I want to start off by saying congratulations to GamertagRadio for putting on one of the BEST parties I've ever been to. With that being said, the venue was packed wall to wall with guests. People playing the game, partying and having a great time. Prizes were given out throughout the night.....Heck I almost won a Playstation 3 LOL.
Godfree and Peterocc were the MC's of the event every 30 minutes or so giving the crowd prizes doing mini-contests to keep the packed house entertained. I live in Baltimore, MD and I traveled ALL the way to NYC to go to this event and they did not disappoint. Anytime these guys put on a party I will be attending. All in all this community brought gamers together in a way that many people just do not do these days. Thank you GamerTagRadio for having these events I look forward to the next event!


                                                                                                                 -Marc "Phoenix410" Washington

Modern Warfare 2 is a juggernaut among video games. Love it or hate it, no one can deny the popularity of the game.

Respawn, oh, I mean Infinity Ward has done an excellent job with the visual clarity and sound quality of the game. And I admit this as a hater. I am a Halo fanboy and being confronted with a game that all my friends claimed would kill and bury Halo 3 simply turned me off to the game. But I finally started playing it and I have to say the game is good, not better than Halo, but good.

That being said, there are some things in Modern Warfare 2 that I hope they rethink for the next game, Call of Duty Black Ops.

What the ????

Dying is never fun, but in this game, its beyond frustrating. What is amazing is that I wouldn't even be frustrated if it wasn't for the kill cam feature in the game. For example . . .

So I run through a door, try to knife a guy, and get shot instead. I say, hmmm, I thought I should have killed him because I hit him with the knife before he shot me but maybe I missed the knife, he shot be before I finished the motion of stabbing, or maybe my rhythm is just off. And then the kill cam comes on and it shows me the encounter from the other guys perspective. According to his view, I run through the door, stand right next to him while scratching my butt, and then he shoots me.

From the viewpoint of the entertainment industry, video games used to be nothing more distractions. Interactive computer programs for nerds and kids. But over time, they gained legitimacy. We may take offense at Ebert saying the video games are not art. But think about it for a minute. The very fact that the debate is happening is an indication that the obsession of me and every other TAG member is a force to be reckoned with in mainstream entertainment. Video games are becoming an art form as powerful as motion pictures. They can tell powerful stories and can communicate with an audience the way no movie ever could. There are several aspects of video games that allow them to reach a new level of depth and immersion in storytelling.

The first aspect that comes to mind is the design choice writers and developers make with regard to the presentation of the protagonist.

According to Webster, a protagonist is the principal character in a literary work. The experience of the protagonist is the vehicle through which the environment is explained and experienced. I would argue that the protagonist in a video game is unique. In a video game, the player controls the protagonist and therefore to some extent controls the story and experiences in the environment of the story. The developer must make design choices that determine how much control the player has over the story and environment. The easiest way to explain some of these choices is through examples.

Mass Effect

In the Mass Effect universe, the player is given a significant amount of control over the protagonist. The idea is to immerse the player in the story by giving him or her the ability to customize the experience of the protagonist within certain limits.  The player can customize the appearance of the protagonist, and while the actual mission structure within levels of the game is fairly straight forward, the player can choose how the protagonist treats other characters and reacts to situations in the game. There are also key moments in which the player can make the protagonist make choices that have a permanent affect on the story by choosing to let certain characters live or die.

Red Dead Redemption

I’m sure everyone has already seen it, but I thought I would start a discussion about it. I watched it this morning on Halo Waypoint. So, calling this a ViDoc was kind of misleading because there is no commentary from the development team. It’s more of a new game trailer than a ViDoc.

I have been concerned about the fact that Noble 6 is not as much of an icon as the Master Chief. My feeling thus far has been that Noble Team is this awesome group of Spartans that you experience the story by fighting alongside them and watching them do their thing. This ViDoc has started to change my impression. I seems like while the other members of Noble Team will be important, Noble 6 will have a role that will drive the story.
The ViDoc is an  intro for Noble Team, and it shows where Noble 6 fits in the team. I also like their assessment of Noble 6. Until now I have felt like the character I was playing was a weaker version of Spartan and because of that I could only be effective in a team that worked well together. With the subtle comments in this ViDoc I feel like they are finally doing something to change the impression that the character you are playing is inferior to the Master Chief.  . . . And I also have to say that I am glad Noble 6 is not the leader of Noble Team. The feeling of “efficient assassin” that Noble 6 has is a nice change from the “squad leader” vibe of the Master Chief.

I was late to the game when it comes to gaming online. The first game I played online was Halo 3. Therefore my first experience with DLC was map packs. It seemed simple enough and made sense. They sell a game that has a solid campaign mode and an additional multi-player component with which they give a decent number of maps. Extra maps are released later on for a price. At some level, it felt like a money grab, but it wasn't like the new maps were adding an integral feature that the multiplayer experience should have had but was missing.  And it wasn't as if the game would lose any features that I had been enjoying if I didn't get the maps. If I didn't want the maps, I could still have a full multiplayer experience without them. . . Then the playlists started requiring that you had purchased certain maps. "Want to play ranked team slayer? Well hope you bought the legendary map pack because starting soon you wont be able to play without it." So now it felt like they were demanding my money to continue to enjoy the same functionality from an experience that I had already purchased. In essence, unless I pay a certain amount, a feature that the game shipped with will be locked out. Now, DLC is so planned out that before the initial game is released extra content is already in the works and certain features of a game may be omitted on purpose to later be released as DLC. I understand that it requires money to continue online support, but lately it just feels like a SCAM. What types of DLC don't seem to be worth their weight in Microsoft points?

S.upplementary Characters

Mass Effect 2 is the prime culprit of this type of DLC. Characters with no meaningful dialog that are sold as DLC for a story that everyone has completed. They don't have any real impact on the story and their plight is not compelling. This is probably nit picking at its worst, but what made me upset is that when I would go to the Team Status screen in the game before I bought the extra character, there were empty spaces indicating that they planned on releasing these characters as DLC before the game was even shipped.  At least they could pretend that the game I got was the full experience.

C.ars and other forms of transportation

So, to harp on Mass Effect again, the hover tank. Awesome vehicle, why wasn't it in the main campaign? Can you imagine doing some light platforming on a planet and fighting some vehicle battles to get minerals instead of riding up the sides of mountains (ME 1) or scanning planets (shoot me now)?

A.dditional Guns

Bungie and Activision?

The more I learn about Halo Reach the more impressed I am with Bungie. The level of time and effort they are putting into this game is amazing. Motion capture to make the animation more believable, reworked AI, revamped graphics engine that increases draw distance to give the ability to render larger environments and larger enemy encounters, and the big one . . .  FORGE WORLD, which didn't even have to be in the game to make it sell. They are focusing on raising the bar. Add to this the ends to which Bungie goes to maintain and support a thriving community. I know they are just a business, and some of you that read this may hate Halo, but hows that for customer service and product value. Its not just Halo 3.5, its a new experience set in a familiar universe.

And then you have Activision, the company that will make a sequel out of anything and would like to replace XBOX 360 and PS3 with gaming devices from HP and DELL so that they can be platform independent, the company that is toying around with a monthly fee for online multiplayer, and the company that wishes that networks like XBOX live and PSN didn't exist so that they can give customers more "value" by billing us for things we are getting for free right now. I would really like to see the contract they have with Bungie.

 . . . an odd couple for sure.

   I was there, approaching the steps of The House of Sovereigns when it happened. I was there to see the pink mist, as the sniper shot pierced through private Anthony Carmine's helmet and echoed through the concrete confines of the battle field. I was right there in the thick of it, the literal belly of the beast, when I heard the blood curdling scream of Benjamin Carmine being eaten alive. Standing there listening to his last words "Sarge?.. I hurt Sarge...tell my brothers...my ma...tell 'em I love 'em, and ....and...." Now the way I see it the mother of these brave and honorable heroes of battle doesn't need to receive another folded Coalition of Ordered Governments flag. As long as I draw breath, this time I plan on bringing the last brother, Clay Carmine, home. I will proudly wear the "Save Carmine" banner as I enter the battle of ash, blood and fire.

   On July 21st, Epic announced that Clayton Carmine will appear in Gears 3, and the fans will decide if Carmine will live or die. Fans can purchase the "Save Carmine" or "Carmine Must Die" avatar T-shirt over Xbox LIVE on July 29th. Attendees of Comic-Con International in San Diego can purchase real life limited edition t-shirts for $20USD. All proceeds will go to the Child's Play Charity. 

   Let's band together in the mission of saving private Carmine.

I picked up Transformers: War for Cybertron last week. I teamed up with a friend of mine and we beat the campaign in one weekend. Transformers: WFC is old news, but I thought I would drop some of my observations and see if anyone noticed similar things.

First of all, I have heard the accusation that everything in this game looks the same. I understand where that comes from. The art direction in this game is very different from what I normally see in video games. I am used to snow levels and desert landscapes, post apocalyptic worlds, and ultra realistic environments as are found in MW2.  Even alien environments usually have a familiar organic feel to them in most games. In War for Cybertron the entire world is supposed to be machinery. There are no organic elements and not much of it feels familiar. While the environments vary, a common theme pervades.  After playing for a few hours, I got used to the environments and I could see a clear difference in each of them, but the planet Cybertron is basically a huge machine city, and a lot of things look the same.

Secondly, this game is a little light on ammo and health. Maybe it’s just because I have been programmed to expect completely regenerating health and ammo drops for enemies, but the lack of these two game play mechanics was surprising. It actually gives the game a more old school feel. Third, I know that this game uses the Unreal engine and it’s a 3rd person shooter, but the similarities between it and Gears of War were very apparent. Both games have sections where you are on a stationary turret and holding off waves of enemies. Both games have a section where the team splits up / gets separated and must activate switches to open doors and provide cover for each other until they team reunites. Both games have sections where the player is riding a creature during which the player fights through an “on rails“ shooting section. Both games block off rooms with a closed door after each section is completed so that the player cannot go back to previous areas. I’m not sure how many shooters combine all these elements, but for me as I played through the game, I couldn’t help thinking about Gears. Even the boss battles reminded me of Gears. While this game does not have a cover system, a lot of times it felt like it should have had one, especially since using cover is necessary throughout the game.

The one completely unique thing in this game is the ability to transform. Honestly, this was wasted in the campaign. There were specific sections where it was used, but there are no applications in combat. . . . Well, I take that back. The vehicle gun is usually more powerful than the standard gun so transforming can help if you want to do some significant damage to a stationary target. The gun in vehicle mode does use different ammo then the other guns so it’s a good backup weapon. Being forced to use it because you’ve run out of ammo in the normal guns isn’t all that great though. The problem is that the computer simply does not miss when firing at the player. So to spend time transforming and not shooting while under fire is basically a waste of time.Transforming is fun when you are running up on someone to melee them (i.e. rush up on them in vehicle mode, transform, and smack the crap out of them), but after you kill the first person, you’re going to get shot up and your health doesn’t completely regenerate so how many times is the player going to do that?

In my mind there are two glaring omissions in this game. The first is split screen. A game like this is meant to be played with more than one person. In fact you always have two other robots in the mission with you. You NEVER fight  alone. So it would make sense that this would be an excellent title for offline multiplayer. Most main shooters have it and since this game is aimed at a younger crowd than most triple A shooters, where’s the split screen? The second omission is 4 player co-op. This game has 3 player co-op. 3 player co-op? Its not a specific plot necessity to only have 3 robots. At times the three main robots fight alongside a 4th. Additionally there are points in the game that feel like there should have been an option for 4 human players. Several times when you have to use turrets to hold off enemy robots there will be 4 turrets to choose from. 4 turrets and 3 robots. Why?

Multiplayer is definitely a bright spot in this game. It is where the transforming game play mechanic shines. It is absolutely essential. Trying to fight exclusively in either robot of vehicle form will just get you killed. There is nothing better in multiplayer than experiencing those movie moments where you run up on someone in vehicle mode, jump, transform into robot mode, and gun your adversary down all while airborne. In conclusion, this is a good game, but it’s not going to create any fans or convert anyone. It is not on the level of Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, or Killzone, but it’s a solid game. For fans, the game has an entertaining cartoon style story that is good enough to hold your interest and its game play is good enough not to turn you off. Playing with friends really enhances the experience and online multiplayer is fun and has a stripped down MW2 perk/kill streak system. If you hate transformers, stay away as the experience will just be frustrating and there are other shooters that you will enjoy more. The game play won’t be good enough to overcome preconceived notions and there will be plenty of things to gripe about if you are looking for something to pick on. If you don’t hate transformers, rent the game. If you are a gamer and consider yourself a transformers fan, buy the game.  It is the best realization of the transformers universe in a game yet.

In a world where the PC is dead, consoles reign supreme, and third party developers are on the the cusp of economic extinction; there can be only exclusives and one console of choice. Which one will you choose (please be advised this prophecy is not yet rated).

Far fetched, maybe? but if you had to choose a console right now based solely on what that console had in exclusive games, which one would it be. I thought about this long and hard as I pondered my gaming:

Nintendo Wii:  I love my Mario, Smash brothers, Zelda, Metroid & Donkey Kong franchises:

Sony Playstation: What would I do without my Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted, Heavy Rain, God of War even Kill Zone & Grand Tarismo franchises.

Microsoft Xbox: Aw man gotta have Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Forza, Alan Wake & lets not forget Crackdown and Mass Effect franchises.

Okay, okay the PCs' not dead yet ehemm, what could we possibly do without World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, and the graphical giant Crysis... oops thats not exclusive to the pc anymore is it, but we'll pretend.

Just giving everyone a reminder of the Gears 2 20X xp weekend.

Rod Fergusson revealed the duration of the event via a Tweet on Twitter: “So 20x XP SDCC Event is going to run exactly SDCC hours – July 22nd, 12:30 PM EDT till July 25th, 8 PM EDT. Get your wings!” Also, Rod announced that just like last times XP event, Horde mode will receive a modification during the event. But Epic Games hasn’t decided what will be changed as of yet: “Yes, we’re going to change Horde too, just haven’t decided how yet.”

Why drink red bull when you've got Gears