40 years of Atari Goodness

40 years ago today, Atari was born. Forever it will be known as the father of modern gaming. Atari had its high, then its low, but it’s still around even though it no longer makes consoles, it still makes games and celebrates its past ones.

I’m going to focus on my experience with the Atari 2600, my very first gaming console. It was pasted down to me by my grandmother and my mother played it with her sisters and brother when she was young. Also at the time the one dollar store was selling new 2600 games. In the pic above are a section of the games I have.  I loved q*bert, pole position, joust, crystal castles, ms.pac-man, jr pac-man (which to me is the best pac-man game ever), and Solaris. Also other2600 games I liked but do not have was Mario bros and endure, which I completed. My Atari 2600 no longer works, which is sad because I would play these games over and over again. They are not like today’s games, where it takes 6hrs and you beat it, these games make you work for it, and the only goal was to get to the next level and survive

Why no celebrate today by finding a flash version of an old Atari game and play it. Get a feeling for what gaming was like. Here’s to another 40 years Atari.

My picks for the best of E3 2012 Day 1

E3 2012 is in full swing, many great things were introduced into the world yesterday, like xbox smartglass and sony's wonderbook. Here are my picks for the best of Monday, starting with the game that stole the show, ubisoft's watch_dogs:




 My next pick is Playstaion-All starts Battle Royale




next pick is gear of war judgement:




the next pick is the last of us




my next pick is south park: the stick of truth:



And finally my last pick is Halo 4



Watch_Dogs is so far my pick for best surprise and game at this years E3 so far. Not impressed with Microsoft's entertainment offers, I'm passing on IE on xbox. And wonderbook does not appeal to me at all. Looking forward to Nintendo press conference today.

Bethesda announces DOOM 3 BFG edition for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC

Today, Bethesada Software announced DOOM 3 BFG edition for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. It will include DOOM 3, it's expansion resurrection of evil, a new level called the "Lost Mission" and classics DOOM and DOOM 2. No release date or price has been announced, but I hope it's under $60

SOURCE

E3 2012 Game list and some predictions

The most wonderful time of the years if you’re a gamer is fast approaching, E3. A with E3 comes a butt load of games being revealed and new looks at the ones we know about, here’s the list:

Spec Ops: The Line [360, PS3, PC]

Borderlands 2  [360, PS3, PC]

XCOM: Enemy Unknown [360, PS3, PC]

Persona 4 arena [360, PS3]

Persona 4 Golden [vita]

ArmA III [PC]

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission [360, PS3, PC]

Resident Evil 6 [360, PS3, PC]

Lost Planet 3  [360, PS3, PC]

DmC [360, PS3]

Future battlefield 3 DLC

Crysis 3 [360, PS3, PC]

Medal Of Honor Warfighter [360, PS3, PC]

Sim City [PC]

Dragon Commander [360, PS3, PC]

NBA baller beats [360]

Star trek the game [360, PS3, PC]

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 [360, PS3]

Dragon Ball Z for Kinect [360]

Pikmin 3 [Wii u]

Super Mario Wii U

Pokemon Black/White 2 [DS]

Neverwinter [PC]

Aliens: Colonial Marines  [360, PS3, Wii u, PC]

Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed Line [360, PS3, PC, 3DS, Vita]

Planetside 2 [PC]

Hitman: Absolution [360, PS3, PC]

Tomb Raider [360, PS3, PC]

Sleeping dogs [360, PS3, PC]

Quantum Conundrum [360, PS3, PC]

Heroes of Ruin [3DS]

Kingdom Hearts 3D [3DS]

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [3DS]

Dead Or Alive 5 [360, PS3]

Darksiders 2 [360, PS3, PC, Wii U]

Far Cry 3 [360, PS3, PC]

Rayman Legends [Wii u]

Assassins Creed 3 [360, PS3, PC, Wii u]

New Super Mario Bros 2 [3DS]

Halo 4 [360]

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 [360, PS3, PC]

There will be more games not mention here, like a slew of more Wii U launch games. Also many more Kinect games (possibly Kinect sports 3, yea go ahead and beat the dead horse), and a Halo 4 subscription based program like call of duty elite (it’s all the rage now). As for new consoles outside of Wii U, even though they say “NO NEW CONSOLES THIS E3” I say it’s 40/60 they get a mention, no showing of the console or a video representation of its graphics, but won’t be surprised a PS4 or a Xbox What-you- ma-call it pops up.

list info from ign.com

The history of video games : the origin era

Everything has a beginning that includes video games. The dawning of the computer age had brought a new form of entertainment into many family's homes that will create a culture that will live on for decades after. This is the origin era of video games, featuring the Atari 2600, Colecovision and we start with the system that birth the home video game market: The Magnavox Odyssey

In 1966, Ralph Baer would begin work on a prototype that would create a new form of home entertainment.  In 1972, The Magnavox Odyssey would be released to the public, beating Atari’s pong by 3 years.  The system was in black and white, color overlays had to be put over the TV screen to add color to the games. It also had a light gun add on. Due to bad marketing, sales were poor. Baer would go on to create the electronic game Simon for Mattel

The Atari 2600 is one of the greatest video game systems of all time. At some point in one’s gaming life, they must have played at least one 2600 game. Initially called Atari VCS (Video Computer  System) along with a variety of names depending on where it was sold, it would eventually be change to Atari 2600. The Atari 2600 rode high until the crash in 1983, which after had to compete with the NES and suffer from failed attempts to compete with it (2600 jr and the 8bit 7800). In 1992, the Atari 2600 was discontinued.

 In 1982, Coleco, well known for cabbage patch dolls, released Colecovision . It had success from licensing games from Nintendo, which was touted to have near arcade graphics.  Colecovision had 3 expansion modules, one let you played 2600 games, another was a steering wheel, and the last turned into a home PC.  Much like many consoles of this era, it suffered from the 1983 crash and was discontinued in 1985.

There were many great console during this era, Intellivision and Vectrex being two of them. However due to over saturation of the market, and the rise of the home PC (which a few of these companies, Atari being one would go into) the video game market crashed kin 1983, thus ending the origin era, but because of this, the golden age  era of video games would come from  its ashes.  The poll to vote for what systems you want to be featured in this era will be up here and on the Facebook page.

Call of duty black ops 2 reveal trailer

This is the call of duty black ops reveal trailer...excuse me while I change my pants  

 

The Walking Dead game EP 1-a new day (ps3 version) review

The Walking Dead, the popular zombie apocalypse comic book now has a game based off it. I case you don’t know what the walking dead is about, it follows the lives of a band of survivors as they make their way across the country now riddled with zombies and other survivors, losing and gain more people with every “HOLY SHIT” moment that comes. The game follows this formula. As Lee Everat, you on your way to jail, till the zombie apocalypse provides you with the greatest get out of jail free card ever.  Along the way you meet others and gain a little girl as your main companion as you know survive in this new world.

The game is played much like an adventure game. The left stick is used to move and the right to look/interactions. The different buttons offer different interactions, like X being the action button, or the triangle being an observation button. The meat of the game is the interactions with other survivors. Gaining their trust or losing it will affect you even after the first episode. You also have a time limit to make your choices, removing any thinking on your part and going with your gut more often. Then there’s the “HOLY SHIT BAD STUFF IS GOING DOWN” moments that the walking dead is very well known for, where you gotta make a split decision NOW, and it come back to bite you in the ass later.

The look of this game is just like the comic book, except in color. I can even forgive Tellatale Games for some pixilation in the background. The Walking Dead game is not to be missed by any walking dead fan. For $5, is very a very good cheap download. I’m looking forward to the next episode.

Capcom gives us three new trailers today

Today Capcom has released three big trailers for 3 big games at their Captivate 2012 event. First up is Resident Evil 6:





Now the new Devil May Cry (or DmC) trailer




that's umm, an innovated use for pizza, not for the lost planet debut trailer




all three games look great, and the DmC trailer has made me interested, in the game not naked daunte.

Epic Games working on PC exclusive Game

Epic Games and it well know lead designer cliffy b, announced at PAX East that they are working on a PC only title. No details were given but it could be many things. This new "PC only title" could be the next game that put Epic games on the map and it's main graphics engine name shake,

Yes, this new game will be Unreal 3, and it will be powered by the Unreal engine 4. This is the reason why it's not being made for the current gen on consoles, they don't have the power to run next gen graphics unlike PC games. But don't worry, I'm sure whatever this game really is, it will find it's way to the next PS or Xbox console.

Coming soon: The history of video games

I’ve wanted to do this for a while, a post talking about the consoles that laid the ground work for today’s gaming systems. Instead of using generations, I have broken them down into eras (see timeline above), naming the eras for what that gen or gens contributed, and yes; some consoles do overlap some eras, PS2 and Xbox for example. Here’s the breakdown of the consoles per era:

The origin era (or pre-crash era)

Magnavox Odyssey

Pong (arcade and home system)

Fairchild Channel F

Atari 2600

Bally Astrocade

Intellivision

Bandai Super Vision 8000

Atari 5200

ColecoVision

Vectrex

The golden age era (or the rebirth era)

Nintendo Entertainment system

Atari 7800

Sega master system

Sega Genesis

Sega cd

CD-i

SNES

Neo Geo

TurboGrafx-16

THE 3D era (or Disc media era)

PlayStation

Sega Saturn

Atari jaguar

3DO

Nintendo 64

PlayStation 2

Dreamcast

Nintendo GameCube

Xbox

The modern era (or the online era)

PS3

Xbox 360

Wii

I will be doing each era in its own blog post. Now I’m not going to be talking about every console show in the list, that’s where you come in. I’m going to be putting up a pole both on here and on the Facebook page beginning with the origin era, and the top 3 or 4 consoles will be featured. Why am I doing this? This will lead to a "what is the best video game console of history" post in the future.If there is a console I left out that deserves to be listed, just let me know on twitter, the FB page, the G+ page, or by commenting below.

Thoughts On the Battlefield 3 Patch

The Big Battlefield 3 patch has been released for PS3 and PC users last week, and everyone seems to have an option about it. Some love, many seem to be pissed about it. Me? I like it but do have some things I don't like. I have notice much gameplay wise, I really don't pay that much attention to the guns and the way they handle. I did notice the F2000 was not the same, I'm going to take the suppressor off to see if that helps before i go switching guns. I do notice the amount of USAS user have greatly dropped. And the new map look is great. I do not like that claymores now go away  after you die, causing me from stopping using them altogether other than just using them on some maps. I don't care much for the new substitution business, a new way for EA to get more money. EA should give me the $14 for unlocking all the items for the classes I have done that with. And finally the rent-a-sever, I have mixed feelings over it. One, it's is a great thing to have on a console, you can just have a game with you best buds, although you gotta pay for it. But DICE has messed up how to make your sever private (check out the video below to see how to make it private). Also you can get dropped into via quick match a sever where the renter does not want you there and get kicked, this can be fixed with a "join EA/DICE severs only" option on quick match. Some of the non-EA/DICE severs are great, with tickets going into the 1000's. So with the build up and what seems forever for it to be released, the patch in the over all is great, yet with a few missteps. Battlefield 3 has greatly benefited because of it.

Taking a look at the Super Bowl Movie Trailers

This Years Super Bowl ads, well they were weak, but the movies trailers seemed to be the best out of the bunch, lets take a look at a few of them.





Battleship.....maybe some toys are not good candidate for a movie. This trailer has put me off, well at least till, it comes out on DVD. By the way, they are making a Monopoly movie, I bet that will win an oscar.





I really haven't been paying attention to John Carter till this trailer, now I need to read John Carter Of Mars. Great trailer, and great use of Led Zeplin's "Kasmir"





G.I. Joe Retaliation has made me do 2 things. 1, want to see this G.I. Joe Movie 2. request the first G.I. Joe movie from the library. I wonder how the Rock and Bruce Willis on screen chemistry is going to work out?

With the new Batman and Spider-Man movies absent, The Avengers was the sole Hero Movie trailer in the bunch, and is the best one out of all the trailers this year. This movie is going to be amazing. I wonder if the hulk is going to be the same hulk that will be in the new hulk TV show this fall? Would be great if it was.

And Thanks for the 10000 page views!

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock trailer

Doctor Who The Eternity Clock is coming this March to PS3 and Vita via Download. It is a side-scroller featuring of course the doctor and river song. To be honest, I think this game will disappoint. I always envisioned a third-person or a FPS doctor who game where the only weapon you have is you wits and a sonic screwdriver. A side-Scroller? Just don't seem to fit. Well I hope there are a lot of puzzles to solve. I hope it's good enough to make Doctor Who fans happy.

Sonic CD (PS3) review

A Sonic the Hedgehog fan favorite has come to PSN (and XBLA), the 1993 classic has been called one of the best sonic games made and of of the hardest. Does this version with some add-on still hold up?

Sonic CD begins with a animated sequence from the old DIC cartoon, having an animated sequence was big for a game  back in '93. You don't how the story really starts out, you're out to stop Dr.Robotnik in one of his plans to turn the world into robots. For some reason, he's put up time gates for to to go forward and back in time, oh and a metal sonic steals amy, sonic's lady friend. Over all this is just a regular classic sonic games, run, doge or kill enemies, get at least 50 rings, and get the gem in the special stage. I didn't really find this hard at all till the end, though I did not try to get the gems or find the metal sonic statues. Time attack is great if like to go as fast as you can in a level. A bonus in this version is if you beat the game, you can replay it as tails, which is great but I wish they included knuckles as well. Also include is the English and Japaneses soundtracks, which is far superior ton the English one, only could stand it for 5 minutes. I wish it would let you make multiple save files for the same game you're playing, miss getting a gem, you have to restart the whole game. For $4.99 Sonic CD is a great download, special if like me, you never had a Sega CD. Sonic CD is a great classic that any hardcore sonic fan must play. 

Will Mass Effect 3 be better with Kinect?

Yesterday EA and Bioware released a video showing how the Kinect works in Mass Effect 3. Voice commands are the main functionality for Kinect controls, no motion here. Team commands are the focus with Kinect controls, and looks like the best part. Telling you team to use attacks, move, and cover you with voice commands is much faster and better that using the menu. Even switching weapons is better and faster with voice commands. They do have "shoot" and "throw grenades" commands, which from my experience with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary , is completely worthless and better done with the controller. With no motion controls at all in Mass Effect 3, why use the Kinect at all, why not do it from the headset? I'm sure you use commands via the headset and it will work just fine, you can even extend that over to the PS3 players. It must be a Kinect software thing.

Kinect For Windows is coming Feb 1st, but will the price scare the groundhog the next day?

Last Night during Microsoft's final CES Keynote, Kinect for Windows was announced, along with it's launch date of February 1st. The problem? It's going to cost $249, more than a stand alone 360 kinect, and more than a packaged 360 + Kinect. Why do you have to pay more? Because Kinect for windows is more than use to play games with, it's more for unfun important adult stuff. At least you get development software and updates to the already releases Kinect SDK. So can you use your 360 Kinect on Windows? Nope, Microsoft says it an entirely different  licence, you know, those thing that make if illegal to copy software so your grandma can use word with out having to pay for it.  I wonder why Microsoft just make 360 kinect owners pay for the Kinect for windows licence? They just LOVE to bleed money from us, why no squeeze us some more. I predict that the licence will be made available for purchase for 360 kinect owners later on in the year. I also belive PC games will have kinect capabilities some time this year as well

The 5 games I would like to see be released for download

With so many classic games being released through online stores like Xbox live games market place, Playstaion store, steam, even good old games, an web site that sells old PC games, there are some that I would love to see be released for download. Recently one game that wanted to play for the longest time, Sonic CD, was released over Xbox live and PSN, hence the reason why I began to think of what other games I would love to be released.. I came up with these 5 games. (note: these games have may already been released for download, I may just not have notice yet)

Panzer Dragon (any of the games from the series)

I have always wanted to play a Panzer Dragon games, but I did not own a Sega Saturn or in the case of Panzer Dragon Orta, a Xbox. This game would make a great candidate for release for download, a HD remake or even a new title!

Metal Gear/Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake

I have played both these games, and did not get very far in them. They are a part of Metal Gear history and have been inserted in to the Metal Gear canter. They even made a appearance in metal gear solid 2. I think metal gear fan would gobble these games up if made available for download.

Nights Into Dreams 

Yet again another Saturn game appears on the list. I have always wanted to play nights into dreams, and I've seem to have missed the Gamecube remake. I'm sure this will game will get many downloads

Mega Man Legends

As like most of the games on this list, I have always wanted to play this. Unlike most of the games on the list, I believe Mega Man Legends has the highest chance of being released for download vis PSN's PSone Classics. It would make up for Capcom's canceling that Mega Man legends game

Night Trap

Honestly.....i just want to play this just to send Dana Plato into a trap....