The Call of the Gamer

Capcom COO dies

adamantlee — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:06:05 +0000

Instead of focusing on a game today, I want to send my condolences out to a company.

Mark Beaumont, Capcom’s executive vice president, officer and Head of North America, South America and Europe consumer software publishing, died this morning. He was in his late 50s.

According to MCV, he died due to a heart attack, but Capcom will not confirm this.

Beaumont also had stints at Warner Interactive, Activision, Data East, Mindscape, Psygnosis and Atari.

Below is the release Capcom sent out about the passing.

“Our COO and dear friend, Mark Beaumont, passed away this morning. This sudden loss has left us with deep sadness. Our hearts go out to his family and loved ones. We will remember him for his humor, passion and commitment to Capcom and our industry. He was a great leader and visionary and his spirit will carry on in everything that we do. Please join us in memory of Mark.”

3D Dot Game Heroes Thoughts

adamantlee — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:52:24 +0000

Last week, I got a chance to sit on a Web preview of 3D Dot Game Heroes.

My thought after watching it be played is that PlayStation 3 owners need to get this. It really reminding me of 8-bit Zelda games, and the fun I had with them.

Personally, I loved the homage Atlus is playing to other games. Seeing hidden jokes from Mega Man and Zelda was great.

Another things interesting to see will be the sword in action. The thing is huge, and seems capable of destroying most things in one or two hits. Even when not at full power the sword was still a decent size.

The selling point for this game will be the price. Going at $40, this will make it stand out for gamers still trying to recover from big releases in March. Plus, given the extra modes and minigames the game has there seems to be a lot of replay for the game.

When this releases in May, PS3 owners shouldn’t skip over this game. Check it out, reminisce about old times and enjoy a throwback to the past. It’ll be worth it.

Borderlands content releasing this week

adamantlee — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:43:49 +0000

I decided to start up this blog again just to give my personal thoughts from time to time on stories that catch my attention or to talk more about games I review. I don’t know if this will be daily, but I’ll try to get at least a few posts a week.

It was announced today that “The Secret Armory of General Knoxx” will be available this week for Borderlands for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. For me and some of my friends, this is huge news. I’ve put over five days of gameplay into this game, and plan to put quite a bit more in.

The content is raising the level cap to 61, including new vehicles to use and new land to explore, and even including a level 64 boss to take on for new rarer weapons.

Gearbox really is going over the top of what I’ve come to expect from downloadable content, which is a great thing. Usually DLC is a few extra levels for a game, but Gearbox releases whole new areas to explore with missions to do. While Mad Moxxi was a bit of a disappointing DLC, even the small arenas were fun to do. The 20 round ones, on the other hand, were a living hell.

I look to be setting aside Bioshock 2 and possibly even upcoming titles like Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3 to thoroughly explore the new content. For anyone looking for another guy on Borderlands, hit me up at Vengeful Rain on 360. Always up for new people to game with.

04.06.09 Fact or Fiction on 411

adamantlee — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:04:57 +0000

Once again, I am contributing to 411mania’s Fact or Fiction column. This week, we discuss topics ranging from the new Zelda, to Shadow of the Colossus, to OnLive, Virtual Boy and even some April Fool’s pranks. Going up against me is Mark Salmela. We take some shots at each other, but it’s all in fun.

I implore you to check out the full column here, and leave some comments on it. Next week, stay tuned to see my Top 5 list get published on the site (I won’t tell you what the list is about as it would ruin the surprise).

NCAA Basketball 09 March Madness Edition (XBLA) Review

adamantlee — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:00:25 +0000

I’ve been thinking how I want to post reviews for a while on here, and think I figured out how. On my reviews for 411mania, we type a “The 411″ section where we quickly recap the review. I think from here on out, I’m going to post that here, with a link at the end for the review itself. I implore you all to check the review out. Also, be sure to check out 411mania on gamerankings.com. We are now a registered company with them and I implore everyone to check us out. Without farther ado, The 411.

The 411:
Overall, except for hardcore March Madness fans who don’t own 09, this game can easily be overlooked thanks to its $15 price tag. While I applaud EA for trying to be timely with March Madness happening right now, they just stripped too much out of the original game to make it worth purchasing the arcade game over the full version. The graphic glitches and lack of an online mode hurts this slimmed down version. While the game is fun to play for sports fans, $15 is just too steep.

NCAA Basketball 09 March Madness Edition (XBLA)

Update on blog in the next few weeks

adamantlee — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:36:37 +0000

This is just a short update so that readers of the blog do not get confused. Over the next month, I have to critique a multimedia journalist. I have chosen Xeni Jardin. It looked like some of her videos were gaming related (I had seen one from the Game Developers Conference), and I liked the styles I saw from other videos. So, there will be non-gaming posts now critiquing some of her videos. Don’t worry, though, you can still catch all of my gaming news at 411mania.com.

Fallout 3: The Pitt (Xbox 360) Review

adamantlee — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:33:10 +0000

Last week was pretty good on reviews for me. Besides doing the NCAA review, I also did a review over the newest content for Fallout 3. Titled The Pitt, the content take players to Pittsburgh to try and help solve the sickness there, or to side with the slavers depending on your choice.

Like I said last week, I’ll be posting The 411 here then a link to the full review. Hope you enjoy.

The 411:
Once again, Bethesda delivers another great piece of content for Fallout 3. Although it is short (I finished it within a full day of play), by getting all 100 Steel Ingots and using the area for all the extra options available, fans of Fallout will definitely get their money’s worth out of this. For any owner of the game, The Pitt downloadable content is worth picking up.

Check out the full review here.

411mania News: Modern Warfare 2 Teaser Released

adamantlee — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:02:53 +0000

This is the first few graphs from my story over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from my story at 411mania. For the original article and to make comments on the site, click here. That link also has the trailer to view, along with more of the story. As always, please check out 411mania.com for all your video game news and reviews.

Fans of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, here’s something to try and tide you over till the release. At last night’s Game Developers Conference meeting, Activision not only gave a teaser trailer, but also a release date for the game. Nov. 10 of this year is the date shooter fans have to wait for.

“Everyone on the team is laser focused on making the most gripping experience we’ve ever created,” said Infinity Ward’s CEO, Vince Zampella. “No detail is too small and every finishing touch imaginable is underway to make Modern Warfare 2 our best ever. We can’t wait for our fans around the world to play starting November 10th.”

Continued at 411mania.com…

Viral marketing in games

adamantlee — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:54:40 +0000

With the newest BioShock 2 website out there called There’s Something In the Sea, I wanted to touch a bit about how major video games do a great job with viral marketing.

It seems all major games want to use viral marketing to some extend. BioShock 2′s website shows the possibility of a new enemy and the abduction of many small childen (what the game calls Little Sisters). It’s really well done, mapping out where they’ve taken place at and with made-up stories as well as events that happened leading up to it. They’ve been updating quite frequently so far, so something new can be seen often.

The other big viral marketing campaign I want to hit on is Halo 2 with I Love Bees. It was one of the first major viral ads a game used, and it received up to 500,000 visits whenever they updated. While it looked like a beekeeping site that was just subtly thrown into a Halo 2 trailer, a lot of stuff about the game kept getting added in as corrupt data on the website. They followed it up later with a Halo 3 viral campaign, and other big titles such as The Dark Knight used their own viral marketing as well.

This is a great marketing style that games seem to utilize well. Bungie, in particular (the makers of Halo) do great with viral marketing, and now that BioShock 2 is doing a good job as well, maybe other bigger titles will start following suit in the future.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Preview

adamantlee — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:23:11 +0000

At the bottom of this story will be my preview on the new Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena Preview for the Xbox 360. This was my first preview of a game I’ve done for 411mania, and I thought it turned out well. I started off with a sort of walkthrough of the demo, but interjected my thoughts and sidenotes about certain parts of the demo.

At the end , I also happened to add a few suggestions on the game and what could be changed. Basically, to sum it up in a line, if you liked Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, you’ll like this game. It brings much of the same elements back to the table and adds onto it. To read the full review (and I encourage you to), click here.