Gaming – Page 4 – rgbFilter

Homefront: Thanks for playing our demo

March 24, 2011March 26, 2011 Wesley Fok Dear Game Diary, Homefront, PC gaming, PS3, review, THQ, Xbox 3602 Comments

Spoiler warning: Plot spoilers for Homefront. All four hours of it. Though I would love to expect a higher level of emotional engagement with my video games, when it comes to military-style first-person shooters, I don’t ask for much—probably because they almost always fail to deliver. You run through a bunch of corridors, shoot a bunch of dudes, pick up some new guns with one of seventeen different scopes, hit a slow-motion sequence, feel like a bad-ass. I’ve just distilled the essence of every modern Call of Duty game into…

Child of Eden preview

March 23, 2011April 4, 2011 Doug Groves Child Of Eden, electronic, Genki Rockets, j-pop, Rez HD, Show, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, trance music, Ubisoft, video0 comment

Our time spent with Child Of Eden was similarly engrossing, and even surpasses its predecessor in many ways. While the ‘inside the network’ storyline continues, visually the game is more lush, replacing many of the vector outlines with vibrant colours. The blending of audio and video carries over from Rez, and playing it on Kinect brings even more to the game.

Windows Phone 7 Day to Day

March 22, 2011March 23, 2011 Doug Groves LG, LG Optimus 7, LG Quantum, Live, review, smartphone, Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7, WP7, Xbox Live4 Comments

Just a week or two before the launch of Windows Phone 7, my old phone did a nosedive onto a tiled floor. Not just a drop mind you, but a slow motion flung through the air and land screen first about 10 feet away from me drop. Though I had to cover the screen with cellophane to avoid dislodging glass shards, it wasn’t a permanent solution. That’s when I decided to give Windows Phone 7 a try…

Dragon Age 2: Dragon Harder

March 14, 2011March 15, 2011 Wesley Fok Bioware, Dragon Age 2, EA, PC gaming, PS3, review, Xbox 3601 Comment

I’ve poured almost thirty hours into Dragon Age 2 since its release less than a week ago, and in that time I’ve been slowly getting a handle on what exactly I like and don’t like about the game. Narrative concerns I will probably leave for another day, but there were a few things I noticed:

Hi-Rez Studios announce Tribes: Ascend for PC and 360

March 11, 2011April 4, 2011 Doug Groves Hi-Rez Studios, multiplayer, PC games, PC gaming, Starseige Tribes, Tribes 2, Tribes Ascend, Xbox Live1 Comment

Anyone who’s been playing multiplayer FPS games for over a decade will probably remember with some fondness both Starseige: Tribes and its sequel Tribes 2, the latter of which was released a decade ago. The series introduced players to a number of new elements in competitive multiplayer, from vertical combat using jet packs, and large sprawling maps that could accommodate teams of up to 16 players. Hi-Rez Studios, which purchased the Tribes franchise last fall, announced at PAX East that they’ll be bringing Tribes: Ascend to the PC and Xbox 360,…

Killzone 3 review: Another Take

March 11, 2011March 12, 2011 David Doel Guerilla Games, Helghast, Killzone 3, multiplayer, PS3, PSN, review, Sony1 Comment

The instant I triggered Killzone 3’s ending cinematic I literally said “Thank ****ing GAWD” out loud. Killzone 3 is like an abusive loved one with deep-seeded issues. There are those moments where you’re having fun with them, moments where you feel sorry for them, and then moments where they make you so angry that you just want to hit them over the head with a baseball bat.

The Great Canadian Appathon runs this weekend

March 10, 2011March 11, 2011 Doug Groves contest, game jam, Great Canadian Appathon, KPMG, Microsoft, mobile gaming, National Post, Telus, Windows Phone 7, XMG Studio0 comment

This weekend marks the Great Canadian Appathon, a competition to code a mobile game from scratch to completion in 48 hours. XMG Studio and The National Post are sponsoring the mobile game coding marathon, which starts at 5pm on Friday March 11th. The competition is open to university and college students, working either solo or in teams of up to four people, with the goal to make the best Windows Phone 7 game possible from scratch. Teams will meet up at one of six different locations across the country to start the marathon coding…

Kinect sells over 10 million, celebrates with a Guinness

March 9, 2011September 26, 2012 Doug Groves Guinness, Kinect, Microsoft, sales, Xbox 3600 comment

According to a Microsoft press release, the Kinect for Xbox 360 has sold over 10 million units, and in its short 4 month history has also sold over 10 million standalone titles. It’s a pretty impressive feat, making it the Fastest-Selling Consumer Electronics Device according to Guinness (the Book of World Records, not the delicious stout).

Killzone 3: The Glorious Fruits of Our Land

March 9, 2011April 1, 2011 Wesley Fok Dear Game Diary, Guerrilla Gardening, Killzone 3, PS3, PSN, review, Sony1 Comment

The standard review approach for Killzone 2, Guerilla Games’ showcase PS3-exclusive first-person shooter, focused on judging its merits in comparison to landmark Xbox 360 shooters like Call of Duty and Halo. The latter comparison was especially enticing—clash of the console-exclusive titans! Take that approach to its logical conclusion and you end up with the majority opinion about the game: graphically impressive and plenty of fun, but occasionally marred by poor design decisions…

IGDA Toronto holding GDC Round-Up

March 9, 2011September 26, 2012 Doug Groves event, Game Developers Conference, Gamercamp, GDC, GDC 2011, Hand Eye Society, IGDA, IGDA Toronto0 comment

Next Monday, the Toronto chapter of the International Game Developer Association (IGDA) will be holding a round-up of the 2011 GDC event, which wrapped up this past week. The round-up will be held at Metro Hall, with a get together afterwards across the street at the Elephant & Castle.

The Bell Motorola ATRIX, coming March 17th: Revolutionary, but at what cost?

March 8, 2011September 26, 2012 drsquid Android, Android 2.2, Atrix, Bell, canada, Froyo, Gaming, Lapdock, Motoblur, Motorola, smartphone, superphone9 Comments

When Motorola announced the ATRIX at CES, I was very excited – even more so when they followed up that announcement with news that it was coming to Canada on Bell. Up to that point, as a long-time Milestone (Droid to our US readers) user, though, I had been a little disappointed in Motorola. They had seemed to have forgotten about Canada. Both the Droid X and Droid 2 were released in the US last year, but they never came up north. By year’s end, it was almost like Motorola…

Angry Birds everywhere

March 7, 2011September 26, 2012 Doug Groves 3DS, Angry Birds, facebook, Microsoft, mobile gaming, Nintendo, Rovio, Wii0 comment

It seems that Rovio’s fowl flinging game is aiming to be completely ubiquitous this year. The smash hit that took the iPhone by storm has since been ported to Android and a board game will be appearing soon on Windows Phone 7, Xbox LIVE arcade, and Nintendo’s Wii and 3DS. Beyond that, they are launching a Facebook version of the game in the coming weeks as well. The Finnish company has even announced a somewhat bizare deal with deal with Microsoft for Bing to be the ‘official decision engine‘ for…