hopefully.

ATT line war stories...

I live. Barely. Today was hard, we got hit on our way into the bunkers. There weren't supposed to be any guards. The horror, the horror....

That's almost what the line outside the ATT store on Continental felt like. Very close. But without any weapons. I think.

All I was doing was heading to pay a bill and the furor that rose up to greet me was blinding. Cursing, shouting, and nose picking in my general direction. I was there to pay a bill ya jackasses! Do you think they would have let me in ahead of everybody if I just asked nicely?!? And besides, I'm just going to wait out the nutso's and get one next week : ) Nyah :P

iPhone tomorrow

Wheeeeeeee!

What the hell am I so happy about? I have no idea!

It's almost the same iPhone that launched a year ago! But I'm so freakin excited for it! Why!?!

NO IDEA. (but I'll be on line getting one at some point this weekend.)

New celebrity now available

The new June/July issue is out right now.

The new Spark features a more in-depth look at the GTA4 saga.

Enjoy. But not too much... you know who I'm talking to.

Friendly Neighborhood Reminder

The iPhone2 will (probably) be announced on Monday as part of El Steevo's speech.

I'm just hoping that the thing goes on sale the same day since I'm off on Monday's.

Update: The new iPhone will drop on July 11 along with a huge software update for iPhone 1 users. Check it out at Apple.

Windows 7 debuts

Number 7 has arrived! Well, not really, actually it's about three years away. They don't want to halt that unstoppable Vista machine. (Vista's really not that bad by the way, I just like piling on.)

Anyway, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer debuted the new OS last night. The hook? Multitouch, on a touchscreen. It wasn't running on surface, by the way, but on a Dell laptop.

Here comes the Apple did it first fanboys, I'm sure. The truth is, yes they did- BUT -multitouch and touch surfaces are the way of the future. That's about as plain and simple as I can put it. I guarantee that you'll start to see a switch from keyboard and monitor to pure touch surfaces in the next five years.

Evolution isn't just for nature anymore. Kudos to Apple for the innovation, kudos to everybody else for keeping the train rolling.

Read the whole sorted tale here.

iPhone note for the 3Gers out there

I was listening to the CNBC Sirius channel (FastMoney) this afternoon and heard the talking heads blathering about the June 9th World Wide Developers Conference presentation that Steve Jobs is giving- the scuttle is that the new iPhone will be unveiled right there and then. The phone will then go on sale a few weeks later.

The time frame seems wrong to me but I guess we'll see. (not for the announcement, but for the release date.)

Wanna go really fast? And it's dangerous too!

I think I'm out of words...

It's a motorcycle you can wear.This may be the coolest thing ever. Better than the exo-suit. These renders look phenomenal, I don't know how big the chance is that it'll ever get made but it's freakin awesome!

Read the whole thing right here.

Mr. Niko goes to San Andreas

Completely forgot to mention this!

There was a discovery made on the GTA forums that may shed some light on the DLC that soon (this fall) will be available over Xbox Live (exclusively).

What do you think of that?

It could be just another cool little easter egg for fans of the series- or it could be a whole state full of DLC! Joystiq had mentioned that you'd need a bigger hard drive for all that GTA goodness, but not so, says I.

If the DLC was spaced out to include one major city at a time, (were there three in SA?) that would make a pretty cool little series. maybe with one major overall story arch linking the three city destinations of San Andreas into one big west coast adventure for Niko.

Then again, how about this- The DLC is three completely seperate adventures. One leading Niko to San Andreas (one location there), one leading him to a modern day Vice City, and the final one taking him across the pond to London! That may be reaching a bit but you have to admit it'd be pretty slick.

GTA madness

Who's not playing this?

I've heard it said that this is the first Grand Theft Auto with a heart. It really is. The protagonist, Niko Bellic, is the first main character in a GTA that you can actually root for. Yes, he's a bad guy- but he's got his reasons. There's also a story here that's second to none in the series as well as a living breathing world that it's all wrapped up in that's going to be very hard for any other game to top.

The 'Godfather' of gaming? Yeah, I think so.

iPhone is, like, totally 3g

It's really only a matter of time now until the g-bomb drops.

I'm hearing as early as the last week of June. That might be a little soon- there's not even been an announcement yet. Little to no hype, I don't know- it just seems wrong. Unless this is really going to be a non-event kind of thing. I really can't see that happening but that's what it's looking like if the launch is, in fact, that close.

iPhone part deux

Here's the first scuttle on the forthcoming iPhone 2.0 on Engadget. It's not much at this point, but it's better than nothing. Most of the improvements seem like things that were left out of the original, which isn't a bad thing- the biggest difference seems to be the glossy plastic shell that will replace the aluminum one. Looks pretty good to me.

My one wish for Apple though is to include a digi-zoom for the camera (and a higher mp count wouldn't hurt either).

GTA delay?

Industry analyst Michael Pachter has announced his belief that EA will delay the highly anticipated Grad Theft Auto 4 from it's 4/29 release date until sometime in the fall. This done in order to take advantage of the lucrative fourth quarter shopping season. And, of course, it should be pointed out that EA doesn't yet own Take Two- the company that actually owns GTA, so this all seems a bit premature. Especially since TT want no part of a merger.

Nonetheless, Pacter believes the only reason Take Two would drop GTA 4 in April would be because the company needs money so badly that they can't wait any longer. I personally don't see it that way (even if it rings true). With a fall release, GTA would be going up against, among others, Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2- both mega-blockbusters for their respective platforms. Not really the best idea.

But I don't understand why this is even being discussed at all. There's no deal in place yet to combine the companies! Bottom line? Hopefully the game will release on time and we'll all have our GTA fix for the spring/summer. That and EA doesn't need to absorb any more companies. Really. They don't need to be no richer.

These things we need more of. Well, I need one anyway.

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/03/lucidtouch_cont.php

This thing is beyond cool. At least the mock up is- although the thing looks like it's on it's way to real world coolness.

Major props for showing Warcraft on that freakin' awesome screen. (Well, the mock up screen.)

Apple knocks one out of the park

The live blogged event can be found here

The games look really, really good. I'm very surprised. There's a bunch of other good stuff coming too, I'm sure. I'm just really caught up on Touch Fighter and Spore right now.

Now of course come the rumors again of a 3G phone in June. I think it's a lock. (um, can I have 32gigs too? Please Steve?)

Microsoft to offer Blu Ray?

Someone over at Sony let some info 'slip' about an Xbox 360 Blu Ray player. It's not known at this time how it would be implemented- stand alone or integrated into a super-360. Or even if this is true, for that matter.

MS might very well be looking Blu after the death of HD-DVD. They've said in the past that they wouldn't be against offering a Blu Ray player if HD failed. Taking that into account, this very well might have a kernel of truth to it.

If it is true, Microsoft needs to make this puppy cheap. Very cheap. Why? They need to make the possibility of a Blu 360 more enticing than a PS3 (which plays Blu Ray natively) if they want to spike sales. It may seem odd to think movie playback would drive 360 sales, but consider the fact that the majority of PS3 owners have said that Blu Ray movies played a big part in their purchase. Some have sighted it as the sole reason for owning a PS3.

Make it cheap MS-

Bludgeoning

That's the only word for it really. The Wii has outsold the PS3 a staggering 4-1 in Japan. I'm not even going to post the numbers for the lead it has over the Xbox 360 (the Japanese hates them some Xbox).

Considering that Sony has had the market wrapped up over there since the PS1 launched, this really is something to see. Maybe they're just happy that the king is back in town.

You look a little old for Solid Snake

The official date is out for the first Metal Gear for the PS3. You'll be able to pick it up on June 12, just in time to pop the AC on and spend some time away from the painful rays of the summer sun.

Here's to hoping that this is a good one. I'm overly pessimistic about anything that launches with this much fanfare. (oh lord, not another special edition console) Sony needs it, Konami knows it- MGS 4 should be just fine, but there's always that nagging worry. Part of that, I think, is that the graphics aren't really mind blowing. Snake looks good, but not that good...

We'll see.

On Her Majesty's Secret - Oh forget it...

Me cry now.

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/02/28/new-screens-from-aborted-xbla-goldeneye-007/

On the Edge of 3G

There's some stuff going around right now saying that A 3G networked iPhone will drop this year- sometime over the summer to be (a teensy bit) more exact. While this would certainly be good news as the 3G net moves much faster than boring old Edge, the phone better have something else going for it if Apple wants current iPhone users to upgrade.

32gigs would certainly do it for me. Thank you.

More good news from Stereophonic Of NY

Sony's PS Home feature for the PS3 might not be such a dud after all. Kotaku is reporting some pretty cool features for the Playstation 3 hub/game. They're running a series of articles right now. You can check the first one right here-

http://kotaku.com/361560/how-resistance-fall-of-man-makes-home-really-really-cool

Bundle-mania!!!

More Sony news today as the PS daddies announced a PS3 bundled with the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4 will drop this summer. The console will be an 80gigger, Snake will be 80 years old and the package price is $499.00- Though it really would have benefited that sentence if it was $480. Too bad.

Also in the pipeline is a frickin' sweet red 'God of War' themed PSP. Now here's a cool setup- included in the box will be GOW: Chains of Olympus, Superbad on UMD, and a voucher for a free game download from the Playstation Network. Nice. Really nice. If they left Superbad out it would have been even better.

The whole shootin-match goes for $199 American.

Sony's BIG Plans

There was an unusual glut of Sony news lately as Phil Harrison, longtime head of SCEA, will be stepping down in favor of Kaz Hirai. This is particularly thrilling news to bloggers and press members everywhere as Kaz is a bit of a looney toon. Should be fun things coming out of his mouth any second now. At least it's not as boring as Microsoft's Don Mattrick who took over for the departing Peter Moore. Now that was a step down.

The other bit about the big 'S' is that there's an apparent super secret title in development for a 2009 release. What are the deets? Who knows, the whole thing's shrouded in in mystery. The only outlet to see some of the project was the BBC. Which may tell us a bit about the validity of the project. (Why would you pick the BBC for an exclusive sneak? Because chances are they wouldn't be too critical.)

In any event, the news outlet has been spurting out all manner of hyperbole such as stating that the unannounced title will be a "shifting point in what game consoles are capable of in terms of story telling and immersion." That's quite a statement. Doubtful too. But I'll reserve judgement till I see it in action. After all, Sony did do right by all of us with Killzone 2 right?

Wow, it's strange to see that name in print after the game itself has apparently passed into the realm of Oblivion. Seriously though... where the hell is Killzone 2?!?

GOW2 11/08

Dated baby!

Gears of War 2 will pop out of the forges over in Xbox land this November. Fantastico!

http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/02/20/gears-of-war-2-coming-in-november-2008.aspx

Gears of War 2- Confirmed for 2008?

Okay, so this is kind of an odd place for the news to come out.

Action Figure.com was checking out some of the new Gears figures at the NY toy show when the reporter asked one of the booth workers if Gears was still viable as a property since the game came out two years ago.

The answer? Well of course it's still viable. After all, the sequal comes out later this year. Oops. Pretty sure that's a pretty big oops.

Original story below.
http://www.action-figure.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=22670

HD rocks Queens

Time Warner cable just beefed up their HD feed for all of Queens, NY, adding a bunch of new channels including History Channel HD (UFO Files FTW!!!). Bring it on, the more the merrier.

Of course, if you don't have an HDTV- well -this really doesn't mean much does it?

Oh, that's just underhanded now, isn't it?

http://gizmodo.com/353874/you-dont-have-to-extend-your-att-contract-to-upgrade-your-iphone

Celebrity & Entertainment

The Feb/March issue released today.

Pick it up for some Valentines Day suggestions and my quick takes on Mac World and giving a little techie love for greeting card day (get your mind out of the gutter, this is a family blog!)

Get yer free Live Game here

Undertow will be a free download to all gold and silver LIVE members next week Wed, January 23 -through- Sun, January 27. What a bizarre time frame. Why not the whole week? Or month? Oh well, it's still free- and it's one of the more popular LIVE games to boot. Not too shabby.

Here's the link for the press release http://http//gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/01/18/UndertowFreeofCharge.aspx
Even if you don't care to sit through the boring PR, hit the link for the comments to marvel at how people can complain about anything. Good gravy, call the wahhhhmbulance.

Mac World re-cap

I wrote about a few of these item in my column in Celebrity & Entertainment but here's a few more bits and bytes.

Not much new in the iPod realm. Pretty disappointing actually, the only updating was done to the Touch and the iPhone. (With a much beefier one for the iPhone)

One really cool addition was made to iTunes in the form of movie rentals. After download you can load up the flick onto your portable or watch it on your Mac or PC. After you start it up, you've got 24hrs before the file terminates. So that's kind of un-cool but still, not bad overall.

The Mac Book Air is another story altogether. It's a super-light 'n' thin notebook Mac that has no disc drives and no ports of any kind other than USB (to attach all the peripherals you'll have to buy). It also has a 'gesture sensitive' touchpad which recognises basic finger signs. It's also nice looking since it's encased in an aluminum shell. Yes, encased. In other words- you can't open it. You have to take it to Apple to change the battery. Some people are loving it and that's the thing I don't get. There are so many negatives to this thing that in no way could I recommend it to anyone. I would say that if you want to get a Mac just to try it out, then pick this up but really it's just too expensive for that at an $1800 price point.

And it's really just a laptop when the day is through. A really under featured laptop. Not good enough from a company I expect so much from.

On 'Live' Support

What happened to Xbox Live over the holidays?

I've heard everything from hacker assaults to overloads from all the new members. The latter being the official word on the subject. It's easy to believe that from the glut of new games released over the fall/winter/holiday buying period. But if that's the case, why hasn't this happened before?

There were lots of games released last year too. What changed? Did Live get too big too fast? As long as it's working now, I suppose no one really cares but still...

Edit: forgot to mention the free game. MS is giving away a free Arcade title to all Live members who got caught up in the outage. Pretty cool move, at least it softens the blow of not being able to play online during one of the only times when everybody gets a chance too. When they announce the details, (should be in the next few weeks) I'll post 'em up.

2007 Sparkys

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is now time for the first annual Sparky awards. These awards are for the greatest and the worst of 2007. They'll be given away over the next two weeks and will be divided into two sub-categories- The 'best in games' and the 'best in tech'. Then one champion of champions will be promoted overall as the biggest waste of*ahem*best thing ever(of 2k7) First up-

THE BEST IN ACTION GAMES 2007 (and there was much rejoicing)

Winner: Halo 3

Runner's Up:
Bioshock
Assassin's Creed

I'll bet you're surprised. After all, it seems to be all the rage to sling mud at H3. But, then again, that's always the case when something reaches the heights of popularity that the Halo universe has. It is, unarguably, a force in the gaming world. Halo 3 is polished to a chrome-like shine. So much so that it almost blinds. It's cool, it's a perfected experience (both single and multiplayer), and most of all- it's fun. Thank you, Bungie. I can't wait for the Chief's next Marathon.
Bioshock and Assassin's Creed are both exceptional experiences and deserve to be on this list. Certainly an argument could be made for both to have won. But not in my mind.

THE BEST IN RTS 2007

Winner: Supreme Commander

Runner's Up:

Universe at War

Command and Conquer 3

There were a lot of good RTS's this year- and a lot of them were surprisingly good. I'm not usually the kind to get enamored with them but this really was a banner year. Both C&C3 and Universe were gems -as were a bunch of others- but none had the grandeur of SupCom. Truly the awesome blaster was aimed at this one. And it caught one right in the temple. The sheer scope of the battles and the varied unit types and the number of them- phenomenal. The weakest point of the title is the story, weak at best. But for some reason, I don't care. And I'm a huge proponent of having a solid story behind the experience. The game is just so much to handle though, I barely noticed. Action packed+fun+beautiful= RTS GOTY

THE BEST IN RHYTHM 2007

Winner: Rock Band

Runner Up:
Guitar Hero 3

No other music game even comes close to Rock Band. Not just settling for guitar, RB gives you bass, drums, and lead vocals to play with too. I can't imagine anywhere else the genre could possibly go- all the bases are covered right here. The song list is impressive to boot. The Mtv backing was used well here, RB got a kickin song list without having the Mtv logo plastered all over the place. Not only is this puppy fun all by your lonesome, but it's better than ANYTHING ELSE at a party. Well done to all involved.

THE BEST IN RPG 2007

Winner: Mass Effect

Runners Up:

Super Paper Mario

The Witcher

Mass Effect is an engrossing, beautiful, and cinematic experience. Simply awesome. It's been a while since an RPG has sucked me in as much as this one did. Right from the opening, you just know this is going to be a special game. The conversational scripting is very well done and the action sequences are great. I even just enjoyed wandering around the Citadel- again, awesome. Even if you just have a passing interest in RPG's, I think you'll thoroughly enjoy this.

and THE SPARKY GAME OF THE YEAR IS -

HALO 3

The end cap of one of the most popular series in gaming history comes to a close and it's successor begins. (you did watch the whole ending right?) What didn't I say in talking about H3's action game win? The single player is very well done, the multiplayer rocks and I love everything about the universe Bungie has created here. That probably makes me biased but I really think this is a hat trick here for MS and Bungie. Well done all around.

Runners Up:
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Rock Band

Happy Merry

A very Happy New Year to all! I haven't really posted much over the Holidays but then again, there wasn't much to post.

But, anyway, I hope everybody had a safe and happy season and lets all get ready for another awesome year in tech!