E309: Social Networking Coming to Xbox Live

This fall we are going to have last.fm, Facebook Connect, and Twitter on our Xbox's. What else is there to say other than Raptr is not going to matter anymore for Xbox users.

It all looks very exciting and it also looks like we are never going to leave our TV screen ever again.

This is scary and awesome, it is scary awesome.

I need to get away from the computer now so I will post about Project Natal later today. Oh and I will just say it here, I do not care about MGS.

E309: Alan Wake Trailer thoughts

I was never worried that this game would turn into vaporware because while I was interested in the game it was only mildy so.

Yesterday that interest was piqued a little bit when the new trailer was shown.

It is quite pretty is it not? I think that it looks to be sufficiently creepy and it really looks like it will play out like a movie. I really have nothing else to say other than, "I am interested to see where this game will take us."

What do you think?

E309: Halo 3: ODST gameplay video and Halo: Reach teaser thoughts

I have been mildly excited for H3: ODST for a while now. I have not been able to fully decide how I feel about it considering I am only buying it for the campaign experience (and now Firefight). I always play new multiplayer maps when they come out but that is none of the reason that I have become excited for ODST.

Having seen the gameplay trailer I feel differently about the game now. I can see what is being done different and I like it. I like how everything looks different through an ODST's eyes and I think the slower paced gameplay is going to be a welcome addition to the series and to my trigger finger.

The Firefight mode looks good but I do hope that it ends up being more than just a glorified version of Horde. It could just be more fun and I think I would be okay with it.

Next on the docket is Halo: Reach and seeing as we only got a teaser trailer I am curious as to what type of game it is going to be. Will it be the same standard FPS view or are we going to see what else Bungie can handle? Is it going to take place on the ships above Reach or is it going to take place on the planets surface? Am I going to be Master Chief and watch my fellow Spartans die? I am curious as to what this beta that comes with ODST will be (will it be multiplayer or campaign) but it is just another reason for me to pick up ODST. This is a long shot but maybe it is a Halo MMO although I do not know exactly how the mechanics of that would work. And with that I will leave you to your devices. FPS MMO, just saying... okay I'm done.

E309: Left 4 Dead 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction

Gaming companies have no regard for the butterflies that will be left in my wallet.
I imagine that all L4D fans are split down the middle on this announcement of Left 4 Dead 2. I imagine that one half is cheering at the prospect of killing more zombies, especially with the chainsaw, and the other half are grabbing their torches and pitchforks chainsaws and shotguns because they feel like there was no DLC for the original and this "sequel" is only coming out a year later.

I know that I am excited, as the original L4D was my game of the year last year, but I also feel that the only things that make this a "sequel" are the fact that it has a new cast and some new weapons/special infected types. The question is, "Will it be enough to justify another sixty dollars," and I think the majority of people will say yes to that question. I know I will because I know how much enjoyment I got/will still get from the first one.

You can also call me racist if you like but I think the fat black guy is going to be the comedic relief even if it is not intentional.

The next game I am excited for that was previously bathing in skeptical sauce is Splinter Cell Conviction or SCC. This game looks great and I think I know I will be playing it. It might not be first on my list of games to play but I am sure it is to be number one on Jarvis' list.

Opinions on these games? As per the usual, please leave it in the comments.

E309: Joyride and Crackdown 2 announcement trailer thoughts

So all of my hopes and dreams of a first party baseball game from Microsoft were dashed yesterday when the Big Park Studios game that was announced was Joyride, a free to download and play avatar game. Woot! Le Sigh.

The game supports microtransactions in that you will be able to purchase new cars and new ways to customize your cars. The game looks like it will be fun for just a few seconds for me that is unless it is supported by Project Natal - because then it will be like Mario Kart Wii - but more on that later, I am getting ahead of myself.

Here is some exciting news about a game that was all but announced before the Microsoft press briefing: Crackdown 2! It is coming and it looks astoundingly awesome. I'll be playing the original again before this drops and maybe this time I can locate all 500 agility orbs.

The game, as suspected, is being developed by Ruffian Games, another developer other than Realtime Worlds. The reason I have no problem with this is because some of the devs from Ruffian previously worked for Realtime Worlds on the original Crackdown. Excited? You bet I am.

E309: The Beatles: Rock Band and Shadow Complex Thoughts

I wanted to start off the night (it is currently 1:34am EST) by saying I am going to post my thoughts on all things announced at all of the  E3 press conferences of June 1, 2009 provided, of course, that I found them interesting to begin with. Forgive me if I have fallen asleep before finishing. I fell asleep before I even finished this post, I need to work on my midnight blogging skills.


I am interested, as we all know, in The Beatles: Rock Band but having a trailer for a rhythm game, despite the fact that it involves The Beatles, still does not do much for me. I appreciate the artistic integrity of what they are trying to do but I really just want to get my hands on it and play Beatles songs.

What is interesting is the fact that the game will support three part harmonies which is an amazing feature. Interesting question: How is it going to be fair to score the accuracy of back-up vocals when there is not always a lot there to be sung by the back-up vocalists?

And then there is Shadow Complex, Epic Games' first XBLA title, and all I want to know is what it is. I am sure I would be excited to play it but all they did was compare it to Metroid. That is fine and all but I am still at a loss. It is possible that they did/will show it in action and I just missed it because I did not actually have the pleasure of watching the press conference. I want to be excited for Shadow Complex and I am sure Epic will give me that chance sooner rather than later.

I Will Be At Work During the Microsoft Press Breifing

Seeing as I will be at work during the Microsoft Press Breifing today expect a Megaton post with all my thoughts from the breifing late tonight around 12.30am.

Monday MUpdate: E3 Bound

Well, the big event is here. Video gamers all across the land huddle around their monitors, refreshing and refreshing their favorites to see more and more news come in from the conference; each site wanting to be the first to break whatever news is unveiled. And in the center of it all stands one man. One man unafraid of the lines. One man unafraid of the crowds. One man who has no credentials but is there anyway, kicking ass and taking names/notes. Who is our lone warrior, our traveler of the unknown? Me. Duh.

So while today I sit in my office anxiously twiddling my thumbs, tomorrow I will find myself on a plane flying non-stop to Los Angeles, California, in order to attend E3. I feel like part of me should say that I'm the official representative of Best GamePad Ever, and while the reality may be that I'll be wearing FOX Media badges all day, I'll still try and slip that in there into casual conversation. While originally Nate was going to attend with me, due to unforeseen circumstances this is no longer the case. This means that I will have to do the work of two men instead of one. So on that note, I would like to inform you, the gentle reader, of how I plan to keep this website updated: I have sold out and created for myself a Twitter account. I felt that this was the best way to get my word out there. I created the account last week and have been trying to get into the habit of using it, updating after I see a movie or when I see something funny out and about. While for some reason my TwitPic account decides to update Twitter on it's own, off and on as opposed to just on, and my profile won't update to say that I'm actually not following Penn Jilette (as amazing as he is), it's there and you can follow it here. I suppose I should apologize to my friends who follow my Twitter because they love me and not my E3 experience (they will be bombarded with random tweets of "just played mass effect 2 - super sweet," "just played brutal legend - super sweet," and "just played another game - super sweet," although I can only I hope I remember to capitalize). I, of course, will not be able to read any reply tweets or tweets reading "@mattisnotarobot One more tweet about video games and I'm de-following you," so this is my official warning to anyone uninterested. I won't be offended.

So some of you might be asking, what exactly is my schedule? What will I be doing at E3? What makes this trip unlike all other trips? And how many aisles must a game reviewer walk down before you can call him a game reviewer? Well, while the answer to that last question may be blowing in the wind, I can enlighten the rest of the world with my adventure outline. It'll basically be like any tweet or blog you could read about me, but you're reading it before it happens and thusly can infer all the things that could go wrong or right from that point, kind of like a make your own adventure story, except in this you could kill me out of jealousy and I would be powerless to stop you.




Tuesday - Matt goes to LA: On Tuesday, I have an 8:00 AM flight, so I'll be up at 4:00 AM in order to make sure I can wake up, get up, and get out of the house by 5:00 AM so I can be at the airport around 6:00 AM. From there I can only hope that all the information I just printed out of my work printer will somehow get me my ticket and passed security. I have a non-stop flight to LA due to arrive at 11:40 AM, at which point I will be luxuriously transported to my swanky Sheraton Hotel to check in. From that point I have the whole day to do whatever I want in LA which is why I took such an early flight. I can't imagine the next time I'll be in California, so if I'm going to stalk Arnold, now's my chance.

Wednesday - Matt goes to E3: At 9:30 AM I will be at the convention center, getting my badges and passes with my travel companion so that by 10:00 AM I can be out on the show floor. At some point, I have to play Halo: ODST, and by "have to" I don't mean that I want to as a gamer but that I am contractually obligated by IGN and FOX Media to play this game. I then will be writing a review/preview around 1:00 PM (after lunch basically) to be posted on IGN.com at their E3 subsite (http://e3.ign.com/). When I finish doing that, I get to go back to the show floor to play games and do whatever until 5:00 PM. I will do my best not to spend my entire time at the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 booth and to be a good "reporter," but most likely the child in me will take over and my Halo: ODST review will not read "The graphical accomplishments in this five minute preview by the Bungie crew is really rather outstanding, improving upon the previous Halo graphics engine to create a much sharper and fresh gaming experience," but instead will read "OMG IT LOOKS WICKED SWEET." At 5:00 PM, my travel companion and I will be escorted to the IGN War Room to be on the IGN podcast, GameScoop. After that I am treated to VIP passes at an IGN Party at a much nicer hotel then the one I was put up in, and then I am left to my own devices from there. Also, at some point a website called Crispy Gamer would like to interview me, for reasons unknown. I will do my best to comply however, mostly due to the fact that I am vain.

Thursday - Matt goes home: Lastly, on Thursday I will be in LA until 3:30 PM-ish, at which point I will fly into the future to arrive back in my home town at midnight. On the plane, I need to write a one page article recap of E3 in which I tell about all the lessons in life I've learned, as well as providing an easy to understand anecdote as to moral of the day. Because you see, I've learned something today...

So there you have it. This is what my week will entail as I miss work and don't get paid due to a complete lack of any vacation hours. I'm rather excited to do this, and I've got my copy of The Flash: Emergency Stop and Nintendo DS all ready to go for a 6 hour flight. I can only hope that this trip is as entertaining as it promises to be, and I hope to be a good provider of information upon next week's Monday MUpdate on the true world behind the veil of E3. I'll get right down to the gritty stuff and talk about how many dead booth babes I come across in gutters, as well as a full list of all the secret codes people use to transport black market copies of games under the table. I also wish that I could get my own little Sack Boy, but I understand that unlike all my other wants, that one is probably just wishful thinking.

If there's anything you'd like me to do/find/prove at E3, feel free to let me know in the comments. I'm more than happy to oblige. And again, feel free to follow my escapades at twitter.com/mattisnotarobot for any quirky commentary I may have.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

Although this is not news I wanted to share this with all of you.

Today, while at work, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting both Andrew Yoon and Ludwig Kietzmann of Joystiq fame.

I feel like I froze up but managed to give Andrew the link to this blog so if you guys are reading this, "Hi guys, it was a pleasure meeting you."

I hope it was not just coincidence and that I have the pleasure of working with, or in the field of, these fine gentleman in the future.

Gaming Diary May 30, 2009 - No Longer PC Exclusive

Since my "big" purchase of a brand new (well, not BRAND new, but new to me) Xbox 360 I have been completely immersed in the 360 gaming world. I've downloaded tons of game demos trying to get my hands, eyes and ears on as many games as possible. Some of the first games I picked up were Mass Effect, Madden '08 (for the girlfriend, not a big fan of sports games), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Braid, Peggle and Left 4 Dead. I've played at least a little bit of all of them, with the exception of Madden.

Upon the urging of Nate, I tried out Mass Effect for a little bit. I didn't get all that far before I died. I'm still trying to adjust to the world of buttons and joysticks. The PC mouse and WASD combo is so easy compared to a console controller, but I'm getting used to it. I actually am starting to prefer it for some games. Anyway, I started up Mass Effect, but didn't get all that far. Same situation with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I like both games, but I'll definitely need to invest more time before I make a final decision on them. I have been investing a lot of time in Peggle, which I actually initially wasn't a big fan of. I checked out the Peggle demo on my PC and played it a few times on flight paths to WoW and it never did really grabbed me, but now playing it on the 360 is different. I'm totally drawn into it and have made it relatively far (well, at least for me) in a short period of time.

One game I haven't played much, but am loving is Braid. It's not even the gameplay yet that I love (as I really haven't gotten that far), it's the visuals and the music. The music reminds me a lot of Firefly. I would honestly just open up the game just to listen to the music. I'm not really sure what it is about it, but I just think it's beautiful. The game so far has been enjoyable, although it's probably going to wreck my brain a good amount. I tend to fail pretty hard at puzzle-type games and often resort to the good ol' internet to help me along. I'm going to try as best as I can to figure things out on my own, but we'll see how it goes.

The highlight of my 360 gaming experience thus far has to be Left 4 Dead. I got some campaign and survival gaming in last night with friends and absolutely loved it. The best part was, I even got my girlfriend (who tends to avoid gaming in general other then sports games) into the action. So much so that she said she wanted to play again today!

It was definitely worth the money to get the 360. It's providing a significantly more enjoyable multiplayer gaming then my PC ever did. It's difficult to find friends that PC game these days. I suppose we are sort of a dying breed of sorts, with the exception of PC exclusive games like World of Warcraft. Most gamers have become more involved in the console gaming community then the PC. It was awesome to be able to sit down and play with my friends, friends I don't typically get a chance to see all but a few times a year. Honestly, I think if Left 4 Dead was the only game I owned on the 360 it would still be worth the investment for the enjoyment I got out of it.

Now, I praise and praise and praise my new 360 gaming experience, HOWEVER, I still am at heart a PC gamer. I feel like the 360 will hold most of my casual gaming. Stuff that I'm not sitting down for hours for. Stuff I can just jump in and jump out of. I don't see my 360 ever being my "hardcore" gaming device. I still love my PC and still intend to use that as my main gaming "console." World of Warcraft will always have my heart and with Blizzard coming out with Starcraft II and Diablo III in the future I will definitely be investing a lot of time into my PC. I think the 360 will be my casual gaming and multiplayer gaming console while my PC will remain as my intense gaming and single player system. I currently own COD4 and COD5 for my PC with no intention of buying it for the 360. I'm not big into multiplayer on either of the games, but do love the single player aspects.

Other then 360 gaming throughout the last week I have been investing a bit of time into WoW. I got a few hours of WoW action in this morning. I'm currently level 61 working my way up to 62. Leveling is somewhat of a slow process for me since I really only play on the weekends. Today I ventured into Outland (a level 60-70 zone for the non-WoWing individuals) for the second time. My first time traveling to Outland was with the first character I ever made; Walker, a Tauren warrior. I didn't spend too much time in Outland then and honestly, it bored me a little, but I'm finding this time around to be more enjoyable. Blizzard has definitely made leveling significantly easier then the first time around. I anticipate at this pace I'll be making level 80 by sometime at the end of the summer. That's slow, I realize, but I just can't invest hours upon hours into the game like I could in college when I had significantly more free time. I'll probably just end up leveling a new character once I reach 80 anyway and then I'll just start the whole process all over again.

Oh, and I wrote all of this entry outside enjoying the beautiful weather with my laptop and headphones on. Oh to be a geek!

Brutal Legend Cinematic

Video Games | Brutal Legend | E3 09: Exclusive Cinematic

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I do not want anyone to think that I am making the mistake of not showing this game some of my love (I know it has been a while), the developer, Double Fine, did after all, make my favorite game of all time - Psychonauts.

This cinematic was great; it had me chuckling and looking forward to a game that I can just love for being fun, witty, charming, and hilarious.

New Mass Effect 2 Trailer

Video Games | Mass Effect 2 | E3 09: Exclusive Teaser

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Last night on GameTrailers TV Geoff Keighly spoiled some of E3's fun and showed the E3 trailer for Mass Effect 2. I wonder how much they (Spike) had to pay for that.

More relavent to the trailer is the fact that it looks like Commander Shepard is not dead. Not really a huge surprise but I would of course like to know the details of why he might have been dead or why he is still alive.

Hopefully there is more to be said about Mass Effect 2 come June 2-4. Come back here to check because you know that I will have something to say about it.

Sorry about the obnoxious GameTrailers window that breaks this site.

Game Diary - May 28, 2009: Mass Effect... again.

For the past couple of days I have been on a strict regimen of Citadel space flights. You got it, I have been playing Mass Effect once again.

I started this playthrough about a month or so ago but in the past two days alone I have made significantly more progress than when I initially started playing the game for what I believe to be my fourth time.

It is as spectacular as I can remember and even on the fourth playthrough I am finding new dialogue tree options. I loaded the game onto my hard drive for less pop in and no loads while walking (not that these things really bothered me to begin with) and the difference is quite noticeable.

Kara purchased the game... finally, and I am eager to hear her thoughts. You should be as well.

Zune HD Revealed

Let me start off by saying that we all know that I am a pretty adamant supporter of the iPhone. What you probably do not know is that I have wanted a Zune for a while now.

While my iPhone serves its purpose as a general all-purpose device I have been on the lookout for a new media-only device. Naturaly since it [the Zune] is a Microsoft product I have a soft spot in my heart for it.

The most exciting part of Microsoft's Press Release that isn't the Zune HD is the change of branding from the 'Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace' to the 'Zune Marketplace'. This excitement comes with the hope that you will be able to use your Zune Pass to download songs directly to one's Xbox (it might give me a reason to buy a Zune Pass). I also do not doubt that the videos that you download will work across the bridge between the Zune and the Xbox.

Now for the Zune HD itself. It will be the first media player with an HD video-out output, it will have HD Radio, built in Wi-Fi (naturally), and a pretty exciting OLED touch screen technology. I think Microsoft just sold me a media player and now the only thing that I can hope for is decent storage capacity.

Update: The songs portion of the Zune Marketplace is not coming to Xbox LIVE is will only be called Zune Video. Boo Hisss...

[Via Joystiq]

Game Diary - May 26, 2009: Memorial Day Weekend Edition

Seeing as I have been away all weekend the only thing that I have been updating frequently is my Twitter page. Despite not being near a computer that I could update this blog on I still managed to get in a lot of gaming this weekend nonetheless.

Most of the gaming this past weekend was nonconventional, at least it was for myself. I did bring my 360 (and Left 4 Dead) with me to Kara's house this weekend but I was primarily playing Mario Kart Wii. Since I had five other people to play this game (not at one time) with it ended up being really entertaining (so much so that I have been reinvigorated on the idea of purchasing a Wii in the future). Still though, if I end up owning a Wii and Mario Kart, I do not think that I would take it so far as to go online to play the game. With the Wii it just feels better playing in the same room as everybody else. This is probably why most folk's Wiis end up collecting dust: people just cannot have people over often enough.

I played very little of Guitar Hero 3, also on the Wii, but in doing so I got to play a few of the unlockable tracks that I had wanted to play when the game originally came out.

I did also play some Left 4 Dead with Kara and Martin. I got to finally touch upon Survival Mode but sadly it was not a good experience because all of the people we got stuck playing with were "epic douchebags" and ending up shooting us/each other and the longest we survived was one time for about two minutes.

Other than that not much else has been played but I am looking forward to finally playing Beyond Good and Evil.

Monday MUpdate: On a Tuesday

Due to Memorial Day, I took off all of my duties yesterday and slept in. I rolled around for hours doing nothing but watching movie and getting some personal work done. And since last updating, have I once played a video game? Not really, no. I saw Nate on Friday and we played Rock Band and Guitar Hero II for all of five minutes, and I once again tried to tackle "Jordan" but lost at the 50% mark like I always do. So I don't have much to say.

...or do I?

While most of my friends know this, I figure this is something 100% worthwhile to write about for an entry as the general gaming public who make up our readers don't know this: on Thursday, as I drove between Massachusetts and New Jersey, I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. Even though I was "watching" Two Guys and A Girl off my laptop, I decided I was in a good mood so I would pick up the phone.

"Hello?" I said.
"Hi, is this Matthew?" said a voice on the other end.
"Why, yes it is! How can I help you?"
"Do you remember entering a contest on IGN a while back to go to E3?"
"...yes?"
"Well, I'm calling to congratulate you on being the winner!"
"..........Get outta town!!"

You see, right when I got my new fancy desk job, I started surfing several websites on a regular basis: fmylife.com, failblog.org, kotaku.com, and ign.com. One day, IGN had a contest to be a guest editor at E3. I entered it casually as I often do most prizes, figuring that I probably wouldn't win but if I did, Nate and I could go. And then I promptly forgot about it. And then I got a call telling me that I won! I'm not going to lie - I feel like the cat's pajamas. After finishing my conversation with the woman on the phone (who reminded me of GLaDOS in that she wouldn't say I could bring a friend but that I could bring a "travel companion," and I wanted to ask if it was ok if I brought a box with hearts on it but didn't want to be rude), I immediately called Nate over and over until he picked up at work so I could scream the good news into his ear.

And now, Nate and I will be going to E3. We fly out June 2nd and spend all day June 3rd on the Expo floor, me working for IGN and Nate having the time of his life running around and meeting videogame people. Expect long articles from Nate about how much he loves me followed by all the things we will see at E3. I'm excited to play games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Bioshock 2, Brutal Legend, Beatles Rock Band, Mass Effect 2, and DJ Hero. "DJ Hero?" you ask, confused. Yes, DJ Hero, because honestly, it looks kinda fun, and I want to play it without buying it. I'm also hoping to see something exciting from Valve. Oh, the week is going so slow!

So that's it for me. I'm currently making lists of things to bring, and by that I'm deciding what graphic novels I should go out and buy to read on the plane. I probably won't be bringing my laptop to LA because I don't want to risk losing it, but I may get a Twitter account so I can update it as I go about playing games and doing things. At the very least, Nate will be doing that, so expect next week to be fun and exciting for everyone.


See you at E3!

PC Gaming Diary #4 - No PC Gaming This Weekend!

Ahhhh, three day weekends are so glorious. This weekend I took a bit of a break from the PC gaming world since I had friends in town (one of which was Nate). Instead, lots of time was spent playing Mario Kart on the Wii and Left 4 Dead on the 360. My roommate owns a Wii (which she never plays) and my friend Whitney was nice enough to bring her copy of Mario Kart as well as two extra controllers for the weekend and Nate was nice enough to bring his Xbox and Left 4 Dead with him. Lots and lots and lots of time was put into Mario Kart, mostly Nate and Martin playing solo and unlocking various levels we could play in multiplayer. After the weekend, I concluded that it might be fun to buy Mario Kart for my roommate's Wii even though if she moves, I won't have the console anymore. But it was really enjoyable and definitely a game worth having for any Wii owners if they have people over. I really do enjoy the Wii and the games that come with it. The only downside is that most of the time they are really only enjoyable games if you have a decent number of people over, which I don't typically have. I think if I ever came across $250+ and wanted to waste it on something, it would be a Wii, but I don't really know if it's worth saving up for or spending money I could spend on something else knowing I wouldn't be playing it all that often.

We also got in a few rounds of Left 4 Dead. I actually own the game for PC, but have never ventured into multiplayer on the PC because I have this inherent fear of playing against/with people I don't know. I recognize (and witnessed this weekend) that a lot of online gamers are epic douchebags, so I try and avoid that at all costs. It's hard being a PC gamer these days because we are somewhat of an endangered species...well, maybe not quite that extent, but most mainstream gamers prefer consoles and you're hard pressed to find too many people to multiplayer game with on the PC and unfortunately I know none (except for people that play WoW) so the biggest draw to a console for me is the multiplayer aspect and being able to play games with friends (especially since so many of mine do not live very close). So, with that being said...I am making the jump to becoming a console gamer. Okay, maybe I'm not entirely making the jump considering my PC will always be my gaming "console" of choice, but I will be purchasing a Xbox 360 today at lunch. I was lucky enough to find a month old pro system on Craig's List for $160 and I swooped that deal up. Hopefully the deal doesn't go sour and I get scammed in the process as it will most likely sway from making a 360 purchase on CL ever again. So hopefully in the future you will see more then just "PC Gaming" entries from me.

One last note, I have been planning a couple entries for the Bioshock 2 multiplayer as well as Borderlands, but I haven't gotten around to it. I'm going to make it a priority this week to post those entries as I feel as both of them are not getting enough attention as they deserve.

Modern Warfare 2 Reveal Trailer

Since I was away from the computer all weekend this is all I have to show you for the time being. I am sure that you have already seen it but you should just watch it again and take it in.

I am happy to see that this story looks like it is going to pick up right after the last one and looks to be just as epic and just as groundbreaking. If you weren't looking forward to it with the teaser trailer are you looking forward to it now?

P.S. - Kara has some excellent news for all of you let us hope that she tells you later today.

Further Indication of Crackdown 2 @ E309

On this past Sunday's Major Nelson showgram, as outro music and Name The Game music, Larry (Major Nelson) played Crackdown theme music. They might as well announce it right now. The proverbial cat is already almost out of the bag. I am sure he is quite thrilled with himself for the theme announcement and now this.

But seriously folks this is some good subtle marketing for us who follow this sort of thing.

A Slow Run to E309

The one true thing I dislike about trade shows is the fact that news grinds to halt less than two weeks before the show. Even the rumors that have been hanging in the air aren't numerous, meaning that I have already mentioned them in passing.

I do keep getting more and more excited for The Beatles: Rock Band because of little things like this. I feel like the game is going to make me feel like Guitar Hero 2 made me feel when I originally snagged that when it hit 360. It felt new and fresh and I really feel like The Beatles: RB is going to bring that new luster to a genre that is quickly getting stale (what with Activision's, GH5, Band Hero, DJ Hero, etc.).