Ok - I'm a bad girl. I went away for the weekend, have been dealing with some personal stuff and it's time for kiddies to come back to school so I'm running around like a chicken without a head. I have so much to talk about but there's just not enough hours in the day to get it all out!

Anyway, lame excuses aside, here's part 2!

Day Two - Naughty or Nice

Day two for the New York Press Event was reserved for the "mature" offering of games. This is the GOOD stuff everyone is waiting for. We got to get up close and personal with Crackdown, WWE - Raw vz. Smackdown, Test Drive, Saint's Row, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Dead Rising, Madden 07, NBA 2K7, WSOP Poker and of course, Gears of effing War!



I sat down with Dead Rising first - of course, it's release date is today so you can see for yourselves how great it is. This game is going to appeal to those who appreciate zombies and the humor that often accompanies their escapades. There is a large amount of carnage caused using anything and everything you can see in the world. Benches, flower pots, shopping carts, lawn mowers, and drills - whatever your heart desires can be used to maim and kill your enemies.

This does not share the same complexity of such games as Silent Hill or Resident Evil but it does have a story. You play a photographer who gets stranded in a mall with an army of blood thirsty zombies. Your objective is to find out what caused all of this in a 72 hour period (12 hours our time). There is the main quest line but there are also side missions that emerge during your time in the shopping mecca. It's completely up to you how you spend your 72 hours and there are different endings based on your completions.

As well as disfiguring the undead, you get to take photographs of your mess. You get points for these photos and the more bizarre, the bigger points. During the demo, the Capcom rep chopped up a bunch of people but an arm was left on the floor. He picked up the arm and shoved it into the mouth of another zombie. Before that one could eat him, he snapped a photo and I'm sure I heard a giggle emerge from the character's lips. This photo earned a rating of "Outtake" and came with a nice bonus.

All in all, this game can be played however you like. You can go on crazy zombie-killing sprees or play the story. The only problem I saw with the entire game was the fact that zombies could be killed anywhere. Now now, Capcom, any true zombie fan know that you can only kill the suckers by destroying their brain.

Great game, good fun.

Addendum: I have since purchased this game and have to say I do still love it but I have a slight issue with the saving system. I have no problem with having to find save points but when you finish killing 500 zombies and accidentally find yourself in a boss fight where you die, it can get just a tad annoying. I haven't screamed at my TV in a long time but this brought all the pent up aggression out and I let it fly.









I also sat down with the THQ rep who showed me the goods on Saint's Row. I saw this game at a press event back in January - let's just say, the developers must have been working overtime because it was far better than it was back then. The graphics stepped up 100% and I actually got to see some missions being completed. Yes, it is a lot like GTA, there's no doubt about it but it is its own beast.

One of the coolest things is that you create your own character from the feet up. I asked about having a female character for the multiplayer portion of the game but he said there wasn't that kind of functionality built in. I told him that there were several women I knew that maybe they should think about adding it. He did tell me that in the main quest you can recruit female members but that was about it. BLAH

Apart from this small oversight, the game seemed to play pretty well. I wish I could give a more detailed account of controls, etc. but the THQ guy seemed to have the controller glued to his hands.





WSOP: Tournament of Champions

This was your usual offering of poker with some added twists. Firstly, you can now make your character look just like you and not by painstakingly going through a million customization screens to get there. All you need to do is buy a vision cam, take a pic of your face add it to your character and BAM there you are with your mug on the TV. Since I came a little late to the party, I didn't get to see the customization in progress but I saw the final piece and it was a little spooky. It did look like Anne-Marie (Xbox rep) but it had a scary polygon freakiness about it.

I jumped into an existing game with Zamees and Jakenbear (both MVPs) and got to watch each of them through the cam as they made their plays. It was very cool. You really have to stop yourself from making the faces that you've so easily been able to do in the privacy of your home. Using this to his advantage, Jaken switched between his regular poker face to putting on a Jar Jar mask and then a goalie mask - Ahh the canadian showing through. Only one person is visible at a time on this game unlike Uno's 4 player cam support.
In speaking with the WSOP rep, the information about the game I found out was that each table has a maximum of 9 players but you can set up tournaments of up to 21 players. Should be a fun game to play and with the cam support it should do very well.



Accessories Galore:

The accessories on hand were the vision cam, the wireless steering wheel, wireless headset and the HD-DVD. The only functional items were the cameras - one was on WSOP poker while the other was set up as a video chat station.

Vision Cam:
The cam was demonstrated not only on WSOP but also on Uno and it looked pretty damn good. It has several different modes that you can apply that change the look of the stream. PMS Tart was on hand from Texas showing the capabilities. She had her pet skunk help her out, too. The quality of the one-on-one chat was phenomenal. That scares me somewhat because we all know how people love to share their parts online. Parents who take an interest will be able to use parental controls to disallow cam access.

Something everyone has been asking for is the ability to take personal photos and use them for your gamercard - well, guess what? This is going to happen. The only setback is that only those on your friends list will be able to view your personal pic. People in public lobbies or on the forums will still see your regular gamerpic. This will cut down on the number of literal teabags I will be sent, I'm hoping.

You can also send photo messages with the cam. My first message was from Zamees. It was pretty scary - I, of course, returned the favor.

The only possible let-down about the camera is the cord length. If you have a home theater setup and sit 20 feet away from your TV, it could be a problem. The cam does have a zoom feature but it does start to degrade. Also, lots of movement causes a tad motion blur but overall, it's a great little gadget. Not unlike the old logitech cams of yesteryear.

For more info on the cam, see Gamertagradio's video.

As for the other accesories, like I said, they weren't functional yet but the HD-DVD resembled a dictionary, the steering wheel felt great on my lap and felt good in my hands. Maybe it will improve my crap driving skills. The wireless headset was made to fit over either ear. While the usual single headsets have an open piece to fit behind your ear, the Xbox headset has a single piece of rubber going from top to bottom. The earpiece flips allowing you to move it from one side to the other. This led to some difficulty in getting it to fit properly. Fellow MVP S4Lee was struggling as he tried to get it to fit snuggly. It tended to stick out a little from his face and he said it was a little uncomfortable. We shall see.

Ok, this is the big one...

Gears of War

Cliffy B was on hand (yes the pic from the other day features Mr. Bleszinski himself) to give everyone a demo of that sick piece of yummy goodness Gears of War. We all sat around and watched him give several demos of the single player and gaped like little kids each and every time he fired it up. It's simply astonishing. The graphics are like nothing you've ever seen in a game, yet. It is genuinely difficult to tell when you're moving between gameplay and CGI.

The real good stuff came later in the day when we were set up on a four on four system link battle royale. For the first half, Godfree and I took turns on a system and man, we kicked some serious ass. Unfortunately, it seemed like when he left my side, I caught the Xbox Herps and couldn't get a single kill. Even with Cliffy on my team I couldn't do shart. The other MVPs really worked as a well-oiled team and took us down game after game. Mgerlach took Cliffy down at least once and jumped up and down with glee.

Changing weapons is a sinch and you can find weapons strewn about the maps to help you. Like I mentioned in my previous blog about the game, you have rocket launchers (boomshots), sniper rifles, SMGs, smoke grenades, and more. All the better to SMASH YOU INTO OBLIVION WITH... :: composes self ::

As long as the online multiplayer keeps the same lag-free beauty of the system link games, I think it's a definite hit. Nice going Epic!

August 2nd and 3rd were a real rush. MS came to NYC to show off their holiday lineup of Xbox and Windows titles. The venue was a studio in midtown and was shrouded by a black velvet curtain - literally. Hidden up 3 floors accessible only by a large cargo elevator, Microsoft's little gaming utopia was booming. Samsung LCDs lined the walls with over a dozen xboxes set up next to them. Representatives from each company were on hand to walk the press through some of the demos or to try and keep them out of trouble on their own gaming missions.

The theme of the event was "Naughty & Nice". Nice was held on Wednesday - this showcased all the family-friendly E rated titles. Naughty was on Thursday. This is where the big guns came out with their M rated titles. Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!

On Wednesday, I checked out Lego Star Wars, Viva Pinata, Lumines Live, Pacman, the vision cam with video chat and photo capabilities. They also had demos of Test Drive, Age of Empires, Flight Sim 10, Zoo Tycoon 2, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden 07, NBA Live 07, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and MSN Messenger (yes, at the event, it was still called this).

Lego Star Wars:Let me tell you something - this game had me in tears. I am a huge fan of Star Wars and I know this is the second lego release for the franchise but this one deals with episodes IV, V and VI which are the best movies, period. I played co-op with Godfree from GamertagRadio and we had an absolute blast. It was a good chance for me to check out a game that would not usually even catch my eye in the store over the FPS titles.

The controls were extremely easy to pick up (big yay for kids) but the gameplay wasn't so easy to figure out. There were a couple of instances where we were running around trying to find a path with no real clues. It involved a lot of exploration, teamwork and logic skills to pass through the levels. In this respect, I would definitely recommend it as a game parents will want to play with their kids. Also, parents who loved the Trilogy will be able to enjoy the story as they're playing along side their children. Not to mention it's just hilarious. There's something about the way the characters build things that cracked me up every time - uh huh - small things entertain small minds, I know.


Viva Piñata:Viva Piñata is still one of those games that makes me raise an eyebrow when I hear it mentioned. I think it could possibly be a sleeper hit but with the online functionality and accompanying merchandising and cartoon series, I think it could go far.

The idea behind Viva Piñata is to create an eco-system where you raise crazily colored piñatas and cultivate the land encouraging more to call your your farm home. It's definitely a sim-type game because everything you do in your world affects the personalities of your "animals". Hit them and they get mad, smash open a sick one and others of the same species will be reluctant to join your space, feed them good things and they will be happy. One of the coolest things is that you can mate your piñatas. Get two of the same kind together when they're really happy and bam - they do the mating dance and give you babies! There is no death in Piñata land, either. If one of your guys gets too sick to heal, he will simply return to the wild. This will strip him of any customizations you've applied but it does skirt the issue of telling timmy why his starved wherm turned to dust.

You can also accessorize your little guys with anything from Candy cigars (yes CANDY cigars) to sunglasses, hats and shoes.

An interesting concept for the game is the social aspect. You will eventually be able to trade piñatas online or even send your friends mystery gifts. Call it a piñata virus if you wish because you will be able to send friends offensive piñatas as well as good ones. Of course you will have the ability to accept or decline any gift but you won't be able to see what your crate contains until you've unleashed it on your land.

As said before, there will also be a cartoon series released to compliment the game. The creators of Pokemon are behind this cartoon so they certainly have the experience. Is there a Piñata lunch box or backpack in the future? Only time will tell...

Upcoming Arcade Titles:

Lumines Live:

If you owned a PSP, chances are, you owned Lumines. One of the things I got excited about during the Xbox press conference in May was that Lumines would be released on the 360. Lumines is a puzzle game similar to tetris that can be played against time, against the CPU or against your friends either online or on the same console. The idea of the game is to get rid of as many blocks as possible by making combinations of four in a square pattern. While it may sound like a fairly boring game, the visual beauty and techno music really keeps you going. If you challenge the CPU, the characters it throws at you can be quite bizarre. They appear to mimic psychadelic origami puppets.

Luckily for me, I got to re-challenge Godfree to a match and redeem myself from my dismal showing at E3. We went head-to-head for a couple of rounds. Once I decided that maybe it would be better to use the D-Pad instead of the thumbstick, I started to kick ASS. The games were still very close, though. I believe we both were pretty even by the end of our match. I was challenged by other attendees after Godfree left to do an interview and may I say, I ended up going 7 - 0 against everyone. BOOYAH! :: head inflates ::

Pacman:

Yes my lovelies, we are indeed being treated to a re-release of one of the best arcade titles ever - Pacman! Who would have thought that a game where the hero was based on a pizza with a slice missing would be such a hit? And such a hit that it would be resurrected on a state-of-the-art gaming maching like the 360? Well, it is coming and it has lost none of its original flavor. Everything feels the same except the controller...Hopefully now, caloused fingers are a thing of the past.


Coming Next - Day 2 - Rated "M" goodness