Oh, 1999. You held so much promise. I started my sophomore year of college, got settled in my dorm room, and started the school year off right – in my friend’s room playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on the Playstation. From that moment on my love affair with the series began, and unlike my move away from skateboarding in real life after college, I remained faithful to my virtual skateboarder avatars for a long time, until the series just got plain silly (noseblunt grind on a dinosaur’s tail over a helicopter gap, anyone?). So you could imagine my glee to discover that the original, the legendary, the amazing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was being reskinned in HD (cleverly titled Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD) and was set to be released on XBLA as a part of this year’s Summer of Arcade, the little skater punk fan in me did cartwheels.Read More
PAA: OTRSPODE3 | Review
Posted on July 6, 2012 by Jesse Lord
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3 is the lastest entry in the Penny Arcade-themed video game. At five bucks and available on many platforms, the barrier for entry is rather low. But not everything that is cheap and easy to attain is worth the paltry sum of coins you must part with to attain it! To that end, let’s discuss the nuances and finer points of this title, so you might be able to fully understand whether or not this is a game you’d enjoy housed in your collection.Read More
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Dawnguard Releases Tomorrow!
Posted on June 25, 2012 by Jesse Lord
Tomorrow is when you can hunt vampires… or become one yourself.
Yes, in a press release issued today by Bethesda, they have confirmed that tomorrow is the day that you can pick up the first expansion to the Skyrim universe, Dawnguard. You can exchange 1600 Microsoft Points for the chance to get a new faction, new questline, new weapons, armor and baddies in your Skyrim experience. Here’s the press release:Read More
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Just Cause 2 Muliplayer Mod Impresses
Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jesse Lord
There are many reasons to enjoy the open-word extravaganza that is Just Cause 2. They include, but are certainly not limited to, flying behind a gas canister that you’ve grappled onto after shooting it, taking insane base-jumping feats to the next level by adding guns into the mix, driving cars off cliffs with hilarious and oftentimes spectacular results, and of course that floating club that everyone’s been raving about. One thing many a gamer was clamoring for, however, was a multiplayer mode. Well, wonder no more!
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The Soundcheck | Iron Maiden 6-Pack
Posted on May 29, 2012 by Jesse Lord
Now that I’m all rested after taking a nice vacation last week with my lovely wife, I’m back and ready to play catch-up with the weekly DLC releases! You’ll also notice that I’ve settled on a name for these features – you can now call these posts “The Soundcheck!”
So for last week’s DLC we got a mega-pack of Iron Maiden epics under the appropriate title “Maiden Epics” in the Rock Band store. The tracks are as follows:
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Rock Band Weekly DLC Review | Paramore
Posted on May 16, 2012 by Jesse Lord
Hello out there! This is the first of a series of weekly mini-reviews for the DLC that is released each week for Rock Band. As I am just starting these out, I’m open to comments and suggestions, if you guys want to see things in a different format or what have you. I’d also like to brand these things with a catchy title, and I’m open to suggestions on that front too! So thanks in advance for reading and if you have any comments, please leave them below in the comments section or feel free to email me at jesselord@brokenjoysticks.net. Cool! So without further ado, let’s get started!
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Wolfenstein 3D 20th Anniversary Browser Game!
Posted on May 9, 2012 by Jesse Lord
Halt, dog!
I still remember the very first time that I heard those words when I was at a friend’s house. He wanted to show me this awesome game called Wolfenstein 3D and I had no idea what I was getting into. There are few games that really mark the beginning of a movement and set the stage for others to come after them, and Wolfenstein 3D is exactly one such game. So it is with great pleasure that I can report, via an email from one of my delightful contacts over at Bethesda, that there is a browser-based version of the game that you can play, right now! Bethesda, in celebration of Wolfenstein 3D’s 20th anniversary (I can’t be that old, can I?!) has released the full game, playable in-browser. Head to this site to get to killing Nazis in no-time flat!
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Max Payne 3 | Preview
Posted on May 2, 2012 by Jesse Lord
A couple of weeks ago, I was given an opportunity to head up to New York City to hang out with some friends from Rockstar Games as well as some other website guys that I’ve had a chance to get to know over the years at similar such events. The purpose of this trip specifically was Max Payne 3. The event culminated on Saturday evening, where we were taken to a building that on the inside was made to look like an abandoned warehouse in which a gunfight had recently taken place. There were spent bullet casings littered throughout the venue, which I thought was a very nice touch. I had some time with the Xbox 360 version first, which you can read about by heading over to this article that I wrote for TeamXbox. However, here I would like to explain my experience with the PC version as well, so let’s get right to it!
I will start from the onset and let you know that the PCs that we were playing on were basically super-computers. I suspect that every time I fired a bullet in-game the lights illuminating the Statue of Liberty not far away flickered, ever so slightly. However, I spoke to one of the Rockstar reps up in the PC loft in the warehouse, and they assured me that this is a game that can scale to differing computers very well. So fear not on that end of things. That said, you will notice a trend as I speak about the game here – and that is that the PC version of Max Payne 3 is the definitive version. Don’t get me wrong – the Xbox 360 version is amazing, and does on that console what few other games have ever even attempted. But simply put, PC is king for Max Payne 3. This could partially be because I played Max Payne 1 and 2 on the PC as well, so it’s in my frame of reference for this to naturally be a PC game. But let’s talk now about some concrete examples of what I mean.
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Rayman Legends Boasts Exclusive Wii-U Functionality
Posted on April 27, 2012 by Jesse Lord
First things first. If you haven’t gotten your grubby mitts on Rayman Origins, spectacular game that it is, go do that. Right now. I’ll wait.
Done? Great. Ok, so there has been a rumbling that Ubisoft is working on a follow-up to that refreshing platformer, and the news has broken by way of a leaked trailer for Rayman Legends, which you will see embedded below the jump. This in and of itself is great news – unfortunately Rayman Origins, while generally critically–acclaimed across platforms, did not see spectacular sales and therefore the likelihood of a sequel seemed to be but a far-away dream. Thankfully Ubisoft were unfazed by the sluggish sales and took to the development of a sequel anyways. Thanks, Ubi!
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Max Payne 3 Weaponry Video | 1911
Posted on April 26, 2012 by Jesse Lord
Rockstar have released the beginning of a video series detailing the weaponry of Max Payne 3. This first video showcases Max’s favorite from day one, the 1911 Semi-Automatic Pistol. I’ll let the video speak for itself:
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3DS System Update Now Available
Posted on April 25, 2012 by Jesse Lord
3DS owners, if you haven’t already done so, now is the time to update your system! There was an announcement during the Japanese Nintendo Direct broadcast informing the public about the update, which has a handful of useful changes, not the least of which is the folder functionality. Now you will be able to create folders which can contain up to sixty items per folder, which is quite handy if you’ve been on a downloading frenzy since launch.
Furthermore, this update will allow for Nintendo to push patches and updates for their games, such as the loopholes found in Mario Kart 7 allowing for ridiculously short lap times. This broadcast also was used to announce New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS, for release in August.
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Crytek: Next-gen used games block ‘would be absolutely awesome’
Posted on April 25, 2012 by Jesse Lord
In an article over at CVG, we learn that Crysis dev Crytek have some interesting thoughts about next gen, specifically as it pertains to keeping Piracy down and preventing the used game market from stealing their cash monies.
Rasmus Hojengaard, Crytek’s director of creative development, issued the following statement in an interview over at the site:
“The worst thing that can happen is they make something that’s very complex for developers, regardless of how awesome it might theoretically be,” he said. “So getting hardware that allows you to quickly get prototypes up and running, and any kind of scalability they can offer will be great as well, as long as everyone has that scalability and not just a select few.”
I completely agree with Mr. Hojengaard, there. But when the interviewer then asks about the rumored anti-used-game measures that are purported to be in the next Xbox and Playstation consoles, he had this to say:
“From a business perspective that would be absolutely awesome. It’s weird that [second-hand] is still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well.”
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Rock Band Blitz – No Rock Band 3 Disc Export
Posted on April 4, 2012 by Jesse Lord
For those about to rock, we salute you.
Some more information is coming out of the woodwork regarding Rock Band Blitz, the recently-announced next title from Harmonix. The premise is a relatively simple one – you get to play a rhythm game in the style of Amplitude or Frequency but with Rock Band branding. That means you don’t have to worry about lugging those fake plastic instruments out of the closet to play this one. Word got out that all of your Rock Band tracks would be playable in this title, and that was cause for much rejoicing. Even greater than that, it was also revealed that the ~25 tracks that come included with Rock Band Blitz would also be playable within Rock Band 3 as DLC! That is a big selling point in my opinion.
Some further information about the Rock Band tracks’ compatibility with Blitz has come out, as Harmonix has confirmed that the Rock Band 3 on-disc tracks will not be compatible with Rock Band Blitz. This is due to the fact that those games are on-disc and not on the hard drive itself. When asked if a future paid-export to the hard drive was a possibility, a Harmonix representative stated that they had no plans at this time.
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Wii U The Perfect Console for MMORPGs?
Posted on April 3, 2012 by Jesse Lord
I just had a chance to check out an article over at CVG, and they have some opinions of Joel Bylos, a Funcom Lead Designer regarding the Wii U and its benefits as it pertains to MMORPGs.
According to Bylos, the tablet-like controller is suited rather perfectly for the MMORPG genre, sicne there is so much HUD-cluttering going on, with buttons and gauges and the like. To quote from the article:Read More
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