Burning Crusade Beta Invite.

Hidden in my torrent of daily email, today, was a delightful email saying that I had been invited to take part in the World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade beta. Now, I can't say I'm the biggest WoW fan ever (my highest level is a level 32 Rogue) but I've recently started playing again in anticipation of the new expansion pack. In other words, I'm extremely excited to be able to take a part in this beta!

It's going to take forever to download (2.13GB) but, rest assured, when I finally get around to playing it you'll see a lot of Burning Crusade goodness going up here soon.

Great Gaming Moments - #1: Those Pesky Spiders!

Every Monday billions of people pop over to The Gnome's place (when he's around) to revel in the glorious Museum Monday. Across the galaxy The Gnome's weekly column snatches people up from the depressive start of another working week and basks them in the glowing halo of what The Gnome dragged up from the dusty shelves of yesteryear. Yes, The Gnome should be elevated to Saint Hood for what he has done to save countless people from another mind-numbingly depressing day in the office. How does his bandwidth survive such a torrent of Gnome-worshiping peons? That, my friends, is a miracle of life.

But what, may I inquire; does the average gamer do on a Sunday afternoon as they wait for the goodness that will spout onto the internet on Monday? Well, they could always go outside and get some fresh air, but since it happens to be Winter they may want to stake their tents here and wait it out for the new column that promises to last longer than the short birth pangs of a fallen Retro Review. Yup, Great Gaming Moments has arrived to take the world by storm - or at least get a faintly amusing comment from The Elderly Gamer!

This week we go back to the days where Sony could actually ship enough units to, you know, get people to play their console, the glory days of the Playstation (Or PsOne for all you modern types).

One early game for the Playstation was a game that will be remembered in the gaming annuals for eternity, a game that sparked off a series of games that officially put Capcom in front of people's eyes and held them open with tiny sticks (although the last said about the movies is for the better). Resident Evil could be accused of stealing Alone in the Darks survival horror formula but, ya know, if you don't get it mainstream then it's no-ones fault but your own.

Resident Evil was a good indicator of the power of the Playstation, making the mainstream take notice that a video game could really scare the shit out of you. Every time Resident Evil is discussed, however, it's either the first time a zombie turns around and stuns you with the Playstation's graphics (Run away and watch that fat bastard Barry blow his head apart) or the moment where a bunch of zombie dogs smash through the windows and shows you that the real-acting video at the beginning of the game was basically a cheesy piece of crap, this is the moment that scares the living daylight out of you though. For me, though although it was in the same place, it's something else that made me pause the game in a sweat and wonder what the hell I was doing playing this game.

SPIDERS! BIG FUCKING GIGANTIC HAIRY TARANTULA'S! Like the majority of Earth's population I'm not too fond of spiders, especially not when they crawl across the wall with a horrible scuttling sound, and just happen to be three times the size of you. The set cameras on Resident Evil (I think the free camera on Resident Evil 4 took some of the suspense away from the series) meant that you could always hear your enemy coming but it entered your screen. When the enemy just happened to be a gigantic spider you couldn't help but do anything other than stand rooted on the spot in fear, or at least that was your onscreen avatar. Outside of the game you jumped off your chair in fear, fumbling with the pad to hit the pause button in order to take a breather. When you'd finally composed yourself you jumped back into the game you quickly tried to pull out your weapon and shoot randomly at the spider before it jumped down off the roof and tried to bite you with fangs bigger than Chris Moyles' ego. When you eventually killed them you realised it wasn't that hard but that didn't stop you cringing whenever one had the balls to grace your screen.

Fuck dogs, gigantic spiders make me shit my pants.

Tom remembers sitting in his boxers playing games every Sunday on No Signal Input.

Man Shot Waiting For Playstation 3.

HARTFORD, Conn. - Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new Playstation 3 game system to go on sale early Friday and shot a man who refused to give up his money, authorities said. - Yahoo

It's a mad world when people are shot over a video games console. It's also mad that people will pay over, on eBay, $1000 for something when thousands will be shipped out in the coming months.

It's a games console, there are far more important things in life then bragging over having a PS3 before everyone else.

1 shot in Conn. Playstation waiting line - Yahoo News.

'Modern' Call Of Duty May Be In The Works.

Rumors have been flying around for a long while now that Call of Duty may go the way of the Battlefield series and take the step up to modern warfare. These rumors turned out to be nothing but speculation when the game released was Treyarch's Call of Duty 3, an exclusive console outing. However, Amped IGO says it has inside information from a 'reliable' source that not only speaks of the existence of Call of Duty 4, but that it will be based on modern warfare.

According to our source, Call of Duty 4 will be developed by Infinity Ward, the developer behind the first and second installments. The three-way deal established between Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Activision states that Infinity Ward will develop all even numbered titles while Treyarch develops the odd numbered games, such as Call of Duty 3. Treyarch did develop Call of Duty 2: Big Red One as well, however. - Amped IGO

When Battlefield took this step there is no doubt that it turned out to be better, but Battlefield has always been a far different ball game than the Call of Duty series. There's no word about whether or not it will be set in the Middle Eastern theatre but if it transfers the excellence of previous Call of Duty games into a modern swing then we may be looking at something good.

The game will apparently have 15 critical points shoot, including an enemies ear. It will also bring back PC gamers into the fold, having been excluded from the recent Call of Duty 3, with 54 players on the console versions multiplayer mode.

I've always been a bit skeptical about Call of Duty going modern but also think we've had enough World War 2 games to last a life time. I'll be following this project with interest.

Call of Duty 4 In The Works - Amped IGO

Xbox360 On My Monitor!

I ordered this new monitor yesterday, in preparation for getting myself an Xbox 360 pretty soon. Basically the monitor I have right now is the resolution just below High-Definition (720p) and this new monitor goes two settings above 720p, which is all good. I see little point in buying a 360 if I couldn't play the games in HD. As a student I can't afford a TV that costs over £1000 so a £270 monitor is a much better way to go. I'll hook the 360 up to my new widescreen monitor through a VGA cable and bask in the glorious visuals. I'm not sure what to do about the audio yet so I'll have to run it through the TV next to my PC until I can get hold of a decent enough sound system (I'm thinking I might try it in my living room hooked up the sound system there because that would sound amazing).

My brother says he'll put half of the money into the 360 (£150 each, the bundles in one of the Leeds GAME stores are amazing, and you can add an extra game for £20. I've yet to check my local Burnley GAME to see if they offer the same deal). I'm a bit concerned that my brother may go back on his offer and not save any money up from his job, which I don't even have the luxury of, which means I'll have to pay the full £299.99 and extra on top for the VGA cable and the wireless adapter I'm thinking about getting for it.

The monitor is coming on Thursday but it may be a while before I can play a 360 on it. If worse comes to worst I'll still have over £400 of my student loan left and I get another £1400 in January. Relying on my student loan isn't the best idea but I have to pay it back some day so I may as well make the most of it now. Plus, I don't relish working in Tesco at Christmas.

What The US Mid-Terms Means For Gamers.

Game Life has compiled a post on what the recent mid-term elections, in the USA, means for gamers. In other words, who gained or lost a seat in congress and whom also have the game industry in their sights.

See, politics can be interesting!

Gamers: Your Election Results - Game Life.

(Via Joystiq)

Grand Theft Mario

In this hilarious video from Robot Chicken Mario and Luigi take to the streets of Vice City and cause mayhem, GTA style!

Keep watching to the end and spot the Resident Evil reference.

(Via Joystiq)

November Carnival Of Gamers Rolls Into Town!

For those of you looking for something to read this weekend the Carnival of Gamers #19 is up at Unfettered Blather.

Don't know what the hell I'm talking about? Well get out from under the rock and hit the Carnival of Gamers HQ over at Buttonmashing, for more information and every single previous Carnival.

Now please excuse me while I go and do some reading.

Carnival of Gamers #19 - Unfettered Blather.

The Future Of Gaming?

Sold everything for one last month of that addictive virtual reality MMO? Then this may be you in the near future.

It's a bleak and depressing view, but it may just go this way if MMO's like World of Warcraft continue to drag people under. If this was to move into virtual reality? Some would say we don't need it as the effects are happening now, but in my opinion it would be far worse if you were playing a game that looked just like reality. Would people actually want to leave something that felt so real and was far better than reality?

Dark times are ahead, which pill will you take?

Eren Cantrell - Deviant Art

(Via Destructoid)

1UP Pulls Neverwinter Nights 2 Review.

1UP has pulled a review of incoming Neverwinter Nights 2, stating that the review did a "disservice to fans of the RPG genre."

The game was given a 5 out of 10 by reviewer Peckham and seemed to focus more on the workings of D&D than the game itself.

The review is to be replaced by another, hopefully less controversial, review.

There goes another nazi Editor cracking down on the opinions of the writers. With that said the review may have gone slightly overboard (I'll leave you to decide that for yourself) but, firstly, why wasn't the review checked before it was posted? Secondly, why wasn't it slightly edited instead of removed altogether?

You can't blame the writer if there's a breakdown in editorial structure, they should have read the damn thing before publishing it.

I'd be inclined to agree with the original review, but only because I found Neverwinter Nights to be terribly boring.

You can see the original review over at Joystiq.

(As a side note I haven't been able to reach 1UP for months now, for some strange reason)

EA Launches Digital Distribution Service.

EA has jumped on the digital distribution bandwagon by launching EA Link, a new service that allows you to download EA games straight to your PC. It works a bit like Fileplanet by downloading a download manager to your PC and downloading through that. The service will also offer 'bonus' content along with games such as Battlefield 2142 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07.

To be totally honest I've never been a massive fan of digital distribution because I prefer to earn something physical. It's the same reason what kept me from trading in any of my games, even if they were awful (New York Race anyone?). Is this the future? Not for the moment but like we see with Xbox Lives Marketplace demo downloads (and the PS3/Wii service) publishes are currently tapping their foot in the tepid water and getting a pretty decent response.

I don't see digital distribution replacing physical games anytime soon but I have to admit it's a lot easier for the gamer who can't be bothered hitting the shops. The console aspects of these downloads are far more pronounced lately but I'd always rather buy the game than download. I'd be more likely to do it with the PC because of it's whole nature. I suppose I'll get used to it when I actually splash the cash for a next-gen console.

Damn actually leaving the house!

(Via Clickable Culture)

EA Link.

EA Confirms The Sims 3, Next-Gen Black, And Other Titles.

Sometimes I'm a bit late on the ball but this time I have an excuse! NaNoWriMo, the ultimate endurance test for writers which sees you trying to complete a 50,000 word novel in a month, is underway and I've been spending a lot of time trying to get my characters to actually do something interesting. Blogging is extremely good for procrastination, although not good for getting my actual word count up.

Anyway, keeping up with the news is easier when you have the help of Google Reader (Bloglines can piss off) so I at least have an inkling about what is going on.

EA released it's earnings report yesterday and, as with every terribly boring earnings report, they always hide a few little details in them that makes it at least worth pouring over. The games? Some were expected, while others are a bit of a surprise.

Several other new titles were unveiled during the call. "There will be another Lord of the Rings [game]... There's a new SimCity game in the pipeline and the next-generation version of Black. Those things alone are all new, relative to fiscal '07," said Jenson. It was unclear whether Jenson meant the games would arrive before the end of EA's 2007 fiscal year, or were just new to the company's financial plan for the 12-month period. - Gamespot

Right, so a new LOTR game was pretty much predicted by anyone with two brain cells to rub together, and a next-generation Black makes a lot of sense (Remind me to play that came sometime). However, a new Sim City gets me very interested. A PC version is a must but with todays emphasis on strategy games swapping over to the consoles does this mean versions on the next-gen consoles, especially since The Sims have made various transitions in the past. If Sim City was on handheld consoles and could interact with the PC version I might be interested in something like that, although I'm not holding my breath unless it was a Playstation 3/PSP type deal.

Speaking of The Sims the third game in the series has been confirmed to be under development:

During the same call, Jenson also confirmed that several sequels to EA's most important franchises are in the works. "Yes, there's a Sims 3 in development and it's likely to be a fiscal '09 title," said Jenson, meaning the game would hit stores before April 2009. The executive also confirmed that the Sims franchises will also be coming to two next-generation platforms--the Wii and the PlayStation 3. - Gamespot

lthough it was probably coming sometime in the future I didn't expect it yet. How exactly can you expand on The Sims 2 at the current moment in time? You've got excellent graphics and enough expansion packs to keep you going for a while. It'll obviously be taking full advantage of DirectX 10 and Windows Vista but does this rule out a lot of the casual gamers that have made The Sims such a staple game? I doubt the majority of people will be on Windows Vista even in 2009 as it always takes a good few years for the majority to switch, unless Microsoft really push it. Yet I could be wrong since cheap computers like Dell may be including it as standard packages pretty soon. I think I need a crystal ball sometimes.

Or maybe I just make a lot of false predictions. As has become the common thing to say around these parts, who knows?