Vice Weekly - What’s your vice?

The Power of Gaming

This time last year I was pretty bored as a fan of video games in general, something was very wrong. The industry revolved around the Dragon that was the PS3 and the Phoenix that was the Xbox 360. (if you’ve gotten a red ring you can figure out why the 360 is the phoenix) The two monsters fought what was essentially a cold war. There were very little exclusives and there only seemed to be one difference between the two consoles, the 360’s smaller price tag. For the whole year I felt as if there was no competition between the two major platforms. This year, however, I feel refreshed because it seems as instead of simply staring at one another the two beasts have finally begun to make moves. With the prominence of blu-ray discs developers have been boasting its power of storage, even claiming to be able to take gaming to new heights with the new technology.

We’ve already seen examples of how they’re attempting, breathing the flames that are  MAG, Killzone 2, Heavy Rain and the like. Does this mean that 360 owners are doomed to regret their purchase? Not at all, the bird’s still got some life in it, The 360 seems to be getting more cost effective by the minute with its frequent price drops, Sony has some catching up to do in that regard. Soon you will be able to store games onto your hard drive which will allow cut back on load times and increase the longevity of your disc by cutting down on the disc spins in the console. This allows developers to use multiple DVDs to equal the quality of a PS3 title because not only will multiple DVDs eventually reach the amount of space of a Blu-Ray game, with the new storage feature load times should be not a thing of the past but an inconvinence so minor it could hardly be considered one. Sony though has more than just the format to fight with, a Dragon’s got other tools and those would be the fact that Sony not only has 3rd party support but that also their first party titles are for the most part amazing games.

At this point it seems like the dragon has that phoenix pinned down.

Continue reading The Power of Gaming

Tags: 360, Gaming, ps3

Vice Weekly 006 - E3 Recap

Tags: 360, dreamcast, fanboys, gears of war 2, online gaming, podcast, ps3

Another Gears of War 2 Update

During Microsoft’s Press Conference today, Fan favorite Cliffy B came out and demoed the higly anticipated Gears of War 2. He presented a 15 minute excerpt from a level where Marcus and Dom are fighting there way to a huge Locust sinkhole. The graphics are improved in tiny areas, especially the characters and shadowing. A few new enemies were featured, like a chain wielding locust and a pyromaniac locust wielding the new flamethrower which was used in the demo. Towards the end of the demo there is a hint at riding a Brumak, with Marcus’ line being, “If they can ride it, so can we…”. This will surely be a huge aspect of gameplay and please all the fans who were upset at Gears PC being able to fight the Brumak, but now they can ride one!!

Tags: 360, E3, gears of war

Vice Weekly 005 - Gearing Up

Tags: 360, podcast, ps3, vice weekly, Wii

Microsoft officially announces 20GB premium price cut & new 60GB SKU

A few minutes ago, Microsoft issued a press release stating that they will be cutting the price of the 20GB Xbox 360 Premium SKU to $299. Also it has been officially confirmed now that they are set to debut a new Premium SKU which will feature a 60GB HDD in August.

Available in retail stores in the U.S. and Canada starting in early August, the upgraded Xbox 360 will include a 60GB hard drive for storing the growing wealth of digital entertainment available for the console, including music, movies, television shows, and game content. In addition, Microsoft today dropped the price of its 20GB Xbox 360 console in the U.S. and Canada to just $299 (U.S.) (ERP) while supplies last, a savings of $50.

Interestingly enough, it appears that the 20GB SKU will be sold as a clearance item and once all units have been sold they will go back to having three SKUs. Those of you who have been on the sidelines waiting for a price cut before you bought a 360 should act quickly, because at $299 you can’t really beat what you’re getting.

You can read the entire press release after the jump.

[Thanks for the tip from reader, clarence.]

Continue reading Microsoft officially announces 20GB premium price cut & new 60GB SKU

Tags: 360, price cut

Gears of War 2: Reemergence has begun

Last night on Gametrailers TV, Geoff Keighly along with various members of the Gears of War 2 development team, including Cliff Bleszinski debuted new footage and information for us all to clamor over. During the episode, they touched on various topics such as the single player campaign, the multiplayer experience and also shared a few tidbits about the upcoming comic book. Before I watched this I asked myself this question; “What do you want to see from Gears of War 2?” and when I received the answers after watching the show, I must then that I am far from being disappointed.

Continue reading Gears of War 2: Reemergence has begun

Tags: 360, gears of war 2, impressions

Vice Weekly 004 - Three Minutes

Tags: 360, gears of war, gears of war 2, killzone 2, ps3