Are you the best Halo 3 player in South-West Ohio?

Thousands of dollars in prizes, the best of the best in the South-West Ohio turning out to be crowned the king of Halo 3. Do you think you have what it takes to survive? With an estimated hundred+ expected to turn out to what could be extended to a weekend long tournament, this is sure to pay out to the top contenders. More information coming shortly.....

E3.

Those two characters are enough to send most serious gamers into convulsions of ecstasy, complete with pelvic thrusts. They are enough to glue most of that same crowd to their computers and TV’s in a desperate bid to feed on every scrap of information they can get their eyes on. Because of those two characters, we more than willingly leave our significant others, family, houses, pets, possessions behind to fly into another city and be dazzled by the biggest and best the gaming industry has to offer.

Awesome, right?

That’s actually a heavily loaded question. Is it awesome to meet and greet the developers and publishers of our favorite games? Absolutely it is. Is it great to be the first to know some of the biggest announcements in gaming each year? Youbetcherass.

So, Veilsix, why on earth are you being so downtrodden about it, you might ask?

Simple. E3 is no longer the boisterous, loud and energetic event that it used to be. Ever since the 2007 reformat, it has not generated nearly the same hype and buzz that it used to. This is not only painfully obvious at the actual event itself, but after having viewed the online videos and feeds presented to the public, it looks downright gloomy and … dare I say boring?

The image isn’t really far from the truth. When you get past all of the neat displays and mockups, it’s really no different than reading an article with pictures. So why is it that when the internet and media age have evolved to the point of effectively delivering the experience to the at-home viewer, that E3 has dialed down the excitement and fun so drastically? What happened to the desire and pride of generating a buzz in your target audience?

It saddened me to see these guys come out on stage when you could see the excitement in their eyes, and be met with a mostly polite applause at best from an audience of reporters who (for the most part) have no idea who they were looking at. Most of the audience seems to be clueless outside of their press kits and a few bits of broadly general information. They had no real grasp on the significance of anything at all… about all they know is “Clap if the announcement contains the words Gears of War, Halo, God of War, and Grand Theft Auto”.

E3, I’ve loved you for many years but this is not good enough. It’s not good enough for your audience and it’s not good enough for you. E3, you feel like Major Nelson’s Weekly Update on Xbox Live: forced upbeat enthusiasm put on for 1 camera and no audience. At least Nelson has an excuse, whereas you could easily pack an amphitheater full of screaming fans and give yourselves, the live audience, and those at home some real energy and enthusiasm. I want to be exuberant again when I hear people talk about the likes of Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Halo Wars, Rock Band 2, Fable II, Final Fantasy XIII… the list goes on. I want to feel real disappointment when Bungie fails to come through with their “big announcement” they’ve been hyping up (granted, we all know it’s going to be Halo 4 but still…).

E3, my sincere wish is that you liven up for 2009. Make some changes and get an announcement out later this year that makes us excited for it. Go back to your old self and give your fans a chance to enjoy you and in turn give you the atmosphere you are sorely missing these days. Next year, Versus EE should want to close and attend E3, instead of playing it in the background somewhere. At the very least, it should be something that can play with pride on the big screens where everyone can see it, and more importantly, FEEL it.

That is all.

Veilsix's Gaming Update & The PS3 stirs and wakes!

Let's face it: since I bought it, I've gotten some serious mileage out of my Xbox 360. Mr.PS3 sat back in jealousy during my seemingly everlasting and torrid love affair with Bill Gates' lovechild. However as I ate my way through 360 titles like I was PacMan, I find that the well has pretty much run dry for the moment. I sat in my basement/gaming altar at a loss one day, wondering what to do next when suddenly I swear I heard my PS3 clear its throat and scoot forward on the tv stand a couple of inches in preparation.

So I popped in Ubisoft's Uncharted: Drake's fortune and played the last bit I had left. I have to honestly say this was one of the best games I have ever played. It had such a mix of different genres in it, and they were so well put together it felt like you were playing through a blockbuster movie. In terms of graphics and soundtrack, it was all brilliant and spot on. Uncharted had a unique look to it, almost a cellshaded cinematic quality to it. Think "A Scanner Darkly" but more gritty and real looking, the facial reactions especially giving things a real life feel.

The action involved everything you can think of: 3rd person shooting with emphasis on obtaining cover (behind destructible environment areas and items) done largely in a Gears of War style with shooting from the hip and also aiming (even a zoomable sniper rifle is utilized from time to time). Also involving hand to hand combat and combos, riding vehicles like jet skis up a river, area puzzle solving. The platform based action was great too, including death defyingly high swinging action and climbing (much like Assasin's Creed's highlight moments).

Some of the attention given to little details really stood out for me: if you take too long trying to figure out how to proceed in an area, the game gives you an option to hold L2 down, which shifts the camera to the general direction of the answer you're looking for; also, the in-game trophies, treasures and rewards system. The trophies/medals were setup very similar to Xbox Achievements, asking to you achieve X event or kill X enemies in X ways, just to name a few. It really encouraged me to use as many of the different weapons and moves that were available. The treasures were the hidden items in the game, however (unlike Call of Duty 4's enemy intel items and other similar games), these were small shiny glints of light hidden behind trees, in corners and such that you had to pay attention to spot -much like a real treasure hunter- and once rewarded you were told the specific treasure was with a nicely rendered image of it. Finally, the rewards system was based on the medals and treasures, unlocking previously hidden treats for those who like bonus content.

Plot and characters were on par with a Hollywood movie. The story was great, with lots of twists, turns and nailbiting moments. The acting and voice talent are amont the best I've seen -if not the best I've seen to date. I found myself really caring about Nathan Drake's If you enjoy action-mystery-adventure movies sprinkled with bits of good comedy, you will thoroughly enjoy this game.

I really have to say that if you have not played Uncharted and you are a PS3 owner, you are really missing out on a fun, solid quality game that exceeds expectations, and really drops a surprise turn during the last 10-12% to change things up. This game will go on my "keeper" shelf of non-trade-in games.

You're probably wondering by now what this update has to do with the picture under the title. Well, there's no need to fret about it. On Sunday I ceremoniously unwrapped Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and inserted the game disc into my PS3.

After about an 8 to 10 minute install time, during which the game does make a decent attempt at entertaining you, I began Solid Snake's final venture through the MGS series. I won't give anything away just yet, but I will say that I'm thus far blown away by the story and gameplay mixture. The game renders every detail imaginable. You really feel more than ever like a passing ghost in the middle of an all out open war between two factions. Also (thank God) So far there hasn't been a single issue with controls, everything works smoothly in and out of combat so all those issues are laid to rest.

The weapon customization, item variation (even an iPod with tracks you can play) are enough to keep you entertained for a long while. Once you meet Drebin, the arms dealer, these options go through the roof. That's about as detailed as I'm going to get in terms of characters and storyline, as it would be a disservice to spoiler this game to any wandering fan.

My only complaint so far is how long the cutscenes and sequences can take sometimes, but even so I have to admit this is almost necessary and seems to really work for the deep storyline, which would probably suffer without these extended storyarcs.

Metal Gear Solid 4's excellence is clearly a result of Kojima's painstaking care and development. I'll give my beloved audience a spoiler free wrap-up rewport after the smoke clears.

In conclusion, the only games I hadn't finished or played at this point in my library are MGS4, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and Heavenly Sword. There are also several other PS3 titles I've yet to pick up. With this in mind, and taking into account that the Playstation 2.43 Update is releasing today granting us new perks including but not limited to trophies (Sony's answer to Microsoft's Achievement system), and with Playstation Home coming this year, it looks like my PS3 is officially out of hibernation for quite some time.

Youth + Violent Video Games = Peaceful society.

As we here at Versus countdown the days to the opening of our gaming euphoria, I have been doing research on the impact of increased amount of gaming to our society. I stumbled upon what I consider an extremely well written, and researched article by Duke Ferris, who writes for Game Revolution(link above). The picture that you are looking at is a chart that Mr. Ferris pulled from the US Department of Justice, and ONLY edited with the release dates of the PS1, GTA1, PS2, and GTA3.

Duke's article is directed at the naysayers and "Blame Canada" type parents and political figures that want to point fingers and blame anyone but themselves, or just plain bad parents, for crimes in America. It's not our fault that certain people fail at parenting and thus lead to a midly retarded, most likely abused, mentally and physically child who grows up to shoot up Toys-R-Us and then you blame it on Grand Theft Auto, or Eminem (hey it wasnt my fault eminem told me to do it again). Stop by and check out the full article and do yourself a great justice. In the meantime I will be planning the GRAND release of a store full of video game violence that will house countless youth's and teen's day in and day out. Hey im doing my part to clean up the streets, what have you done lately?

Mirror's Edge

I was introduced to this game when the first screen shots came out about 6 months ago. Why this game caught my attention is because of the quality and realisticness (is that a word?) of the game. Just take a look at the screen shot above. When I first glanced at the screenshot, I thought I was looking at an actual city in Shanghai or Beijing. But no, it’s an actual screen shot from the game. One word: Awesome. Using Epic’s Unreal 3 Engine and Beast, a new lighting system developed by Illuminate Labs, makes Mirror’s Edge more realistic, brightly colored style different from other first-person shooters. There are a wider range of actions you can do, such as sliding under barriers, wall-running, tumbling, shimmying across ledges, and greater freedom of movement. There is no HUD, and the legs, arms, and torso of the character are visible on the screen at some points. View more screenshots here: http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/949/949457/imgs_1.html. View the trailer for the game (which is all gameplay), here: http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/949/949457/vids_1.html.

Mirror’s Edge is an action adventure game, so the focus isn’t on the gun, but on the person. Gameplay mainly focuses on finding the best route through the game’s environments, with combat taking a secondary role. Guns can be obtained in the game, but carrying them slows Faith down. The heavier the gun, the more it hinders her movement. This introduces an element of strategy in determining when to trade agility for firepower.

The game is set in a conformist dystopia in which communication is heavily monitored by a totalitarian regime. A network of runners, including the main character, Faith, are used to transmit messages while evading government surveillance. Taken from Wikipedia: “The only playable character in the game is a runner named Faith. The story follows Faith and her struggle to free her sister from a corrupt government. Her parents were killed while protesting against the government and she was forced to grow up on the street, later becoming a runner. Faith was taught not to rely on modern forms of communication, partially because the ruthless police state prefers eavesdropping every chance they get. As Faith attempts to rescue her sister, while running messages for the criminal underworld, she gets caught up in a series of events which lead to her being pursued by the totalitarian government. Acting as Faith's guide is a mysterious character named Mercury, who will help Faith in her attempt to outwit and overcome the many government agents that are out to eliminate her.”

The game will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. A release date has been set for November 2008, so it’s possible that it will be pushed back until it is completely finished.