Left 4 Dead - When Things Go Horribly Wrong

This video is great. It's great not only because Left 4 Dead is a great action-packed, zombie-filled game, but also because of the guy who yells(or screams?) for his life while getting ambushed and eaten alive by blood-thirsty zombies. And it all happened because of one simple thing... his plan to get him and his team from point a to point b.. failed.. miserably.

Very entertaining.

WARNING: Contains lots and lots of cussing.

Netflix/Xbox 360 Combination Works

So I finally got the nerve to sign up for Netflix to test out the new Netflix/Xbox 360 functionality that's included with the New Xbox Experience upgrade.

I have to say that I am pretty impressed with the whole Netflix/Xbox 360 integration. I've read some forum posts where users are saying that the service sucks, how the quality along with the selection of movies is not great, etc, but I don't know where their coming from with that. Sure.. there's only a small library of 12,000 movies/TV shows to choose from with some that are new releases while most of them are older, but really good movies like Scarface, Crimson Tide, etc. Only a small amount are actually in HD, but what's available is pretty damn good, such as Season 1-3 of Heroes and 30 Rock, among others.

The non-HD movies/TV shows are basically DVD quality, while the HD movies/TV shows are crystal clear.

The way it works is you add movies/TV shows to your Instant Queue on the Netflix website and within 15-30 seconds, they will start showing up on your Xbox 360. Displays box art with some information about the movie or TV show. Once you press Play, the system starts determining your connection strange(1-5 bars) and whether or not the movie or TV show is in HD. After this, it starts buffering and plays instantly. Also supports Resume.

Overall, the video/sound is absolutely stellar, no lag whatsoever. However, you must have a pretty good connection speed in order to get the most out of the Netflix/Xbox 360 combo.

The only thing left for them to add is... MORE MOVIES, especially more new releases and more HD content. Hopefully in the future this will happen and at $8.99/m for unlimited streaming, not a bad deal at all.

If you have an Xbox 360 with an Xbox Live Gold Membership and already are a Netflix subscriber, you have nothing to lose but a whole lot to gain. If you aren't a Netflix subscriber, I suggest signing up for a free two week trial to test it out and you'll find out you won't be dissapointed.

Video of the Day: Bike Hero

This video freakin' rocks.

So someone basically took the same gameplay mechanics from Guitar Hero: World Tour and turned it into this. I'm impressed to say the least. Very entertaining video.

See for yourself:

The New Xbox Experience Impressions

After having spent some time with the New Xbox Experience, I have to say that I really am finding the new look really appealing in almost every way. It looks slicker, cleaner and more organized than ever before. Plus with a slew of new features such as:

• Avatars: As soon as you download the NXE, you can begin creating your avatar. There's a bunch of options to choose from.
• Netflix movies: If you're an Xbox Live Gold Member/Netflix subscriber, then you can stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox 360. There's a very nice selection of thousands of movies.
• Install games to the H/D which means no more loading from the disk and no more scratch disk errors, etc. The only two drawbacks to this is that you must keep the game dvd in the tray or else you can't load the game from the H/D and the fact that it can take up a good amount of storage.
  
• Indie games: For the first time ever, gamers can download games straight from the indie developer community and some are only 200 MS Points.
  
• Party system: Chat with up to 7 friends at once
• New themes designed just for the NXE.
  
• ...and more!

I'm overly excited about this new change Microsoft and the Xbox 360 team has made and boy has it been worth the wait!

Tomorrow, the floodgates open as everyone on Xbox Live will be able to experience the New Xbox Experience for themselves!

Welcome to the New Xbox Experience

So I was playing some Gears of War 2 co-op with my friend Wap(from the band Holophrase, check 'em out!) when suddenly I got disconnected from Xbox Live because of an Update prompt. I obviously knew that the NXE will be underway this coming Wednesday so I thought that it was just a preparation update to get ready for the big launch. But for some reason, it was taking longer than I thought it should be and BAM, it said it was downloading the New Xbox Experience.

I was pretty surprised, so I headed over to Major Nelson's blog to see what was going on and that's when I saw his post stating that they were letting 10,000+ gamers download the NXE a few days early.. but the only catch was, you had to of signed up for the NXE Preview Program several weeks ago. I did that but had forgotten about it.

Wow... this is a very cool surprise. Can't believe it. Very exciting stuff!

I'll make an update as soon as I play around with the NXE more.

In the mean time, I took some screenshots:

Randon Off-Topic Post #7: American Dad - One Hell of a Comedy

American Dad is freakin' awesome. Sure, they are the same creators who created Family Guy but the comedic stuff they offer in American Dad I'm finding to be much more funnier than that of what's in Family Guy.

I think that The Simpsons is still the King of Animated Sitcoms, but you have to admit that American Dad has some priceless moments.

Here's an episode of American Dad that aired yesterday, very, very funny:

Random Off-Topic Post #6: Drawing of a Spider submitted as payment?

What is the world coming to? Some woman from a company e-mailed a man telling him that he owes them a sum amount of $233.95 as his account is overdue. What does the man do you ask? He basically sends her a drawing of a Spider as payment.

Read it... and prepare to laugh:

Random Off-Topic Post #5: Equilibrium Kicks Ass

I forgot just how much Equilibrium really kicks ass. This movie stars Batman's Christian Bale and is basically set in a world where Emotion is outlawed to prevent violence and wars.

Here's some of the best fight scenes in Equilibrium, part 1:


And part 2:

Hitler Banned From World of Warcraft

Okay, this video is almost as funny as the last one I posted about Hitler getting banned from Xbox Live.. still funny nonetheless though!

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Midnight Madness

Death Knight, the brand new hero class in WoW: WotLK

Well.. the midnight launch for easily one of the biggest of any expansion pack to date, Wrath of the Lich King for the 12 million strong subscriber base, World of Warcraft begins.

I was into World of Warcraft a few years ago, but kind of dropped from it, not sure why exactly. Probably because of too many other games. I do wish I was still into WoW however, so I have an excuse to go to some of these insanely put together events like at Fry's Electronics in Anaheim, where their putting on a huge event for the fans.. developer signings, probably prize giveaways, etc. Lots of fun to be had!

Honestly, not even sure why I wrote this blog post in the first place. Not sure why.

Left 4 Dead Demo Available NOW! (Better Late Than Never Right?)

Be sure to choose the right weapons and have lots of ammo... these zombies are fast!

Yes, yes I know this is a tad late, as the Left 4 Dead Demo became available this morning, but well.. whatever, I like to remind people of these things to whoever is actually reading this blog, hmm...

Anyways, if you have an Xbox 360 and/or PS3, stop what ya doing and download that demo NOW! The zombies of Left 4 Dead demands it so! Do it or else they'll be really angry with you, but not much they can do about it; you'll just blow their heads off with your trusty shotgun.

Okay, I'm done.

*takes deep breath*

GO DOWNLOAD IT NOW!

*End*

Mirror's Edge...

Don't look down!

...should be pretty cool. We'll see when the game gets released. Possibly a rental at this point. Played the demo and it made me want to get the game, but who knows right now. So many games and not enough time to play them all.

Left 4 Dead Demo - Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

At the midnight launch of Gears of War 2, I decided to go ahead and pre-order the zombie action game Left 4 Dead to get early access to the Left 4 Dead demo, but that obviously wasn't the only reason I pre-ordered the game. I knew the game would be good, but didn't know how good it would be but knew it would be good nonetheless because it's being developed by Valve Software.

So a few days later, I finally received an e-mail from GameStop with the early access code that would allow me to play the demo early before the demo officially becomes available on Nov. 11(this Tuesday).

I went ahead and booted up my Xbox 360, entered the 25 digit code and started downloading the demo(over 1gb). While I waited I played some Gears of War 2 and eventually the download was done.

As soon as I loaded the demo, the recently released over 4 minute intro trailer of Left 4 Dead started playing(awesome in HD!). After this, I finally was able to start playing the singleplayer campaign(no one was online playing at the time).

There's two levels in the demo to choose from. Each one is pretty damn long, around 20 minutes each, so a total of 40 minutes worth which is pretty long for a demo.

Left 4 Dead is unlike any other zombie game I've ever played before. If you think L4D is similar to Dead Rising, think again, because you'd be dead wrong.

The zombies in L4D are extremely fast, they don't walk slow; they're out for blood and BRAAAAAAAAAAAINS after all! The gameplay is awesome and with three other people you rely on, it makes things really interesting. If you get attacked by a zombie, they come and help. If you're down but not out, they revive you then immediately start healing you.

There's a creature in the demo called a "Boomer". If you get too close, the creature throws up on you which basically has a scent that attracts lots and lots of zombies so definitely kill the Boomers at a distance. Another thing that can attract zombies is setting off car alarms or anything that makes loud noises.

I think Valve definitely has another winner on their hands. Look for Left 4 Dead on store shelves Nov. 18, 2008, and if you haven't pre-ordered it yet or not sure if you should, definitely reconsider after you've played the demo, cause hell, I did.

Need help defeating the Locust Horde in Gears of War 2?

Well, if you do in fact need help, then head on over to Mahalo's Gears of War 2 Walkthrough and watch it be built out live. Keep in mind that the walkthrough is a "work in progress" and that not everything is covered yet.

Additionally, Mahalo took the liberty of creating walkthrough videos to go with the insanely detailed walkthrough of Act 1-5. Also note that not all videos have been uploaded yet, but they should be in due time.

Here's the playlist of the walkthroughs so far, enjoy:

Gears of War 2 - Beyond the Hype

Gears of War 2 has just been released to retailers nationwide on November 7, 2008. Was Gears of War 2 bigger than the hype every thought possible? I'd have to say, definitely.

Gears 2 is so much bigger in story, gameplay, mulitiplayer, etc than its previous counterpart, Gears 1. Yes, it's safe to say that Gears 2 is Epic Games biggest game to date and most EPIC(pun intended) game they've ever created.

I really have no words to describe the awesomeness of Gears 2 other than to just say, PLAY the game and play it proud!

Now get out there Soldier and kick some Locust ass!

Gears of War 2 Is Tonight!!!

And so the day has finally come. Gears of War 2 will finally hit store shelves at midnight tonight and as previous games I've mentioned in other posts, I'll be right there anxiously waiting in line.

WOW... I feel like it was just yesterday when I first played the original Gears and couldn't stop playing it, single-player(beat it on Insane) and of course multiplayer.

I think Epic Games has definitely outdid themselves this time as Gears 2 has to be their biggest and best game they've ever created in the history of the company(although Unreal Tournament still remains to this day as one of my all-time favorite games).

Gears of War 2... can't wait!

Gears of War 2 - Just Over 24 Hours

And now the excitement of getting my hands on Gears of War 2 really sets in as one of the biggest games this year will be released in a little over 24 hours as the game launches at midnight tomorrow night! I can't even begin to express of how much I've been looking forward to Gears 2.. gonna be awesome!

This is a really cool trailer by the way:

Gears of War 2: Marcas Fenix and Dom Interviews

Found an interview awhile ago and thought I'd post it. Pretty awesome interview, specially when John DiMaggio(voice of Marcus Fenix and Bender) does the voice Marcus Fenix. Pretty damn cool.

Speaking of which, John DiMaggio and some of the other voice actors behind Gears of War 2 will be in attendance this Thursday at the Universal City Walk's GameStop for the midnight launch of Gears of War 2. The man himself, no longer known as CliffyB, but Cliff Bleszinski rather will also be there signing autographs, along with Xbox Live's Major Nelson who will be MC'ing the entire event.

They are going all out for the Los Angeles event which is awesome, probably because I live in LA. Sorry to the folk in New York, Washington and London, although I'm sure those events will still be great.

More info available here....

Anyways, onto the interview:

Special side note: Oh yeah, almost forgot... don't forget to vote in this historic election which may never happen again, or will it?

Gears of War 2 Reviews

My most anticipated game of 2008 is just about here, literally just a few days away.

Today, reviews have been pouring in. So far the online review site Metacitics has a review percentage of 96% and GameRankings.com having a review percentage of 95% which is definitely a great start, considering all the major sites have reviewed the game thus far.

Anyways.. down to business, below you'll find reviews from various gaming sites that I think you'll be most pleased wth:

• GiantBomb (5/5): "Gears of War 2 intelligently builds on the successes of the first game, resulting in an immensely appealing sequel that is better in almost every way."
• GameSpy (5/5): "Epic's highly anticipated sequel is indeed bigger, better, and more badass than its predecessor."
• TeamXbox (9.6): "Despite a few minor missteps in the way the story and action play out, and a few forgivable technical blemishes, Gears of War 2 is about as close as you can get to the perfect gaming package. Now the waiting begins for 3."
• IGN (9.5): "If you haven’t figured it out by now, Gears of War 2 is what’s going tosell Xbox 360s this holiday season. It has non-stop action, freshgameplay, varied environments, an engrossing storyline, multiplayerthat will have people busy for years to come, and some of the nastiestand coolest kills I’ve seen in a videogame."
• GameTrailers.com (9.5): "It's not absolutely perfect, it's fairly similar to the first game, andit can be boiled down to a simple war game about killing aliens. ButGears of War 2 delivers on all its promises and accomplishes almosteverything a big sequel should--keeping its distinct identity whilebuffing up in every possible category."

I'm thinking Gears of War 2 is an easy contender for "Game of the Year", yeah, that's about right.

This Thursday at midnight cannot come soon enough cause I'm freakin' inching to get in there and beat the living hell outta them Locust and try my hands(have played it and it freakin' rocks!) at the new(and possibly the best) multiplayer gametype, Horde Mode.

The countdown is on!

Left 4 Dead Intro

A few days ago, Valve released an intro movie to their anticipated blood bath of a horror game Left 4 Dead which aired on TV first then eventually made its way to Valve's awesome service, Steam.

The video is a whopping 4 minutes and 39 seconds and is available in HD(via Steam) and even offers a format for the iPod and iPhone.

This intro movie is just a taste of what's to come on November 18, when the game gets released. Looks very, very good and is another game to watch out for. And what's more... four player online co-op, gotta love it!

Wow... just "bloody" wow!

Gears of Wars 2 - Less Than One Week

Possibly my most anticipated game of 2008 is just about here... less than one week away... this coming up Thursday at midnight to be exact!

Gears of War 2 is gonna be awesome, lengthier story, new weapons, new enemies, new multiplayer game modes and more!