Articles in Blog
Impressions: Blur Multiplayer Beta
Posted by Jim Plachy (1 day ago)
Activision has begun the awkwardly titled Blur Multiplayer Beta Demo on Xbox 360. Basically, with the game two months from release it’s a closed demo, and while a web page is set up for beta testers to report any bugs or feedback, I have to imagine the only thing that may get tuned is the amount of XP per race or how much XP it takes to level up. Not the actual racing, cars, tracks, or power ups. Yes, power ups. Blur is Bizarre Creations’ attempt to merge realistic racing with the arcadey action of a Mario Kart game. Throw in a Call of Dutyesque leveling system complete with challenges to complete and you have what on paper sounds like a rock solid hit.
Read More » CommentRedefining Numbers
Posted by TheJesusFish (Mon, Feb 22, 2010)
“Seven is the average on our scale” is akin to saying “I’m a big dumb idiot and don’t understand math” in my mind. Need more explanation than that? Read on.
Read More » CommentImpressions: Heavy Rain
Posted by Jim Plachy (Fri, Feb 5, 2010)
Thanks to the currently running Heavy Rain ARG I got a chance to play next week’s demo, today. Heavy Rain is a game I am “heavily” anticipating and while originally I wasn’t going to play the demo to keep myself pure I figured since I’m getting it early I might as well play it and tell you guys about it.
Read More » CommentImpressions: EverQuest II Sentinel’s Fate
Posted by Jim Plachy (Fri, Feb 5, 2010)
EverQuest II is getting it’s sixth expansion on February 16th, and then digitally one week later on February 23rd. Sony Online Entertainment was cool enough to invite me to check out some of the new zones a little early.
Read More » CommentGrand Theft Auto IV: A Trilogy On One Disc
Posted by Jim Plachy (Thu, Jan 28, 2010)
In 2004 Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and in doing so wrapped up a trilogy of loosely connected games that began with 2001’s Grand Theft Auto III. An accomplishment that took three years and three individual full priced games to pull off, impressive to say the least. In 2006 at E3 then Vice President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, Peter Moore stood on stage and announced that Grand Theft Auto IV was coming to the Xbox 360. Not only that, but it was bringing along two exclusive downloadable episodes. No one knew it at the time, but Rockstar Games was going to turn Grand Theft Auto IV into a trilogy using one disc.
Read More » 1 CommentHow Do You Choose An MMO?
Posted by Jim Plachy (Thu, Jan 21, 2010)
I’m a sucker for a good MMO. There’s something about the combination of questing, loot dropping, leveling up, and hanging with friends that just hits me in the right spot. The question is with new MMOs springing up every day how do you choose the MMO that’s right for you? Let’s face it trying to play one MMO without sending your life into a tailspin is hard enough, I can’t imagine trying to juggle two virtual lives. So we have to pick one, but how?
Read More » CommentWhat Are All These People Doing Looking At The PC Games?
Posted by Jim Plachy (Wed, Jan 13, 2010)
You’re not going to believe what I saw at the store the other day. A crowd of people around the PC games, were they lost? What did they think they were looking at? Didn’t they know they can buy PC games from the comfort of their own homes? Seriously, with services like Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulse why would you buy a disc at a store?
Read More » CommentBest Of 2009: iPhone Games
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Jan 5, 2010)
I really thought when I sat down to make my top 10 games of the year list, it would include at least one iPhone game. I was sadly mistaken. It seems that my brain can’t help but keep the iPhone games in their own separate ghetto. So I decided that I’m going to show you my four favorite iPhone games of the year. Maybe next year one will crack the proper top 10. These are in no particular order, but one game outshines them all, we’ll get to it at the end.
Read More » CommentJim’s Top 10 Of 2009 #5-1
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Dec 29, 2009)
A top 10 rundown of 2009’s best video games.
Read More » CommentJim’s Top 10 Of 2009 #10-6
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Dec 22, 2009)
#10-6 in Jim’s top 10 games of 2009.
Read More » CommentDigital Downloads Are Not The Future
Posted by Jim Plachy (Wed, Dec 2, 2009)
There has been a lot of talk lately about digital downloads of video games being “the future”. That within the next 15 or so years we will be downloading all of our assorted forms of media, including video games. Well if digital downloads are the future, then I must have taken a DeLorean 88 MPH into 2025 cause last time I checked I was downloading games like crazy. I have a steam account, I have dozens of Xbox Live Arcade games, a few Playstation Network games, and last I checked you could download entire Xbox 360 games straight to your hard drive. Not to mention the iPhone, oh the iPhone. It must be some sort of alien technology!
Read More » CommentAt This Point, I Just Want To Eat Some Turkey
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Nov 24, 2009)
Last night I finished Assassin’s Creed 2 and with only Left 4 Dead 2 left, I think I have played almost every game I wanted to play in 2009. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a dense game, and we don’t record our Reviewcast until Tomorrow, which is fine because I think I need a day to process everything.
Read More » CommentCome On Activision, The Music Industry Does It!
Posted by Jim Plachy (Sun, Nov 8, 2009)
By my calculations we have 3 days until the biggest video game of all time ever, for the rest of time comes out. For those unaware that would be Modern Warfare 2. The sequel to 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. By now you know that we live in an interesting time. If you have the ability and the technology it is currently not hard to go download for no cost to you a copy of Modern Warfare 2. A game that is due to be in your hands no sooner than 12:01am on November 10th.
Read More » CommentHere We Go Again
Posted by Jim Plachy (Fri, Oct 30, 2009)
My friends, it is Halloween weekend and already I am feeling the crush. Currently sitting in front of me, almost literally is Ratchet and Clank which I have to play for review, Borderlands, which I have to finish for review, God of War Chains of Olympus, which is the first time I have ever played a God of War game, and on top of all that, Uncharted 2 and Team Fortress 2 are both having special Halloween themed multiplayer.
Read More » CommentIs The Faux-MMO The Next Big Genre?
Posted by Jim Plachy (Fri, Oct 23, 2009)
In 2007 Flagship Studios and EA teamed up to release the game Hellgate: London. Hellgate: London was a 3-D FPS Dungeon Crawler that much like an MMO had enemies that dropped loot, delicious color coded loot. There were rare enemies, hard to find items, bad ass weaponry that was unique to your character, and yes XP grinding. The difference between Hellgate and a proper MMO was that it could be played single player, like with no Internet connection, and yet it would still feel like an MMO
Read More » CommentNathan Drake Vs. Bruce Wayne
Posted by Jim Plachy (Sat, Oct 17, 2009)
My opinion on Batman Arkham Asylum was a controversial one. The game is a commercial and critical success. It’s currently rocking a 92 on Metacritic, and I can’t find one other person who isn’t a fan of it. I assumed that the reason I didn’t have any fun playing it, is because I’m not a big fan of games in the third person. Third person action games to be more specific.
Read More » CommentI Was There! Sony Uncharted 2 Cinema Event!
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Oct 6, 2009)
Last night Chris and I headed out to the beautiful Muvico theater in Rosemont, IL JUST outside of Chicago to get an advance look at Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and to play in a Multiplayer tournament for the game. For the first hour we hung out in the “digital den” full of tables, comfy couches [...]
Read More » CommentHalo 3: ODST: The: Aftermath
Posted by Jim Plachy (Mon, Sep 28, 2009)
So, it has been a week since the release of one of my most anticipated games of the year, and while I can’t review it(there will be a ‘cast for that)I can tell you that OTHER people’s reviews of the game make me sad. Focusing on whether or not the game was worth 60 bucks, or if the story fit snugly in the Halo timeline like it should, or my favorite, the conspiracy theory that Bungie just magically shit this game out. As if all the toilets at Bungie are clogged with semi-finished Halo games, and this is the one Microsoft decided to release. My full review is inbound, but just know that I liked it, I liked it a lot.
Read More » CommentI Couldn’t Be More Excited
Posted by Jim Plachy (Mon, Sep 21, 2009)
As we have previously discussed I am a Halo Fanboy, and it’s not very often that I get to experience the build up to a new Halo game. I mean not as often as Imagine fanboys get to. I mean those people get a new game like every week. I lived through the level 5 hype storm that was Halo 2, the craziness that was Halo 3, and the apathetic launch of Halo Wars. Tonight Halo 3: ODST comes out. This will mark the second time this year that a Halo game that is not Halo 4 comes out. Something “completely different”, but it is a new Bungie game, and I love me some Bungie.
Read More » CommentDungeons And Dragons Online Goes Free, Is It Good?
Posted by Jim Plachy (Wed, Sep 9, 2009)
I am a sucker for MMOs. I try to beta test the ones that interest me and at worst sink a free month into ones I genuinely think I can spend a lot of time in. I spent 6 months playing Star Wars Galaxies, a year playing Guild Wars, and two years into the obsession machine that is World of Warcraft. I’m almost a year out of my Warcraft phase and have been looking to dip my toe back into the MMO pool, cause while it is a massive time sync I enjoy the experiences. A couple of months ago we reported that Dungeons and Dragons Online was going to debut a free to play model. Now, there are plenty of free MMOs out there, Free Realms is one I enjoyed for about a week before abandoning it, but none are full MMO experiences. Dungeons and Dragons Online USED to(and still can)cost money to play, so it has a full fledged MMO experience at it’s heart. So why is it free? Cause no one plays it? Cause it sucks? Well today I spent two hours in the starting area with a Elf Sorcerer and found the experience to be if not better, then on par with World of Warcraft.
Read More » CommentI Love Competitive Multiplayer
Posted by Jim Plachy (Wed, Sep 2, 2009)
It’s true, I have been playing Halo 3 like crazy all week. Hours in the Lone Wolves playlist, where it’s just you versus five other players. I love the feeling of competing in a video game, even if I’m not that great at it. Call of Duty 4, I love team deathmatch, same with Gears of War 2. I’m not even that big of a fan of objective based multiplayer games, I just like getting in a team and killing the other team as much as possible. The footage of Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer that came out this week was cool, but I was a little disappointed that they added capture the flag, I don’t want to play capture the flag. The problem is, my friends will.
Read More » CommentWhat Makes The Xbox 360 Elite, Elite?
Posted by Jim Plachy (Thu, Aug 27, 2009)
Well today is the day Microsoft finally announced that totally for reals the Xbox 360 Elite is now $299 and REPLACES the Xbox 360 Pro. So what do you get for your $299? You get the black Xbox 360, 120GB HDD, a headset, standard definition cables, a wireless controller, and a plug, you know, to plug it in. What did you get for $399? Well you got all that, but you also got an HDMI cable, and Component cables. That’s right you could actually hook up your HD console to an HDTV in HD. Now will an HDMI cable run you $100? Well if you buy a monster cable maybe, but no. I bought mine for my PS3 for $15 at Target. HDMI cables are HDMI cables it’s sending a digital signal so there really is no big difference between HDMI cables.
Read More » CommentThe Moment It All Comes Together
Posted by Jim Plachy (Sat, Aug 22, 2009)
This week I have been playing a lot of Spider and Shadow Complex(I only play games that start with the letter S)and I consider them both great games. One of them is going to end up very high on my Top 10 games of the year. Why are they so great? Why are the games I consider great, so great? I think it’s because they all have moments where everything just clicks.
Read More » CommentThe Smartest 8 Year Old Girl EVAR
Posted by Jim Plachy (Wed, Jul 29, 2009)
As gamers are known to do, I found myself in a Gamestop yesterday. Usually it’s some clueless jock or parent at the counter, saying something dumb about my favorite pastime. Yesterday however was dramatically different. Yesterday, I heard the smartest little girl in the world. She couldn’t have been older then 8, but she spoke like a literate college student. The conversation between her, and her mother, went like this.
Read More » CommentVideo Games And Wedding Planning Don’t Mix
Posted by Jim Plachy (Sat, Jul 18, 2009)
Bullshot! listeners will know that I have a wedding coming up very soon. So my time to sit down and play video games at long stretches has decreased quite dramatically. However there are still things to talk about on the video game front.
Read More » CommentInternet Fame Is Fleeting
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Jul 14, 2009)
The last four days have been pretty crazy, huh? Just me? Well by now if you are a regular visitor to this website you know that we posted concept art from an unannounced Tomb Raider game. We went to sleep that night, and woke up to 10 tons of crazy. For those not “in the know” we’re just a bunch of gamers who have decided that we don’t want to work 9-5s, and could spend all day every day playing and discussing video games. It’s a passion that runs deep for us. Four Player Co Op launched about six weeks ago and we’ve had a hit with our Pixelsophy video podcast, but our daily hits to the site have been modest. As we discussed on the latest episode of Bullshot! it took friends calling me and texting me to even tip me off that something had happened that morning.
Read More » CommentProblem With iPhone Games Pt. 2
Posted by Jim Plachy (Mon, Jul 6, 2009)
So in my previous blog I blogged a blog about iPhone games needing better save systems. Well here is a problem I’m not sure the games themselves can solve. Battery life. See my iPhone before anything else, is a phone. I need to be able to make phone calls at a moments notice. I need to check email, and get text messages. These iPhone games are killing battery life. Now on the hardware side of things the iPhone 3G S has supposedly better battery life, but that’s measured against things like standby time, iPod usage, and talk time. It’s not tested for games. And how could it? Every game is different. Tic Tac Toe isn’t nearly as taxing on a battery as Doom Resurrection.
Read More » CommentProblems With iPhone Games Pt. 1
Posted by Jim Plachy (Mon, Jun 29, 2009)
A couple of major titles hit the iPhone/iPod Touch this week. Mass Effect: Galaxy and Doom: Resurrection and I bought both of them. They are really good games, especially when stacked up against other mobile phone games. Mass Effect: Galaxy feels like a high end Game Boy Advance game, and Doom: Ressurection is almost PSP level in quality. You will also notice by their colons that they are offshoots of established properties. Not as original as say Rolando, but they are technically impressive. The games are both fun(Doom more than Mass Effect, but that’s a topic for another time)but that’s not my problem. I think they mark the beginning of deep immersive gaming on the iPhone.
Read More » CommentCall of Duty Players, The Sky Is Not Falling
Posted by Jim Plachy (Mon, Jun 15, 2009)
Today word leaked out that a survey was making the rounds. A survey asking how consumers would like to consume their Call of Duty MMO. Because it’s coming. A Call of Duty MMO. If you think Activision doesn’t want you to pay to play Call of Duty, forever. You sir or madam are crazy. The news caused quite a stir, with some people assuming that the next Call of Duty would have pay to play multiplayer. It got even worse just a few hours ago when some sites decided that the reason we haven’t heard anything about Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer yet, is because it’s going to be in this MMO model. If you believe that, then you are nuts.
Read More » CommentRandom Thoughts 6/14
Posted by Jim Plachy (Sun, Jun 14, 2009)
Alright first up, I played in the live 1vs100 beta last night, and it’s kind of boring. Sorry to say. There was also some technical glitch where the live host wasn’t actually hosting anything. They would go to break and Chris Cashman wouldn’t say shit. Also all the Jen Taylor stuff is pre-recorded, and they try to sell it to you like she’s really there. Being in the crowd also isn’t very much fun. The top 3 scorers in the crowd are going to win prizes, and I would get every question right, and answer as fast as I could and people would be thousands of points ahead of me. I was left wondering how people were cheating. Bottom line is, it’s a beta, and I’m done beta testing it. When it goes live I’ll give it one more shot.
Read More » CommentWhy Is Everyone So Angry About Star Wars: The Old Republic?
Posted by Jim Plachy (Sun, Jun 14, 2009)
This isn’t going to be the blog I had originally intended to write, because I don’t have all the facts. Here is what I was going to say in a nutshell. I think Star Wars: The Old Republic BioWare’s forthcoming MMO sounds absolutely amazing. Yet I keep hearing people say they aren’t going to play it. Let’s look at the facts.
Read More » CommentE3 ‘09 Day 1 Thoughts
Posted by Jim Plachy (Wed, Jun 3, 2009)
We started today with the Nintendo Press Briefing and while I think New Super Bros. is a bit of a misstep it could still be a pretty good game. Metroid: Other M is definitely an E3 highlight for me, the game looks incredible. Who would have thought, hopefully the game is rated M, not just for violence, but so that we get a mature story in the game. Dead Space: Extraction looks phenomenal as well, and has moved up my most anticipated games of the year list. Wario Ware: DIY also looks like it could be fun, I just need to go pick up a DSi.
Read More » CommentDay Zero of E3 ‘09 Is Done
Posted by Jim Plachy (Tue, Jun 2, 2009)
So I just wrapped up my first day ever as a member of the enthusiast press covering E3 2009. I’m not even at the conference, but thanks to TV and Internet I have been able to regurgitate what I see back out to the web. I sent over 300 tweets, wrote almost 10 news articles, recorded an hour long podcast, and now I’m writing this blog for you.
Read More » Comment