Epic Rating for Brutal Legend

This is the official ESRB rating for Brutal Legend. With hope, it will appear on the back of the box, right next to the ‘M’.

Brütal Legend

Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Rating: Mature

Content descriptors: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes

Rating summary: This is an action adventure/role-playing game that tells the story of Eddie Riggs, a roadie who is transported to a mythical world of heavy metal rock. Eddie is armed with a guitar and a double-headed axe, which players can use to slash and dismember enemies. Players can also perform “face-melting solos” (literally melting enemies’ faces), meet humanoid creatures dressed like dominatrixes and brandishing whips, and liberate an army of rockers from a life of oppression. Although the storyline is often irreverent and whimsical, the depictions of violence are somewhat intense: Undead humanoids are dismembered with an axe (sometimes in slow-motion); a “Steel-Quilled Blade” causes human enemies to explode into gibs that rain down; machine guns, missile launchers, and sub woofers can be used to kill druids and other fantastical creatures. Eddie can also run over dozens of enemies with his hot rod, resulting in blood effects and more heads and limbs getting chopped off. During the course of the game, characters sometimes engage in suggestive dialogue intended for comedic effect (e.g., “Maybe with all your feedback, you guys could just blow me over the gorge” and “Playtime’s over. Now let’s get back to the orgy”). Players will also encounter “Skull Rakers” clad in bondage gear and amazon-like warriors dressed in leather outfits that partially reveal buttocks and breasts. Strong profanity (e.g., “f*ck,” “sh*t,” and “d*ck”) can be heard in the dialogue.

I’ve got this pre-ordered.  It’s going to rock.

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Hey. This guy hates drm, too.

I agree with most of this article.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/6452-Experienced-Points-Online-Activation-Is-a-Ripoff

  • Steam is pretty awesome, but eventually any server will have to shut down.
  • I can’t imagine any modern publisher supporting any of the retro games I still wish to play.
  • Pirates don’t have to deal with any of this.

Solution-wise: there will always be pirate cracks out there to try and enjoy these games long after their activation servers have gone down.  There may even be distros like GoG.com or Steam’s recent revival of indie and old games.  But the point is: I shouldn’t have to crack or rebuy the game in order to play it.  As the author puts it: All of my old cd based games like Baldur’s Gate that don’t require an online activation will always work.  Throw together a VM or old computer, and you are good to go.  Fans make patches to get games installed and running on modern systems.

What we buy today may not.

BF2 1.50 patch to unite gamers

Battlefield 2.  This is the game that made me upgrade my computer back in the day (and it still was barely enough).

Now, a few years later, and a few expansions later, and they are doing a great move: making all the expansions free.

The bane of any multiplayer game is a splintered community that makes it harder to find a compatible game.  Requiring DLC to get on a specific server to play with certain people limits the number of players willing to continue paying for this product, instead of simply moving on to the next, better FPS.

But now they are reforming their community, with a game that will now run on any modern system.

I’m looking forward to when it is released:

http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/bf2_2142/archive/2009/08/27/battlefield-2-update-v1-50-is-almost-here.aspx##

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A new Batman game to be excited about

batman22

My copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum just shipped.  I highly recommend checking this game out (demos are available).

PC

Xbox 360

PS3 (go log in on PSN)

I had a ton of fun playing through the demo a couple of times.  Stealth felt rewarding, combat brutal, and had a good overall presentation.

And if you think the final screen from the NES Batman game has been photoshopped, you’d be right.  But it’s not that far off.

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G.I. Joe – You need to weaponize these warheads

The new G.I Joe movie is not good. But isn’t bad, either. There is as much plot as you would expect. There’s a base and it gets attacked. There are explosions. Lots of “Duke!” and “Ripcord!”, gunfire, ninja fighting, missiles, and chases.

There’s lots of fanservice. Favorite characters are here, as are a lot of vehicles.
Of course, there is a lot to criticize. There is a lot of stupidity you have to forgive. If you thought Die Hard 4 had hard-to-believe plot, then G.I. Joe will rub you the wrong way.
“We need you to weaponize the warhead.”
“What’s Scottish for ‘fire’?”

It’s not a movie I’d tell someone to go to, but if you wanted to see it I wouldn’t let other opinions stop you.

Gears 2 DLC, the complete collection, now available

The new Gears 2 DLC comes in two flavors: 7 new maps (featuring some classic remakes) and a deleted bonus scene single-player level for $15, or all that *PLUS* all previous DLC (19 multiplayer maps total) for $20.

This is a good chance to bring together the multiplayer community.  For $20 you can get everything and be up to date with everyone else.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/07/28/gears-of-war-all-fronts-collection-and-dark-corners-multiplayer-map-pack.aspx

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Guide to installing Grim Fandango

grim-fandango-melange

Grim Fandango is one of the few games that simply has trouble on new machines.  One of the first official patches helped fix puzzles that ran to quickly on anything above a 400mhz processor.  I waited for the Lucasarts Steam announcement, but was left still needing to research this dilemma.

Upon inserting the disc you are greeted to an autoplay that *may* reject your harddisc space due to inaccurate readings, and the Setup.exe will not run under any variant of 64bit Windows.  I am testing under Windows 7 RC, so this should work under Windows XP, Vista or 7.

  1. Instead, place disc A in the drive, then download and run this Custom installer available here: http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-setup
  2. I installed to the default Program Files(x86)\
  3. When prompted, insert disc B.
  4. Included in this custom installer is a Custom Launcher (available separately here; NOT NEEDED for this install): http://quick.mixnmojo.com/grim-fandango-launcher
  5. After installed, go to the Options of the Launcher and make sure there is a green check next to Run from Harddrive.

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Assassin's Creed for iPhone demo impressions

The first thing you are greated to is a cg cinematic when you play the regular version of Assassin’s Creed. When you load the iPhone version you are greeted to a movie of the regular version’s gameplay. Right down to targetting cursors appearing on characters running around the screen.

The gameplay itself is solid; the biggest hurdle is the virtual joystick. Either you will be able to deal with it or it will break the game for you. Try the newly launched demo/free version to test this.

Otherwise it is a nice looking platformer (for a phone game). Though, I did notice my battery drop pretty quick while testing out the demo.

Evangelion: 1.0

Title: Evangelion 1.0
Release: July 17, 2009
“There was no foreseeable warning before it happened — a catastrophe of unparalleled scale and magnitude overwhelmed the entire globe. This event, recorded in history as “The Second Impact,” caused half the population of the Earth to perish and devastated the world. All that remains of Japan is Tokyo-3, a city that is now being attacked by giant creatures that seek to destroy mankind. These creatures are called Angels. Fourteen year old Shinji Ikari is called to Tokyo-3 by his father who he hasn’t seen in more than eight years. He is asked to come to the NERV headquarters to meet his father. His father reveals to him a gigantic humanoid weapons system that the special governmental agency has secretly developed to fight the Angels and then orders Shinji to pilot the giant artificial human Evangelion Unit One. With the fate of the world resting on his shoulders, how will the 14 year old boy Shinji fight? Wht is the truth behind “The Human Instrumentality Project,” an operation somehow related to the “Second Impact”? And who is the true enemy? The Angels, NERV, the mysterious SEELE, or the demons held within the hearts of the people involved? Gendō Ikari, a man who holds many answers to these questions, watches silently and attentively as his son fights a desperate battle…”

Trailer found here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/evangelion10/

Movies: District 9 and Apple Trailers

DISTRICT 9-

XXXXX Stars

XXXXX Stars

I will def. be seeing “District 9” August 14.

Apple Trailers also has some hot movies. Check em’