Kanye West a gamer?

Kanye West has a blog, written by himself or ghost writer would be a guess, but the posts are all to do with fashionable clothes, music, architecture, women, and an occasional video game trailer. The trailer was none other, Final Fantasy XIII. Is Kanye a gamer?

Who knows, he has posted a Pac Man Couture fashion show, a Wipeout Chair, an LED Clock Shelf (to hold your games of course), a Complex Q&A with Soulja Boy, and a handful of women who had a hand in a female videogame roles. The list includes Angelina Jolie, Josie Maran, Krystal Forscutt, Michelle Merkin, and Maggie Q. All these ladies had parts in Tomb Raider, Need For Speed Series and Perfect Dark.

There is no concrete evidence that Kanye is a gamer, but posting a much anticipated JRPG trailer on his blog may be a sign. His fans comments were mixed;

"Kanye, why are you fronting like you like video games, man?"

"ye! i didn't know you got down like that!"

"DO YOU EVEN GAME LIKE THAT YE? OR DID IT JUST LOOK COOL TO YOU? this
game is going to change the gaming world how you changed the music
world."

Is it a sign of the times that videogames have gone mainstream? All those kids who played FFVII have all grown to be adults and their love of videogames would have to seep through. For Kanye, it was his posting of FFXIII that outed him.

Killzone 2 Demo code for North America **FREE**

Just describe in the comments on why you deserve the Gamestop demo code.

Best response gets the KZ2 beta code courtesy of LGs. The code is redeemable on the Sony PS3 Network or PSN.

Update. The contest ends 10PM PST Time. The one code will be sent to the winner at 9AM PST on Friday the 6th.

Thank you.

E3 08: Microsoft best foot forward

Today at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Microsoft showed off their blockbusters, family initiative, a 3d avatar with a new user interface, music must haves, arcade exclusives and the closest guarded secret that MS ever held.

Don Mattrick, in the middle of MS E3 conference, boasted, "the 360 will outsell the PS3 this generation." For North America, it will be point less to argue, that the PS3 will one day catch up to the Xbox 360 or even the Wii.

The blockbuster lineup consisted of two multi platform and two exclusive games being released in the fiscal 08 calendar. Resident Evil 5 and Fallout 3 were both demoed with live gameplay, showing off RE5 co-op play over xbox live and F3 showcased a bleak Washington DC. Fallout 3 will have exclusive downloadable content.

The two exclusive xbox 360 titles were Peter Molyneux's and Cliff Blezinski's, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2, respectively. Fable 2 impressed the crowd with an impressive co-op functionality, allowing a player to invite a friend to their world for questing, dungeons, or to hang out in the player created world. Peter claims Fable will innovate co-op play by allowing players to have their own unique world and to be able to invite friends without lobbies to any player at any point of the Fable 2story. Gears of War 2 co-op demo showed the already scene, meat shields, and brumak fight but announced a new five player co-op mode named "Horde." The mode will allow five players to team up against wave after wave of enemies.

The family strategy laid out by MS, included a new partnership with NBC/Universal as well as with MGM and Constantine to bring video content to North American and other regions of the world. Nintendo Mii's brought the family in to creating avatars of family, friends and even neighbors, MS hopes to bring that same mania with Avatars, a 3D model that will be implemented through a new dashboard or user interface this fall. Avatars will be used in family friendly game, Scene It? Box Office Smash and a new MS "Primetime" channel or portal.

The dashboard update will include new "Live Party," a mode currently used in select console titles and available on the PC. The Live Party will be up to 8 players, who can voice chat, launch certain multiplayer titles, basically a shared experience while playing games.

The biggest surprise of the conference, Square Enix announced, that one thought it would happen, Final Fantasy XII went multiplatform via the GDC announced Crystal Tool Software. The change, explained in a later Q&A session, is based on hardware numbers per region. Japan will see a small exclusive window via the PS3, with North America release seeing the Xbox 360 and PS3 launch on the same day and date.

MGS4 Update

Three hours in, I feel like I have watched a movie/tv show rather than playing a game. Atleast the plot and story is not as wacky as I thought it would be.

Metal Gear IV; IGN Trailer comapre vid

Today, IGN has released a comaparision video of 2006 E3 trailer to its now final build. Just a few more days of the worldwide release of Metal Gear Solid IV.

Weekend Update May 17 - 19 2008

I will be playing more GTA4. I find myself playing the game as I would watch the Sopranos, one hour at a time. A few missions and cutscenes here and there, hopefully I will still be intrigued for the summer. It is turning into a tragedy, sorta how Eastern Promises turned out.

No movies this weekend, but please go watch IronMan. Really. Start your summer right. Wall-E has me intrigued, those Pixar folks keeps the Disney name on the bleeding edge of art and entertainment. Without them, what would Disney have, how many Lion Kings do we need?

The Super-Con is this weekend. Jorge Garcia of Lost fame will be hosting two panels, with photo opps available. Maybe he can sign my Blu Ray Season 4 edition....

I expect in buying three to four graphic novels, I just need to catch up on Powers...

Also I will probably catch my usual six futbol games on Saturday and Sunday. Not sure how, but I usually do.

Gears of War 2; Return of Marcus Fenix

Who knows what the subtitle will be, but omiss was the famous Cole Train.

with 200k hits and counting, looks like Epic will have the same success they had in 2006.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Sunday Night, reviews, videos and spoilers aplenty. Who else is hiding during these times, just to keep themselves "virgins" for GTA4's Tuesday release? PS3 Bundle including GTA4 being launched? With Europe and Australia confirmed, is Sony of North America doing a stealth launch for April 29th?

Resident Evil Series and its use of Race

The Resident Evil Series has moved from its obscure videogame horror niche to a back and forth between bloggers, writers, and forum posters. The issue is race. One of the dividing issues in American today, hey historians argue it was the cause of the American Civil War. The issue peaked again, within American conscience, during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, with Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, Cesar Chavez and its various leaders pusing for an equal America. Race in the media, at least in the entertainment medium, has been insensitive. A multimillion dollar comedian arubtly quit over issues of race.

From minstrel shows, children books, and even "zoo" like showings through Western Europe, a proper representation of anyone of African descent has been racist. RE5, for some, has envoke the historical racist imagery. One side, we have the radical bloggers, who are calling foul for what the trailer images envokes. On the other side, we have forum posters, crying hypocrasy. No one complained about Call of Duty 4, or even RE4 and its violent portrayal of Arabs and Spanish.

I embark in a journey in RE4, to see if the imagery of the Spanish (you know those people in Spain) are represented in a fair light.

Twelve Minutes: I have killed non zombified humans, spanish humans with bad english accents. From the looks, they are light skinned, have a weird english accent. The only reason I know they are Spanish, like Antonio Banderas spanish without the tan or the dark hair, cause the game told me so. It seems an agent is looking for the missing American President's daughter a rural part of Spain. I saw Pan's Labrynith, maybe she is there? I killed one Spanish folk villager, I interrupted his cooking, was visibly and loudly upset. Swear words were thrown, a few waggles returned and he is dead. As I check his body, I come to find out he was a zombie. Heck I would be upset also, if some weird anglo person entered my home and started asking about some random chick. Do natural spanish speakers all have bad accents?

Thirty Minutes: The wife wants me to turn it off. It is late, she hates horror medium and the swear words are definately going to frighten the neighbors. The cursing is all in Spanish, and she is wondering why the hell Nintendo would release a game for the Wii. I try to explain, but she reminds the Wii is all about Mario and friends...

I realize these Spanish villagers are canibals, the policia eating kind. Atleast they are corking the pork... I kid, but really do canibals cook their meat or eat it raw?

Madden 08 en Español

I just had to vent my frustration of EA and the NFL making a big deal about Madden 08 in spanish. I do agree it is a sign of the growing spanish speaking market in the two american continents, especially in North America. Still, I had to get a few things of my hairy latin chest.

Why does fifa, since the 2002 version, get both, english and spanish but madden in spanish has to be sold seperately and have its own "version"? Couldnt they just release both the english and spanish sets on one disc as they do currently with Fifa...

Also how is the game, "a high end educational tool for Spanish Speaking fans?" Is it released for North American spanish speakers or does include all the international spanish speaking countries, Argentina, Spain, or the Phillipines? Ingles con tu futbol americano?(It is confirmed to be only for the Americas)

Its kinda a slap in the face to native spanish speakers, saying that their english is so bad, that they need a videogame to perfect it. Especially when Spanish speaking countries are proud of their language. Do other developers release a game in French or German having the same spin?

Basically it is a no brainer that NFL have been edging bit by bit to win over Spanish speakers by bringing American Football for spanish speakers into videogames. Currently ESPN Deportes does show the monday night football game entirely in Spanish, which only lacks HD, since ESPN and ESPN2 are available to watch in 720P. Hopefully ABC/ESPN will implement HD Channel for their ESPN Deportes subcribers.

I believe the announcer, Álvaro Martín, His Blog on ESPN Deportes, does Monday Night Football and many other things on ESPN Deportes. ESPN Deportes is the Spanish-language service in the USA and other countries. He also does the Mexican Collegiate American Football(it is a tongue twister in spanish as well) announcing.

Fair play out the door. Konami at a crossroads. TGS Impressions

What's wrong with this picture?

Beside the odd picture of a ten man wall, PES/WE was the talk of Tokyo Game Show, with long lines and impressions from IGN to Gamespot. With a Xbox live demo in the horizon, already out in EU, impressions of the beautiful game will vary. With EA arguably the edge of licensed teams and the FIFA seal, Konami and its beloved franchise is at crossroads. With an updated AI, Teamvision, is what the developer describes as the AI will adapt to regular attack paterns and counter effectively agaisnt it. What can Konami implement in PES/WE, besides improved AI, to stay revelant and fresh? How can Konami use its lack of licenses agaisnt EA? Besides updating player models, or adding a 2K legends mode, Konami can add features that EA will never be allowed to do under the FIFA Seal.

Konami has announced two features that are equivalent to American Football's stiff arm, the dive and holding on a jersey. Diving, will be used to "win" referee rulings over hard or soft tackles. Typically despised in Barclays Premiership but often implemented worldwide. Tugging on other player shirts is a big deal, as it will probably be used to slow players down. Shirt tugging and diving, which is allowed on PES/WE (confirmed), is considered cheating and a agaisnt Fair Play rules. Diving is an automatic yellow! These features will never ever be allowed on a Fifa sanctioned game, basically EA will shy away from these features.
Can we expect this any time soon by EA

Konami has only announced two of these metagames, hopefully it only adds more depth to the game rather than grief to an online oppenent.

Bioshock GOTY and Why

"The more one is absorbed in fighting evil, the less one is tempted to place the good in question." -Jean-Paul Satre So, I was one of the lucky few to get Bioshock early and I can say with great passion, "best game so far." There is nothing else to say that has yet to be mention by the countless reviews, Bioshock does the little things right. The details to the art deco style, to the background music, AI chatter and overarching modern story are executed well.The art deco surroundings to the propaganda posters are influence by art in the 1940s and 50s. The statues, the slogans written on banners and walls creates the illusion of an era trapped in time. The art Images similiar from the Spanish Civil War propaganda posters brings an authencity to the enviroment where other developers fail to execute (Resistance: Fall of Man and Gears of War come to my mind).The intro of the game has you traveling through a submarine transport into the sea level City of Rapture. Through the descent, the buildings of Rapture are the first examples of art deco used through out the game. The first building is a lighthouse, illuminating in the fog. The imagery is fascinating, the viewer is used to seeing the skyskappers blocked by clouds, with airplanes and helicopters navigating in the skyline. Now we are allowed to see the art deco buildings through translucent water with whales and octopuses manuerving through the ocean. Another aspect of Bioshock, executed very well, is the music. A quick list of songs, La Mer- Django Reinhardt,Papa Loves Mambo: Perry Como, The Best things in Life are Free: The inkspots (as well as if i didn't care), How much is that doggie in the window: Pattie Page, The Party's Over: Noel Cowardand Bei Mir Bist Du Schon- The Andrews Sisters. The orchestra score,is also avaiable for free from 2k Games. The music in Bioshock, surpasses any game out there in the market, the orchestra and the pop music adds to the game that goes beyond cheesy gaming music and rivals premeire Hollywood Movies.The AI chatter is brilliant when compared to the awfulness of Gears of War (Cole train anyone). With AI chatter ranging from Spanish to French and Russian accents. The voice chatter mechanic adds to story. How? By listening to the diaries from characters of diverse backgrounds, Rapture becomes a character in itself. In Rapture, people were not turned away by the color of their skin or by the language of their native tongue. It is subtle, but minorities are featured Bioshock, which rarely happens for Triple A games. Bioshock uses, the meduim of what games are limited too, to expand its story tenfold with adding smart AI chatter and 50's era music. The era of the 50s, sandwiched between World War Two and the Vietnam, is a pot of boiling water waiting to spill over. The 50s, coined the Golden Years, by some the Greatest Generation, know for its bubbly music, stars and starlettes, and the family boom. Bioshock argues, with all of those who believe in the 50's being the greatest years, that there was a underbelly ready to be ripped apart by social, economical, technological and military issues. Socially and economically, there was a big rift brewing between, the church and state, as well as, Socialism and Capitalism. Our Military in the US was ramping up, the Atom Bomb, the arms race, and the space race being pushed by technology and the hawks in DC.

The fall of Rapture begins on January, 1, 1959 where splicers waged an attack at New Year's Party. These stories are told via diaries that are spread around Rapture. The discovery of ADAM, used for genetic modifications, in Rapture causes a power struggle challenging the rule of Andrew Ryan.

EA and Konami Red Carded

EA and Konami match suspension, why do these developers drop the ball and how can they get a 10 on their jerseys.



Ever since I first played GOAL!!!!! for the NES and I always imagined ways to improve the game, and have the same immersive feeling as live games. Here are my thoughts and rants on how FIFA and PES can make a comeback.


Since the name Fifa incoporates the word international, why does it seem the only "good" teams, national and club, are the european ones. The African and Latin American teams, who play a tu a tu (man to man), with any team in the world should not be ranked as low. Even the teams ranked by Fifa, For Fifa's Official Rankings Click Here, play musical chairs going up and down in rank. Ghana and Nigeria have been playing really well in the olympic and youth levels, so why the low rankings?

Thirty club leagues is good and all but when the leagues are second/third division teams in europe, and are ranked higher than Latin American and MLS club teams, shows EA's biased towards Europe. When one of the top leagues in South America is omitted (Argentina), then other Latin American clubs team will never make the cut. Including only River Plate and Boca Juniors, who by the way are two of the best club teams in South America, we miss the great teams of Colo Colo, Olimpia, Nacional and Once Caldas. Brazil did make the cut, for EA's Fifa 08, but the Five Time champions are not the only footballing nation in South America. Adding insult to injury, Boca Juniors, Copa Libertadores Campeones, are ranked lower than their UEFA counterparts. Foul play is involved, and should be banned from the game. EA and Konami need to add world futbol fans who do not have a bias towards Europe.



The music may be awesome in the loading screens and all, but what makes football so great is the fan chants. EA should put their attention to fan club sites and incoporate their team chants into the game. Cheering and jeering the home and away teams is good and all, but in the video game world of immersive atmosphere (Bioshock) lets add layers to the beautiful game.


Fifa and PES will never get a ten in my book, it lacks teams, especially from Latin America, authentic chants, and accurate rankings of the national and club teams. Omitting Ghana, who are one higher ranked African teams, missing from the line is a blemish to EA. Fifa and PES are a top sellers in Latin America, why not give them same treatment as Europe gets?