Last year, I was able to review a pc game called trials 2, which originally, was a internet 2d flash game, and developers Redlynx decided that the game was in dire need of a 3d revamp, which it got. Now, back then, i enjoyed this game so much, that i gave it a top score of 10/10. some people may say that its selling out and blah blah blah, but who cares? I liked it, so there! (hah!) You can check out that review here

http://www.acegamez.co.uk/reviews_pc/Trials_2_PC.htm

The reason i'm writing this today though, is that, remembering back, I mentioned in my review that this would make a great game on xbox live, and boy was i right!! You see, Redlynx have also done some thinking about it, and at e3 this year, they and Microsoft announced that they would be bringing the trials franchise to the Xbox 360, in the form of Trials HD. Boasting new game modes, several different bikes to ride, a hell of a lot of tracks, aswell as a level editor and global leaderboards, Trials HD will be one of the better arcade titles that are released this year

Here are some screenshots of the game in action, as you can see the graphics are as crisp as you can get, especially for a Xbox live arcade game!!

http://www.redlynxtrials.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1440

Trials HD will be released as part of xbox live's 'summer of arcade' feature, which is coming up within the next couple of months, look out for it, as I can tell you, it's definately worth the points!!! Bring on inferno 2!!!

Hey folks, as people may already know, E3 started off this week, and Microsoft has already made a big announcement with a new way of playing games, known at the moment, as 'Project natal'. Project Natal is a new way to play video games, with YOU as the controller (hmmmmm, very Nintendo wii!). With full body motion capture, voice and facial recognition, Project Natal looks to be one of the big hitters when it hits store shelves. When this is, we dont actually know yet, but for the time being, check out these videos of Microsoft's unveiling, courtesy of Gametrailers.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-project-natal/50038

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-project-natal/50185

Also, Peter Molyneux (Of fable and black and white fame, but come on, you already knew that!) was on hand to help show off Project natal, with a little taster as to what the technology could do for the games industry. Check out the little boy named Milo here.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-lionhead-milo/50016

Now it's up to Sony and Nintendo to show what they have brought to the party.

Labels: e3, e3 2009, Microsoft, natal, project, project natal

This month 3D Realms closed it's doors for good. We should all be very sad to see the famed publisher and developer of the Duke Nukem series laid to rest. However, some great news came from this tragic event, a glimpse of the game with a name that has spawned a thousand puns - Duke Nukem Forever.

Check out the leaked gameplay footage at http://www.gossipgamers.com/duke-nukem-forever-gameplay-footage-leaked/

Truly amazing stuff, I think you'll agree.

Just what will happen to the Duke now is a bit of a mystery - will a developer snap up this fine game and finish it off? With such a popular franchise, we can only hope this will be the case.

Source: GameDev

Back in the olden days, it was simple, a division straight down the middle; a fifty/fifty split. You were either Nintendo or you were Sega. Hell, even the colours were different; Nintendos were white and grey, Segas were black. That's how it worked. I was Sega through and through (well, apart from my secret, illicit lustings after a SNES with Street Fighter 2). Most of my friends were Sega too, like some sort of desperately sad gang, we banded together, at one point even planning a hand written "zine" with reviews and stolen cheats. We all got our Master Systems for the same Christmas; somewhere in a photo album at my parent's house there's a photograph of me sat playing Alex Kidd on Christmas Day, dressed in the Leeds United kit that my Gran had given me. It would appear I'm spectacularly talented at backing the wrong horse.


Our devotion to the cause never extended further than school boy ribbing, a bit of pointing and laughing and statements such as "Urgh, SNES are rubbish." We still played on them, more often than not grudgingly admitting, at least to ourselves, that the SNES was far from rubbish. In fact it was probably better than our cherished Mega Drives. There was never any real fervour in our opposition to "the other side"; we were kids, we had Sega stuff because that's what our mum and dad had bought for us. Sure, we asked for it, but if they'd have come home with a SNES instead we wouldn't have been that disappointed. The thing is, we just loved playing games, we loved watching our friends play games; what console or computer they were on made no difference, we were there to blow stuff up.

And then things changed...

Video games stopped just being games; they became a lifestyle, a brand, a new way of looking at the world. Sony changed the way that digital entertainment was marketed; this was no longer the preserve of young boys and shy teens, games were for everyone. Wipeout was sold in clubs, PlayStation become a media synonym for anything that could play a game, much in the same way as Ipod now means any MP3 player. Coupled with the growth of the internet, video games suddenly became culturally significant, something with which you could define yourself. Whereas my friends and I had been happy to share, to play on anything we could get our hands on (I once went round to the house of a boy I didn't like just so I could play Alien vs Predator on the Atari Jaguar), now the console you used was a part of who you were.


The latest generation of consoles has brought with it a new kind of snobbery, a blend of internet terrorism and childish name calling. There are "fans" out there who swear such an allegiance to their chosen brand that they sabotage their rivals with coordinated attacks on websites, question the scruples of reviewers and critics who slate their cherished killer apps and generally make massive idiots of themselves. It's not about the games any more, it's not even about the console; it's about scoring points, making a scene, wearing a logo proudly on your sleeve.

I for one am sick of it.

We need a return to the good old days, when our sides were as badly drawn as the front covers of our zines. Our past time shouldn't be about what some other console can't do, the modes that the latest game from so-nin-soft doesn't have. It should be about playing games. It should be about having fun, inviting some mates over and thrashing them at Street Fighter 4. I don't care what console you own, or how long you spend playing every week, or whether or not you know what pwned means (or, for that matter, how to say it). We all need to learn to play together, regardless of the flag flying above our gaming castle. After all, we're not acolytes, we don't have to be standard bearers for the corporations we shovel most of our hard earned cash towards; we can just be gamers, and that's enough for me.

Recently, Valve officially confirmed their long hinted at content update for the awe-inspiring zombie shooter Left 4 Dead. This new batch of goodies goes under the title of Left 4 Dead: Survival Pack but what will it actually contain?

Firstly, there will be a new multiplayer game mode called Survival; exactly what form this will take is still a mystery but I'm willing to bet it is the survivor team versus a never-ending horde of the infected, battling to stay alive as long as possible.

In addition to this new gameplay mode are two "complete" campaigns for versus mode. If complete means new, as some suggest, we will be in for a treat but other sources predict the two campaigns will just be the two single-player campaigns not playable in versus mode - Death Toll and Dead Air.

This is all the owners of the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead can hope for come spring when the Survival Pack is released but those lucky PC gamers get an added bonus - the long-awaited L4D Source SDK (Software Development Kit). This unique tool allows avid fans to create custom campaigns that will be discoverable via L4D's matchmaking system.

The SDK is confirmed to be free to download and use for all PC owners but the pricing of the Survival Pack itself is unclear. Whatever the price though, spring-time (soon to be renamed The Season of the Dead) can't come soon enough!

Source: computerandvideogames.com

Labels: Left 4 Dead

A slot machine (American), fruit machine (British), or poker machine (Australia) are all the same, a three or more reel game which spins when a button is pushed or level is pulled. Slots are sometimes referred to as one-armed bandits, because slot machines used to be operated by a lever instead of a button on the front of the machines, commonly found today. Machines today still have the lever as well as the button to remind players of the history of the game.

Due to world currencies and slot machines being shipped to every corner of the world, most slot machines come equipped with a currency detector. This allows the same machine to accept several different currencies and pay out on their local currency.

The way a player wins is determined by what comes up on the screen and in what combination. Due to their ease of play and high user friendliness, slots are the most popular and most played games at the casino, accounting for more than 70 per cent of casinos average income.

The original slot machine can be traced back to Brooklyn, New York in 1891. Sittman and Pitt developed the first slot machine; it contained five drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker. Soon after, every bar in the area had one of these machines bar-side, and the rest is history as they say.

Labels: casino, fruit machine, one-armed bandits, poker, poker machine, slot machine

The BBC, purveyors of prank phone calls and other assorted scams and controversies, have reported today that, for the first time since people started counting, Video Games will outsell films and music on the 'high street' this year. As a collective, game buying public, we will have spent 4.64 billion pounds on games come the years end. If you need a visual description, just imagine 154718239.4 copies of What's Cooking with Jamie Oliver. Film and music sales combined made only a paltry 4.46 billion.

Of course, later in the bulletin they go on to poo poo the whole thing by saying the pollsters who accumumlated the data, a firm called Verdict, overstated their findings by including hardware sales as well. Never the less, it's still a pretty impressive showing by an industry until recently considered at best niche and at worst childish.

Probably best not to ask how much of the 4.64 billion was spent on online bingo, and Wiis that were played once and then left to gather dust under the TV in the front room after nan had a go and broke her hip.

Source bbc.co.uk