E3 2010: Unboxing the new Xbox 360 [GameSpot Video]

I WANT ONE! Maybe I can convince the wife to get one for the basement... your argument are welcome!

Halo Reach - Birth of a Spartan Extended Version! (Video)

Will somebody PLEASE make a movie out of this for crying out loud!

I go AWOL and the EVE Community gets an Award!

Talk about shitty timing! I take a few weeks off from blogging and tweeting as I normally do, and during that time, Ten Ton Hammer awards the EVE Online Community the Best Community of 2009. Indeed, best time to take a break. I've seriously just found out about this - like an hour ago - while looking over my Facebook News Feed!

Still, it's a hell of an honor to be part of this great community of players with whom I share a passion for an amazing and complex world. Long live New Eden.

Before I jump back on the horse and return to my regular posting schedule, I just wanted to update you on what I've been doing this last 4 weeks! For those of you who don't know, I'm currently enjoying my paternity leave, of which I've got 2 more weeks (yep, that's 5 weeks during which I'm being paid to spend some time with MiniCK2). During that time, those of you who follow me on raptr will know that I've been playing some EVE Online, some Torchlight and Defense Grid, as well as a lot of Mass Effect. All this playing only happens when the MiniCKs are sleeping, which makes for some difficult gaming schedule. And with the PC downstairs in the basement and the Xbox 360 in the living room, playing Mass Effect (Xbox 360 version) is currently more convenient.

Add to that the fact that I want to finish the game before the sequel, which I've pre-ordered, comes out on the 26th.

I've also been reading a lot more, which is something I used to do more before the kids, and before this blogging, tweeting, facebooking took over my leisure time! I managed to finish reading The Sky People and Deadhouse Gates. I've started reading The Child Thief, Mass Effect Revelation and Pathfinder Core Rulebook. It's really fun to have the time to do so.

I'm slowly getting up to speed with emails, request and posts, so expect a return to my daily blogging and tweeting starting next week.

It's good to be back!

"When Worlds Collide" - DUST 514 makes the cover of EDGE Magazine

The latest issue of EDGE Magazine has the upcoming DUST 514 FPS as its cover feature.

I'll be honest, when I first looked at that cover I thought I was looking at Sheppard from Mass Effect. It took a few seconds and a few words to realize I was looking at a character from DUST 514. So is this the look of what to expect when Incarna (aka Ambulation, aka Walking in Station) rolls out, hopefully by the end of next year?

Anyways, getting back to EDGE, here's some more details on the cover feature:

Subscribers are about to receive their shiny copies of the latest issue of Edge, featuring the debut of Eve Online maker CCP's FPS Dust 514. In shops on November 24.

Though Eve itself is firmly based in Iceland, Dust 514, which is set in Eve's universe, is developed by CCP's new Shanghai studio. A MMOG shooter, Dust's battlefields are absolutely tied to Eve, with Eve players' corporations hiring Dust players to fight for control of planets for them.

In other words, instead of the matchmaking being handled by heartless servers, Dust 514's action will be defined by Eve's players. And who better to try such a fascinating experiment than CCP? It is the developer which, in Eve, produced the most fascinating MMOG culture in the world.

[UPDATE: The site seems down at this moment, though it was up earlier today!]

Halo Waypoint preview - Video

We're likely to see a lot more of these "themed-waypoints" in the future on XBOX Live, and I can definitely see one for EVE Online once DUST 514 comes out and it gets integrated in the EVE universe. Until then, you can check out Halo Waypoint when is comes out on XBOX Live on November 5th!

Friday Video: DUST 514 - The First Glimpse and more!

Dust in looking more and more as one hell of a shooter. And looking at the way CCP Games wants to integrate it into the EVE Online Universe, it just makes me want to loose myself in the game just as I did the first time I popped that Halo DVD into that rented XBOX way back when.

Below is the short trailer in HD, courtesy of the fine folks from CCP PR. I've got a downloadable HIGH RES version, but am waiting for them to give me the green light before I can make available to you guys. I'd you're interested, just leave me a comment.

Enjoy!

I've also found these 2 low-res video that provide much more information then the previous trailer. The two-part video goes on for over 10 minutes and gives you a bit of background information you don't get from the previous video. Hope you appreciate!

You can hear both Torfi's and Nathan's comments during both videos. Quite interesting!

Friday Video: Halo 3 ODST - VicDoc "Terra Incognita"

The Halo franchise will forever have a special place for me. It's the game that got me onto consoles, it truly the first game where time became irrelevant, where I could not know if I'd been playing for 20 minutes, an hour or even 10. Halo 3 ODST, looks to be such a game as well. Looking forward to it!



Can't wait to start exploring New Mombosa!

Borderlands is one sexy-looking cel-shaded game!

The last game I played that was cel-shaded was Robotech. And though I was a huge fan of the anime, the game wasn't all what I expected it to be. Borderlands is a completely different kind of game, and seems very much what I'm looking for in a shooter these days! Looks like October will see me busy shooting things up both spaceside and planetside!


[Links: Borderlands Official Site - Gearbox Software - 2K Games]

Friday Video: Mass Effect 2 Grunt Gamescom 2009 Trailer

More Mass Effect 2 awesomeness!

Friday Video: Halo 3 ODST Live Action Trailer

I just hope the game is as epic as this trailer is!

DUST 514: EVE Online to get its First Person Shooter

Oh boy am I excited about this one! I've been dreaming for quite some time about an FPS for EVE, and now CCP has announced that its Shanghai studio has been working on such a game! I first mentioned this desire of mine back in May of last year when I hinted that an EVE Online shooter would look somewhat like the dark and gory Gears of War XBOX 360 game. Later that year we got a glimpse of such a game (check the last video) but the details weren't too clear. Was this some sort of tease, or teaser? And then as recently as June of this year, I wrote an article about a possible EVE FPS. Man do I like to be proven right!

Here are some additional details provided in the Press Release:

DUST 514, featuring first-person shooter and RTS-style gameplay, will interact directly with EVE Online, CCP’s critically acclaimed flagship MMO. This interplay between the two games opens the EVE universe to console gamers and gives them a chance to become part of one of the most massive cooperative play and social experiences ever.

[...]

The primary gameplay of DUST 514 features brutal ground combat that takes place on the surface of planets from EVE, delivering the visceral, adrenaline-fueled experience of futuristic firefights. Developed for the current generation of consoles, DUST 514 combines equal parts battlefield reflexes and strategic planning, giving commanders and ground infantry real-time configurable weapons and modular vehicles to manage dynamic battlefield conditions.

Now entering its third year of production, DUST 514 is the primary development focus of CCP’s Shanghai studio. The team includes veteran designers of EVE Online and experienced talent from various sectors of the video game industry.

Add to that the fact that the idea behind my latest contest is about integrating planetary conquest into the EVE the MMO, and you'll understand why I'm pretty proud of myself at this very moment!

OK, that's enough chest pounding alpha-male behavior for one day! Back to my humble self I return. Still, I'm fracking excited about this one. Seriously!

[Press release]

[Dev Blog]

Friday Video: Mass Effect 2 "Prelude to E3" Trailer

Just enjoy the video!

Friday Video: Mass Effect 2 Teaser

This up coming Wednesday I'll be attending the IGDA's Montreal Chapter meeting on "BioWare on Mass Effect 2 iterative level design" with Corey Andruko - (Project Manager) and Dusty Everman (Lead Technical Designer). I'm really looking forward to their presentation and to learn how they approached level design this time. Bioware's always been a favorite studio of mine.

I loved the original Mass Effect, despite the XBOX 360-version interface issues. I loved the visuals and storyline they build with this franchise. I can't wait for more!

Shepard dead? WTF!!!

Out of Eden: Armored Core For Answer

I grew up dreaming about giant robots, watching Robotech on week-end morning, collecting comic books, and RPG books such as Jovian Chronicles, Robotech, Heavy Gear, and loving all those other anime features (Patlabor anyone?). So when I saw this trailer for an upcoming Xbox 360 game, well I just went bananas!!



Cool eh!

[UPDATE 28 August, 2008: GameSetWatch has a great review on the game itself, and some reservations.]

Out of Eden: Another great Gears of War Trailer

The guys at Epic really know how to make great trailers, and this Gears of War 2 video is the latest example of this. When I think back, one of the original trailers for the first GoW game was also amazing. If you've got time, make sure to watch the HD version. Really amazing details and great lighting effects.

/me feeling trigger happy!

Blog Banter : Rehabilitating the gamer in you

Happy New Year to y'all!

First post of the Year! Wow, this makes it the fourth year of this blog. 2007 was an amazing year for the CrazyKinux's Musing. I won't go into details today as I plan to do so in a later post, but just to give you an idea, I had almost 55,000 visitors this past year (over 80,000 page views), which is almost 10 times as much as 2006. Let's see if we can do better this year.

Back to this post!

You're probably asking yourself what this blog banter is all about.
Well, Blog Banter is a group of bloggers passionate about anything and everything video games. On a monthly basis we get together and write-up a series of articles on a specific subject and then link to each other. The brainchild behind this idea is fellow blogger Hawty McBloggy (aka bs angel). I just love her quirky articles, always uncovering interesting and fun stuff. A must read!

The links to all the participant's articles can be found here and if you're interested in participating, just contact bs angel for more information. Enjoy our stories!

The subject of today's blog banter is New Year resolutions (as it pertains to gaming). The subject was chosen about a week ago, and I've been thinking all week about what mine was, but I just couldn't nail it. Then I figured it out, I'm a gamer with a split personality. For me there are two types of games: those you play on a PC, and those you play on a console. I've written a few articles about this in the past.

The split is as follows: FPS, Racing and RPG/FPS are games I prefer to play on my XBOX, while RTS, RPG and MMOs are games I can only enjoy on a PC.

Now over the last few months, I must admit I had been neglecting my XBOX 360. It would've been gathering dust, were it not for my daughter's Baby Einstein DVD's. I had to do something about it. Things weren't right. The console/pc balance was off, my gamer equilibrium was all out of whack.

Things needed to change.

Over the holidays, I gave the XBOX a good kick in the butt. Loaded Gears of War and ripped through some Locust Horde! Played some more Halo 3 and gave Mass Effect a quick spin.

Which brings me to my resolution for the year and the subject of this post. It's all about balance. Wax in, Wax out. Ying and Yan. Chi and Li. PC and Console.

So my resolution for this year, my goal, is to balance my gaming time between my PC Gaming and XBOX gaming. Between EVE Online and my other PC titles. Don't get me wrong, the main focus of this blog will still be EVE Online. You'll just have a chance to read up on what else I'm playing. Maybe a few articles on how an EVE FPS would look like. Or which current RTS would lend it itself well to EVE.

So there you have it! I've been rehabilitated and am all the better for it. How about you? What's your New Year's resolution?

The Halo virus has struck!

Wow, another week gone by and still no post. What the hell is going on you maybe asking yourself? Well on September 25th, last Tuesday, Halo 3 came out, and I've been victim of this virus since then! Seems I'm not the only EVE player who's been struck down!

Though I'm really into it, and won't be able to finish the game in one sitting, like of you out there, I'll be playing on and off EVE until then. So in the mean time, please bare with me. Please!

New Mass Effect Trailer

Ok, this has nothing to do with EVE, but it still kicks ass and I still wanted to share it with you. The game is Mass Effect, from Bioware. These are the guys whose games are always top notch in quality, both game play, story, visual and are often innovative. Just look at Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, and oh, remember Baldur's Gate; that's them to.

Anyways, Mass Effect is there latest game, which is coming out on the 360 exclusively and is one of the reason I got mine a while back. This latest trailer will explain better than words why I'm so excited about it. Enjoy.



Oh, and I also got the novel, "Revelation", which is a prelude to the game.

Back online, but not all is good

Back on the 16th, I mentioned that I was still without Internet access at home and that I was waiting for a Sympatico.ca technician to test the modem and replace it if need be. Well need there was. He replaced the SpeedStream 5360 modem with a 6520 wireless gateway.

So I've had broadband access since then, but I spent the next two evenings trying to get the gateway to recognize the Linksys Wireless Game Adapter, and then my Xbox 360 to recognize the same adapter. I managed to do the former, but not the later. So no Xbox Live since.

The plan is to get the Xbox Wireless adapter and then try to get it to work. If I run into problems, I can always get support since this is the only adapter Microsoft supports and I know tht the gateway Sympatico provided is supported for Xbox Live. So there it is. As of now I still can't stream music, movies of images through to my 360 from my PC. But we'll get there soon.

Why I finally got an Xbox 360

As I mentioned yesterday, I finally got an Xbox 360. There's 3 reasons altogether why I finally decided to upgrade from my original Xbox.

The first is the games, Gears of War - Halo 3 - Mass Effect - Lost Planet - which you can view the trailers below. Secondly, Xbox Live and my buddies. I play with friends , buddies from work, all of whom are scattered either in different parts of greater Montreal, or elsewhere in Canada. Xbox Live gives me a chance to have fun with them, and sometimes poke fun at them.

Also, I get access to lots of content, especially with the Gold level. And third, the 360 gives me access to content on my PC which I can stream (once I get my wireless connection working!) through the console.