Hello to everyone who might be reading PLAY READ WRITE this thanksgiving! I'm guessing that if you're a regular reader you've already figured out that I'm on break for Thanksgiving. I'll be back to regular working hours on Saturday, so until then I hope you're having a Happy Thanksgiving where ever you may be. Try to sneak some gaming in with your family or whoever you might be spending the day with!

Gamestop Hosts a massive MW2 Tournament

Much like SFIV, Gamestop has seen fit to organize a giant Modern Warfare 2 tournament. Let's hope this one doesn't gobble up the Earth.

The tournament is separated into 1 on 1 and 4 on 4. The 4 on 4 tournament is run through MLG and you have to organize a team to participate, but there's good prize money to split up if your team wins. The 1 on 1 battles are apparently taking place in stores tonight starting at 9 p.m. Being one of the 16 finalists in that tournament nets you prize money and a trip somewhere to take on international opponents.

Is it possible for MW2 players to make names for themselves the way SF players did? When PRW covered the SFIV tournament finale in San Francisco, it was interesting to see the fan recognition some fighters had, including Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong. Is there a Daigo for the MW2 scene?

Interruption of Service

Sorry to everyone for the lull in posting. It's been a busy week and it's sure to continue with a packed schedule up until the end of the semester. I hope readers of PLAY READ WRITE won't mind some silence here as I work at my internship, more iPhone app reviews and actually playing games.

Here's what I've been playing lately:

• IL-2 Sturmovik: This was my second review for Game Revolution. I played through the game on Arcade, but messed around a bunch with the Realistic and Simulator modes as well. I am so terrible at flight-sims and IL-2 only reminded me of that. I tried to play around with the harder controls more for the achievement points, but I just couldn't struggle through it. I think my total gamerscore ended up at around 250 points.
• Heroes Over Europe: While I'm refraining from playing through the campaign all over again on Ace difficulty, I did clean up some of the odd achievements that don't involve playing the multiplayer (multiplayer achievements suck!). All together, I'm over 500 points.
• Modern Warfare 2: I'm still playing plenty of multiplayer, especially thanks to a free 12-month Live card from Game Revolution.

I'll try to keep posting throughout the next week, but expect updates to be slow what with the triptophan and holiday celebrating.

8-Bit L4D reignites the need for Zombie Killing

Something about this 8-bit Left 4 Dead has reignited my failing interest in Left 4 Dead 2. The other day, my girlfriend Jenna and I were in Gamestop. I was looking around at the GCN games and checking out box covers for several titles when she asked me about Left 4 Dead 2. I hadn't really been thinking about the title at all. With my Macbook Pro incapable of running very many PC games anymore, I had sort of written off L4D2 as a game I would just miss out on in the holiday season.

Of course, I could pick it up for the 360, but I can't stand the thought of getting a Valve game on a console. My fear is an irrational one, a fear that dictates that a crack in the world would open up and swallow all PCs at once and it would cease to exist as a viable gaming platform. Of course, this could never happen, and there's a large community for L4D on the 360, but I think I'll continue to hold out.

Instead, I'll have to take on hordes of 8-Bit zombies when NES Left 4 Dead drops in January. That is, unless I get a free copy of L4D2 somewhere....

Wii vs. PS3, cover your eyes children

Someone at Digital Foundry thought that a Wii v. PS3 graphics comparison of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Reflex on the Wii). At first I thought it was a good idea, but this is pretty much only for kicks, what with the huge disparity between the two systems.

All said, Reflex on the Wii does fairly well for itself. What do you expect from the Wii version of a game that wow'd gamers as much as CoD4 did? The textures, characters, guns, and overall aesthetic shows the downgrade Treyarch had to make. What does Infinity Ward think about this port? Something tells me they're going to keep their lips very sealed, what with the port being outsourced to the CoD B-Team, or whatever you want to call it. I'm sure Activision has IW on some sort of NDA as far as their opinions and keeping the same face across the entire company.

That being said, I think it's great that Wii gamers will get a chance to check out the original MW, especially in lieu of them missing out on Modern Warfare 2.

As a side-note, I'm sorry for the deluge of MW2/MW posts PLAY READ WRITE has seen. You'll have to excuse it, especially because MW2 is easily the biggest news item gaming has seen this entire holiday season.

Modern Warfare 2 Boycotters give up the ghost

Modern Warfare 2 boycotters on Steam certainly don't know who's watching. Maybe Infinity Ward would take them a little bit more seriously if they didn't buy the game despite their boycotting.

All snarkiness aside, Steam's community features certainly lend themselves to the general social networking attitude. How many online petitions have people signed half-heartedly? How many groups are you a part of on Facebook that you haven't visited since accepting the invitation?

I can't blame the Steam users. I signed the petition asking Infinity Ward to rethink the dedicated servers debacle, but I knew I was getting the game on Xbox 360 anyways.

Modern Game Marketing - RE: Darkside Chronicles trailer really makes an impression

Don't take my word for it, head on over to the page and check it out. Right now! Here's a link: click it! I like it a lot when game companies do this sort of thing. Does anyone else remember the Wario Land: Shake It trailer they had on Youtube?

Anyways, if you still don't know what I'm talking about, the ads around the video aren't the only thing that's breaking boundaries for Resident Evil. I really like when game companies market this way. It certainly takes modern video game marketing in to the Web 2.0 space. I don't understand why more of these haven't been made, especially because they make such an impact on the viewer.

Maybe if the technique was used more often, it wouldn't make the same impression, or maybe it just costs a lot of advertising dollars that would be better spent in another area (like outdoor ads, or on public transportation [I actually saw some Darkside Chronicles ads on the Bay Area Rapid Transit last week]).

Modern Game Marketing is a series on how new games, and the corporations behind them, get you to want them.

Epic Mickey's epic atmosphere spreads to comics etc

Modern Warfare 2's Infamy Trailer

Microsoft's MW2 Branded Xbox 360

The Ballad of Gay Tony

Yup, I've been playing

Modern Warfare 2, with pretty much every extra second. I also didn't have any classes today. That was very easily counter-balanced by the fact that I had to work tonight. Bleh. So bored, with nothing to think about except not getting to play Modern Warfare 2.

Anyways, after initial difficulties, Zach, Nick and I managed to get into a couple of games together after the midnight launch. A few hours later, I was back online and played a handful of games with Zach. I was the top scorer for a number of rounds. Is there anyway I can keep myself on Xbox Live to keep building my skills?

Anyways, long story short, I'm heading back in the game. Turns out, it's pretty good. Truth be told, Infinity Ward knows that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I hope to see you online. You can add my gamertag on Xbox Live: coolyfooly88.

Assassin's Creed II Lineage kicks off

The Assassin's Creed short films have kicked off with the first film showcasing Ezio's father in action. I don't know if I was the only one with high expectations for this, but I think they've been met with the speed and efficiency of a hidden blade.

When I read that Hybride Technologies (300, Sin City) was behind the production, I figured that at least the action would be good, even if the words and overall plot sucked. In reality, there isn't a whole lot of plot to be seen, but the action is about good as expected. I was a little disappointed that the pacing wasn't as fast as the game. When playing even AC I I thought jumping and landing on an enemy was exhilarating, as was climbing up to the highest point in the city. Sadly, none of that was present in Lineage's first outing, but hopefully more of what I loved about AC gameplay will come down the pipe in the next editions.

WRITE UP / 11.09.09

This week is a busy one. Here's a hit list of what I've been playing and what I will be playing:

• Modern Warfare 2: Easily the biggest game of the season is upon us. Tonight's midnight launch will hopefully go smoothly, but I think it's safe to assume there will be a few hiccups on Xbox Live over the next two or three days. If that's the case, gamers should find solace in organizing Spec Ops mode outings, or even the campaign. That being said, I know there's going to be a lot of multiplayer activity and I hope I can hop on early enough and often enough to stick with the pack as massive amounts of XP are attained. I'll see if it's worthwhile to write up a review, but for some reason I think I might skip scribing any impressions until the storm has blown over a bit.
• Heroes Over Europe: I'll be finishing up my first review copy of a (legitimate) game and submitting the review over the next 48 hours. It's been fun, but ultimately I think the disc is going to be tucked away in my Mirror's Edge messenger bag. No offense to Transmission Games, but Heroes Over Europe was pretty bland. I will say this: getting 4 Ace Kills in a row by sniping the pilots is about as satisfying as getting 4 backstabs in a row as a Spy in Team Fortress 2. The gameplay has that much going for it, and any title that manages to give me that feeling of being a completely sadistic bastard is OK by me.
• APB Beta: I've missed a couple of days out of the Beta, but I'm hoping to get back to San Paro as quickly as possible to see what I'm missing. I do wish I could get a better frame rate out of the game, but my computer continues to age and games continue to grow. Maybe it's time for an upgrade.
• Team Fortress 2: The Halloween KOTH_Harvest_Event map still lives on player-run dedicated servers. I can't imagine playing TF2 in a matchmaking service, but thankfully, I won't have to. I've been playing my usual rotation of Payload and CP maps. The other night I was leading the team several rounds in a row as my old favorite, the medic.
• Transoid: Transoid is an iPhone app/game that uses elements of light and tower defense. It seems fun, but I haven't spent too much time with it. Honestly, I've only played it in the bathroom. That being said I'm sure I'll have some time later tonight while waiting in line to fiddle around with it and come up with some impressions. After that, I'll be able to write up a formal review.

Phew! That's a lot of games, more than I'm used to! Let's see if I can make it through the rest of this week....

Halo Reach screenshots leak

The Halo Reach screen shots that linked are probably old news for anyone who's stumbled across my blog today, but I thought I'd post something up anyways.

I don't pretend to be the biggest Halo fan in the world, but I've played the games plenty, so I think that leaves a little room for interest. Besides, Halo is huge. It's huge everywhere, in dorms, high school students, douche bags... A LOT of people play Halo.

That being said, I think Halo 3: ODST went out the door to much fanfare that has quickly died down into a hushed environment of waiting for Modern Warfare 2. Luckily enough, Halo: Reach gets brought back to the average gamers attention with these leaked screenshots.

What can you really tell from them? There'll be new weapons, new campaign, new enemies. I'm sure we could have guessed these things. I want something that tells me how Reach will be different from every other Halo game I've played.

Announcement: Sorry Everyone

Sorry to all for the day of silence on Saturday. This past week was a busy one (and next week is going to be EVEN BUSIER). My schedule has been packed to the brim, but a busy writer is a happy one. Being a busy writer also means I get to eat.

I've abandoned FURTHER READING in favor of actually just posting something about what I read and like on a day to day basis. It certainly leads me to do a lot more writing. Of course, if you're a regular reader, you've heard about my gig over at theiphoneappreview.com and while that's been going swimmingly, I've also been spending time working over Heroes Over Europe, an Xbox 360 game from Ubisoft that was quietly released back in September. I got a review copy of the game from Game Revolution as an acid test to see whether or not they want me doing some review work for them.

I ran up to Berkeley the other day to meet with them, get a quick interview in, and then leave with my assignment. It's due shortly, but I'm trying to wrap my head around it and generate a great review, nevermind if the game was good or not!

I've reached my 15th iPhone App Review and will post a round up of those once I've completed my 20th. Until then, I'll keep working hard at posting here on a very regular basis, I'll keep working hard at my review of Heroes Over Europe, and I'll keep churning out app reviews. Promise.

DJ Hero Impressions

I finally got my hands on DJ Hero at Best Buy the other day. Of course with the constraints of a demo, I might not have been all that impressed upon, but as far the gameplay goes, I was surprised, to be succinct.

In many more words, I have to say that playing DJ Hero is like relearning everything you've already figured out about music games, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. You have to relearn how to handle rhythms, you have to relearn where you hands go, you have to relearn what you can get away with. God I wish Harmonix were handling this new foray into the music genre (but they're more interested in teaching people how to play real instruments... [is a turntable an instrument?]).

DJ Hero certainly has loads of personality to spare and the visuals certainly do impress (if you even look at them, who looks at what's going on in the background during music games?). The demo let Jenna and I play through three songs, including mash ups of Gorrilaz, Marvin Gaye, and Gwen Stefani. Really, walking into the experience, I thought DJ Hero was going to be really stupid, and so did Jenna too. Still, I wanted to at least try the new rhythm game and get my hands on the turntable, especially after I had heard some good things from Zach.

What finally got Jenna in, I think, was her curiosity and the music. Something about mixing two bad songs together ends up turning them into one passable song. It helps that DJ Hero's mash-ups combine new and old songs. I noticed that a relatively new Black Eye Peas song was mixed with a much older and very recognizable electronic song. I think it turns out a nice balance.

Anyways, my stance currently is that I have quite a bit of plastic crap in our small apartment and a Rock Band set would come back inside before a turntable, but maybe some day I'll pick up DJ Hero.

All this Dedicated Server talk...

... has really gotten me thinking about trying Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the PC. I have a handful of friends who play(ed) the game on a regular basis, but I personally, have never tried playing a Call of Duty game on the PC.

I know that many purists will argue that CoD was born on the PC. Certainly, there's no arguing that fact, but I think that the general focus of the game has turned to the consoles and has certainly made a much larger name for itself there.

Still, I can't help but wonder what the hardcore community for CoD4 is like right now. Are people even still playing the game? What is the community like compared to the hardcore communities in Counter-Strike Source and Team Fortress 2?

For the amount of uproar being made about the exclusion of dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2, there must have been something good going on in CoD4.

As a side note, there are a lot of competitive scene videos to see over at Youtube, and while this playlist is from the Xbox 360 community, it's still quite good (excellent production), I've been watching them in waiting for Modern Warfare 2.

Yesterday, in TAY

Here's an exchange between myself and several other commenters over at Kotaku on the subject of Fallout 3. I'll write more about Fallout 3 at a later time (suffice it to say, the game wrapped up amazingly [head asplode pic related], but for now, here's what I've already said (and a bit of the feedback):

Daniel : So, I know I'm super late to the party, but I just finished Fallout 3. Suffice to say the ending was awesome. I've had trouble sitting down and playing a dedicated amount of time to it, but last night I probably played for 4 or 5 hours and just finished the main quest right up.

Daniel : @pekosROB: How much did I truly like Fallout 3? Honestly, the beginning was slow, I got frustrated before figuring out the navigation system exactly, and a lot of characters did a little too much talking (plus there's all the nitpicking one could do about the character models and some general engine issues).

Despite all of that though, it wrapped up quickly, I got a lot more into the game once there was a bit more interaction. I never once had my dog companion (nice of the ending to show me with him anyways though), but when I was traveling with my dad, or with one of the brotherhood people who wanted to tag along to Murder Pass, or eventually with Fawkes, I felt like everything was a bit more meaningful. Why would I want to save this wasteland when there's no personal connection to it? That sort of question would come up a lot when I was playing early on. Later though, when I was playing with weapons that were a bit more powerful and the environments didn't simply repeat the underground stations over and over again (I'm talking about Vault 87, Murder Pass, Little Lamplight, Ravenrock, etc) I was getting more and more into the experience. I'd play with the stats a bit more, I'd scavenge for ammo etc. Maybe I was just a bit more fearless and I got to enjoy the game a lot more.

Fallout 3 was definitely a slow burn, but it went out with a bang and I'm probably going to go back and do more of the secondary quests.

tl;dr (for those of you): I really enjoyed Fallout 3 once I could get into it.

pekosROB : @Daniel : I totally understand what you mean by started off slow. A friend of mine and I started playing. We're the type that one will play, hand off the controller so the other can take a break or look up stuff online if we're having problems.

We didn't get the quest in Megaton to go to the Super Duper Mart from Moira until much later - the problem was we wandered into there VERY EARLY in the game. You can imagine what happened - this is before we realized you could fast travel and before we even had a gun - just a knife. I mean we literally found Megaton, walked around, then went out and found the Mart.

I can't even tell you how many times we had to save and reload that game, or die and let it load to the last save. This was also before we had any money or a bed to sleep in to get health back. Yeah it was a pain, kinda creepy at first (at night at least), didn't go to the right places for weapons, but once we figured it out - it was one of the greatest single player games I've ever played in history.