So, looks like the good old folks over at Valve have pushed back Episode 2, but more importantly, Team Fortress 2. Fortunately, we’ve been waiting patiently for many years, so another couple months won’t be so bad. Hopefully. Valve is now reporting a Summer 2007 release, delayed from a Q1 2007, that was delayed from a Holiday 2006, that was… Here’s to no more delays. But that might be asking for too much from Valve. At least when they do deliver, it’s the shit.

[Source: IGN]

No, this isn’t an advertisement. It’s a blog. There’s a difference.

More after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

So, breaking news happened today when the ESA threatened legal action against a few blogs that had posted “Your Mom: Rated E for Everyone”, claiming that “this t-shirt ad will result in consumer confusion, and a substantial likelihood that the ESRB certification marks will face tarnishment and dilution.” So, ignoring the oddness of this request, there was also other news to be had regarding the T-Shirt. First, Kotaku posted their e-mail from the ESA, claiming to have posted the T-Shirt first. Then Destructoid claimed to be the quicker blog. And finally, BitsBytesPixelsSprites pointed out that they, in fact, were able to break the ‘news’ about the shirt first. My stance? Who cares? We all saw it on T-Shirt Hell. Some felt it was blog worthy, some felt it wasn’t. Get over it. You all lose, cause I froze myself in ice, woke up 540 years later, and read about it in the past, before it had even been invented in your timeline. Suckers.

Of course, that still doesn’t stop the fact that the ESA is a bunch of nitwits. Read their letter after the jump

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Razer, the same company that’s been brining us top of the line gaming mice for almost 9 years now, has released their first keyboard, the Tarantula Gaming Keyboard. It’s retailing for $99.99, it’s about the same price as the Logitech G15. (And I don’t even compare it to the Ideazon keyboards, as I can’t stand they way they look or feel.) IGN reviewed the Tarantula, giving it a 8.6, with the biggest deduction coming from how expensive it is. This urks me a bit. Sure it’s expensive, but it’s no more than other high end keyboards. Oh well. One of it’s biggest features is it’s ability to control it’s extra keys from the keyboard itself. So you don’t need to install drivers on every computer. Is this really something that people want? I don’t know about you, but I like to keep my keyboard plugged into my computer. That may just be a personal quirk of mine though. I’m strange like that. Oh well, maybe when the day comes that I have a computer in every room of my house, I’ll eat my words. But I’m thinking by then, something new will have come out. Only time will tell.

As I strum a few last chords, the lights go out, and the crowd erupts. Cheers and shouts of approval ring out. Through the noise, a few voices cry out “FREEBIRD!”. Eventually the whole crowd is chanting. After a few moments of silence on stage, we walk back out, and give the audience what they want. As the first note echos throughout Stonehenge, the crowd once again erupts into cheers. It was the single greatest experience in my musical career. Well… my Guitar Hero… career.

Thoughts and comments on the highly anticipated, new release Guitar Hero II after the jump.

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So, November 7th has come and gone, and 2 of the most anticipated rhythm games were released. The sequel to one of the hottest rhythm games ever, Guitar Hero II, an the Americanized ‘port’ of Elite Beat Agents. (Although, the EBA website shows 11-06-06 in big bold letters in a big star, EB and Best Buy both claimed that they didn’t get it until today) I’ll save my Guitar Hero II for it’s own post. It really won’t do it justice to share the space with an inferior game. Now, I don’t mean that Elite Beat Agents is bad, it’s just that Guitar Hero II is so good, not much else can even compare.

That being said, read up about Elite Beat Agents: Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t going to post about FFXII (except maybe in passing) due to the overwhelming outcry of how amazing it is. But I did come across at least one person who disagreed with the 87 billion reviews that have cropped up online.

ZQ8Dude writes: “I havent gotten very far. First off, the battle system is ok, but this inverted looking crap fvckin blows and was the reason why i stopped after the first save point. and i cant find any menu to make it normal and playable. Inverted looking is fvckin gay!”

I have a few questions for ZQ8Dude: Read the rest of this entry »

NVidia will be releasing their latest line of graphics cards with the release of the 8800GTS and 8800GTX next week. DailyTech received a bunch of gear before the official release, and review it here. So, what do these behemoths have to offer? Well, quite a bit actually. This marks the first DirectX 10 supported card on the market. Now, that doesn’t mean that you should go out and sell your first born to buy a new graphics card. While this is the first to support DX10, it has the drawback of… being the first to support DX10. For one, DX10 is Vista only (as of right now). So, you have at least until Vista before DX10 support is even necessary. There’s a two (and probably a three and a four as well) for reasons not to get the G80 right off the bat, but I believe that reason one is good enough.

What are my plans for the G80s? Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right. IGN recently posted a six page hands on preview of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It covers topics ranging from controls, to storyline, to time investment, and even talks about the GC version of Twilight Princess. The most concerning tidbit of information is that it took the developers a solid 70+ hours of gameplay to beat the game the first time through. Additionally, a Nintendo translator has been REplaying the game, skipping cut scenes, and knowing exactly where to go. That being said, he’s logged 27 hours already, and is only 2/3 the way through the temples (let alone any side quests).
Read the full story at IGN.

Borat, the latest character of Sacha Cohen to be turned into a movie, was released today. (Well, now it’s yesterday, but it was today when I started writing this. I swear.) Naturally, my roommate and I went to go see it with a few friends. So, into a mostly sold out theater we go, and we end up sitting near the front, way off on the far side. Fortunately enough Borat doesn’t have any high def graphics that you just gotta see on the big screen. (In fact there’s things I’d rather not see that big). Even though going to a big screen isn’t necessary, it’s definitely worth it for the previews. The local Regal Cinema is sporting the latest Gears of War Trailer. I had recently downloaded and watched the high-def trailer from GameTrailers.com. However, even my 24″ comes nowhere close to a movie theater. Now if only we could play games on a screen that big.

View the GoW trailer: Low-Def | High-Def

As for Borat, continue reading for my impressions. Read the rest of this entry »