Gamer Gripes: Xbox 360 Headset!

Today I was attempting to enjoy a stimulating round of Call of Duty World: At War, Then everyone on my team starting screaming at me.  I couldn’t realize why I was near the top of the score board for my team, I wasn’t stealing last stand kills and even I was calling out to my teammates for precise tactical movements. Then I realized that my teammates weren’t hearing commands all they could hear was blaring static from my headset being fried.

Thankfully with some mild foreplay with my headset I was able to get the bugger to work.  Seriously I know that the Xbox 360 isn’t the most stable piece of hardware but is there anything on the damn thing that doesn’t break.   I know this is a fairly common problem on top there is the Abyss of decency that is Xbox Live. As much as I enjoy the service that it provides, between 13 year olds cursing like sailors, Bros named Chad hating on African Americans and homosexuals, and lastly African Americans hating on anyone else it makes me wonder why I even bother with the headsets on Xbox Live.  If only there was a way to electrocute offenders over Xbox live headsets, but till we integrate population control as legislation I think I’m not going to worry about the thing unless I’m in a party. I wish Xbox allowed the option to allow blue tooth function, which is a lot more reliable and little more discreet then wearing the white plastic telemarketer headset from 1975. 

Game Rage Radio Episode 5

This week the guys talk about some cheap gaming options to still play games during the economic crisis.

We Wax a little about the Spike Video Game Awards.

Keith hella Hates Sony home.

This week's intro music comes from Doctor Octorock from his 8 bit Jesus video game inspired holiday album.

We had some issues getting the episode up so much sure your download was right iTunes has corrected the mistakes just re-download it if you have too.

Game Rage Radio Episode 4

The boys at game rage lay down another tasty groove. This week we catch up the Glut o Games.

Run down the games that you should tell your grandma to buy you for the Holidays.

Also remember the show is on iTunes so please subscribe and leave some reviews. Keith loves the new street fighter HD remix.

Antonio loves little big planet and Chris really hates oblivion. Get on that game rage Tip!

Ok, Gears of War 3 Please.

I've heard a lot of people say that the story in Gears of War is lacking but like I said before, I like simple shit. I'm on the edge of my seat damnit! Stay tuned for another episode of Game Rage Radio. Hopefully.

ok today is going to be more productive i promise!

ok it's day 2 of my break time to be productive right? no more 12 hour wow binges

Break Day 1

Poop Sock Day is what i refer to the very first day of any extended break from school and work. I never changed out of my clothes and played wow all day. I have never had a binge extend for over 10 hours but i made that happen. Key guidelines for an extended video game session. 1 drink plenty of water avoid soda's and energy drinks. 2 take short breaks to walk around, this keeps the body from atrophy. I leveled from 74 to half way to 75 and brought my professions up to boot al in all it was a great time

Game Rage Radio : WOTLK Roundtable

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So this week i had a couple of Fellow Wow players, Garrett and Matt  join us on the podcast and we talked about Wrath of the lich King.  Talked about some great quests, gearing up and bitching about warlock Soulshards.  Thanks guys for helping out. Also the podcast can now be subscribed on iTunes so please go there and leave us reviews and subscribe to our podcast feed so look for Game Rage Radio !!!!!

the Great Bro-mance that is GEARS 2

Seriously it does not get anymore bro then Gears 2. You mix one part reject football players, cheesy one liners like "That's ten Shit loads" , lastly guns with fucking chainsaws on them and you get Gears. The second in the franchise improves from the original and cranks the Bro-ocity to over 9000(I'm trying to see how much i can work bro into the sentences.) I ignore Tai's tribal tattoos only because he seems to have pacific islander decent of which the design comes from and is a traditional sign of warriors. So far I'm enjoying my romp through the game with my roommate but i wish they stop pretending to have a seriously plot and just go for new levels of ridiculous ala Evil Dead. Seriously make that happen Epic.

1 <3 711

Seriously I love 711, I have always loved 711 from my youth I remember slurpies with dad after my soccer games. Later in my adolescence I had my first taste of Coffee thus driving down a spiral of Caffeine addiction. Now as a adult I go to 711 to buy video games before their street date. Most likely this is the product of disfranchised and under informed employees. Lets think about this for a second, if 711 marketing time made a deal with Microsoft and Activision to allow them to break the street dates on their games. Whats the harm in that, nothing really. Did it create even more of a buzz for these games...yes. Conversely this also put 711 on the map for gamers to go and purchase their games. So now gamers are questing all over their cities in search of these games. Since 711 gets so few copies of each game this doesn't damage any other retailers. I salute you 711 you've always been kind to the geek culture with your burritos, slurpies and energy drinks. Thank you for your continued service for geeks everywhere! 

Seriously......

ok so my pocket book is pretty much screwed.....

Last week it was Gears 2 and resitance 2. This week it'a the Wow Expansion. So here are some tips to help ease the pains in your wallet. 

1) Do you even have time to play all these games. Most of us are in school and work alot, whats the point of buying a game if it's just going to collect dust till the winter break. 

2)  Are sequels that much better then the originals.  For example i'm not going to buy the new Call of duty right away i can wait till later in the year since i can still have fun with COD4. 

3) Rent, rent shorter games that you know you aren't going to play again,  games like Mirrors edge are short and have limited replay options so just rent it.  Also Gamefly allows you to buy pre-rented games.... i got fallout right when it came out and bought for 50 saving me about ten dollars and they sent me another game on my list. 

4) Sale old games away for extra cash,

Game Rage Podcast Episode 2 Up Now!

Since Keith forgot to post about it I guess I'll pick up his slack.

Episode 2 up now. Listen to it. Let it seep into your head and then leave comments about how sexy I am. Or about how much you like the podcast. Either one. Or both. It's up to you. 

Fable 2: First Thoughts

The memories of Force Unleashed are finally free from my brain. I didn't bother doing a review since it's far to late to serve any real propose but to anger Star Wars Fans, I suggest that you just rent it. Speaking of games that I was just planning to rent. Fable 2 was a game that I was just going to set aside for my Game Fly account since Fallout 3 is coming up the following week. The original fables story was interesting but painfully short on content and as usual my attention was quickly diverted to other titles at that time. Presently I am convinced Peter Molynuex broke into my apartment and conducted strange otherworldly rituals on my body. When I awoke that Tuesday I suddenly had the urge to forgo my usual drudgery and need to fix this by buying fable 2. Once I tracked it down ( the fucking target by my house didn't get there copies yet) I sat down for the rest of the day making my typical preferred character type...a bad ass. The childhood section is just the right amount of length and sets you up for the typical moral decisions that you will make during the rest of game. The combat so far is the most improved aspect of the game, Each of the spells and abilities has the potential for viable options in combat. I really like how spells can both be area affects or target individual enemies. My only gripe is that in co-op I have to select a henchmen avatar that is not as cool as the normal player characters, I would like the option have my character join up with my friends characters to play. There is a rumored patch that will make this a reality. That said the co-op is still an enjoyable experience. To keep things brief If you enjoyed the original Fable, Fable 2 surpasses it's predecessor, more content more choices better combat. Once I complete the game I'll provide a complete evaluation of fable 2, go ahead and give the game a whirl you won't regret it.   

Lack Of Posts Makes Chris A Dull Boy.....

Saw the Shining yesterday on the big screen. Awesome. Kingdom Hearts 3 needs to be made. I don't usually get into games too heavily but for some reason Kingdom Hearts sucked me in. I don't have a DS so I couldn't play Chain of Memories but would love to get my hands on it. There's something about a game that isn't too complicated with a fun story to it. Gets me every time.

The First Episode of Game Rage Radio is up NOW

This episode we talk about, Crapy Targeting systems in video games. 

What Game do you think has a terrible targeting system? Send us your answers and we'll discuss them next week

Feel free to give us any feedback that you have this was all our very first podcasts and any critsism will be considered to help improve the show!!! our next show will be up next friday so stay TUNED.

Our email is GameRageblog@gmail.com !!!!!

Castle Crashers : Beat 'em ups Refined

It's been a while.........but for the most part I'm waiting till shit hits the fan in October(little big planet, fable II, FALL OUT!!!! jesus titty fucking christ!!!!!!). Towards the end of the summer Microsoft has been pushing Xbox live arcade games during this gaming drought. After Geo Wars II and Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Castle Crashers brings it down with authority. Made by The Behemoth studio ( the guys behind alien hominid).




The beat'em up genre has always brought me back to a simpler time in my youth.
Sitting at home playing Super Double dragons or going to the arcade to play the Xmen beat'em up. Playing Castle Crashers brings back thoughts same feels. But with other brief trips of nostalgia which may keep you entertained for 20 minutes or so , but castle crashers adds modern rpg elements to enhance the game play to update the genre
.

With Braid and now Castle Crashers the XBLA games are now become larger productions at higher costs. While Castle crashers is in my humble opinion was worth all the cost, i foresee that some of the shovel ware studios that make games for Xbox live will be making "Higher Quality" games for this new market. hopefully people will be more informed and don't make any question purchases from said developers. Fuck you Yaris the game... i don't care if you were free you are still an abomination of nature and should even exist.




Even though Castle Crashers is having some terrible bugs (online multiplayer issues). This Game has rekindled my love for casting fireballs and curb stomping my enemies. All the stats to level up are viable to specialize in. Within your group you can have a player level up only his defence stat making him a tank while another player levels up his magic to lay down some magical cover fire. It feels kinda like playing a MMO, Having different characters fit certain roles makes you role in the group stand out that much more. Even trying to find a good builds to maximize my damage while giving me enough speed and health to get out of sticky situations.

and to finally turn this around on you i have a question for you all
What are some stale Game Genres and how can they be revitalized go ahead and just leave a comment.

Game rage Pod Cast coming soon.......

GTA 4: did it live up to the hype

It's been a few months since Grand theft auto 4 Came out. And I've been having a hard time trying to get through it , I have played the shit out of the last iterations of the franchise since it's reboot on the ps2. I loved getting through the story i enjoyed having him progress up through the criminal underground.
I have just unlocked 3rd safe house and i hate the missions that I'm doing i do not give a shit about anyone that i am currently working for. But also i even just played around in the world causing havoc in the sandbox in the last few games. Making Castles out of Cars and pedestrians and exploding them with Rockets and Grenades only to do over and over again. But in four i just can't get into that mindset of mindless self indulgence. for me i missed the customization that the last games allowed to have. I liked adding hydros to my car or taking over territory in gang wars.
Even with the online which i feel the shooting is just too random for me to take any enjoyment out of. Maybe I'm just bitching but we were all talking about this game was going to change all of our lives but to me the game faded away. I want to finish it maybe i just need to get a bunch of people over to help me get excited about it again.

Soul Calibur 4 (360)

So it's been a while since i have been hardcore on any fighter , I played metric shit ton of Tekken, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. But one series that has kept me coming back is Soul Calibur. It franchise has it all for me tits and weapons(sorry i'm a guy with a fetish for Cold Steel). But besides the eye candy lies a one of the best fighting systems in a videos games, it's pretty much what you make out of it, you want to mash buttons it works or if you want to really Gnaw your teeth into the system you can parry, counter, juggle and combo till your thumbs bleed.



The created characters are pretty deep I'm sure some Message board is going to have a thread for fan created characters you can pretty much make anything. Finally you will be able to take those characters online which is great. My only complaint is that the characters that i think look really good have shitty stats, each piece of armor has stats for your characters, so i have characters to help me get through the incredibly hard Tower of lost souls mode and characters that. but you can play in standard mood where the stats from items are not included. Look its Mega man!!-------------------------------->

The Star Wars characters are really cool rumors that maybe trumors say that the console specific characters (vader for the ps3 and yoda for the 360) are going to available later in some sort of DLC, also the apprentice is rad to play with but you cannot customize him or make custom characters out of the Force users..... NAMCO please let me do it i want to make a bunch of jedi (mainlly a bunch of evil slutty jedi... sigh a boy can dream, shit that was half the reason I bought the game) Also don't expect other Star Wars characters besides maybe Boba Fet, if the had characters like luke or han they would have to pay the actors that played them Royalties so before i get some rabid Star Wars fan pleading on some message board think why they chose those characters in the first place.

That said i am enjoying this game a lot on my own i can't wait to get some friends over have them play on their own then destroy them. Online has lag at times but all in all the experience is what you expect in a arcade. People Spamming the same fucking moves, but you take it in stride. i have still to win a match i got a few runs but the hardcore is already starting to take over the online game. People have been fairly pleasant i only had on guy run his mouth about how bad I'm doing. The older characters have been altered a bit. I was a Raphael player in II but after that Namco keeps nerfing him. Amy is a decent replacement but shes can be countered easily. Voldo and lizardman are getting to tournament play levels. So so far my online experience has been helping me to develop an Stomach ulcer........

Ok now that we have a real review of a game I'm going to explain my method for rating games. don't give scores, not that I'm included on Metacritic anyways. I'm going to list the pros and cons of the game and you need to invest a little mental capital into forming your own opinion. I don't want games to be compared to other games that don't belong for example, you wouldn't compare Polka with Thrash Metal there different and should be looked at differently for what they are. To remove the reviewers personal tastes and preferences. .... SO now that this tirade out of my way.

Pros
Fighting system that caters to the hardcore and the Casual players.
Lots of customization options
A single player challenge mode(tower of souls) that is Hard as shit.

Cons
can't customize the look or make custom characters of the Star wars characters. NAMCO think about, slutty jedi = 1 billion units sold....
if you don't have any friends into fighting games you maybe relying on the online to keep you playing, so this is going to depend heavily to the Soul Calibur community to do this.
Versus options are kinda lackluster i wish there was more modes to do, tag matches or

Late Pass: Assassins Creed

The 4^th quarter of 2007 was what many thought the perfect storm of video games. Triple A titles were coming out every week. Now that it’s the summer, school is out it is the perfect time to catch up on the games that I happened to miss. Each week I’m going to go back to my pile of shame and look at the game after the hype has been long gone. Also since it's been almost a year since the game has been out i may say some spoilers but you probably already know what I'm referring too

Leading up to its release I was heavily looking forward to playing Assassins Creed. I found the setting was new and interesting and I have always loved to play as sneaky roguish characters. So the game seemed like perfect match for me. But then the game came out and so did the reviews.

Early reviews of Assassins Creed were mixed; the game has stunning graphics and a intriguing story. But the game play became an issue; the game was one of the most repetitive games created. The Cities were mostly the same… the characters were mostly the same and the actions that you take part in were also … The same.

Me being a fledging enthusiast Blogger, I wanted to ignore what I heard about the game and just enjoy it for what it’s worth. I found the experience to pass my expectations. The combat was different from what i am accustomed too(god of war), though I would have like more offensive skills since parrying NPC attacks were rewarded more then offensive barrages. One or two extra combos would have been nice or moves that could kill multiple enemies at once. Although this would have drastically changed the image that Ubisoft had intended for Altair. Assassins were not combat bad asses to the extreme, but instead were opportunistic predators waiting for his enemies to make a mistake for him to capitalize. Also why the fuck didn’t Altiar just wait until night fall so he could just sneak a la Splinter cell.It's the same publisher steal a couple of the guys from that team for a month and get some of those "Sam Fisheresque" skills into the game. If the game would have given the player the choice to attack in the day time or at knight so the type of sneaking could have been more varied. I got really tired of trying to hide in plane sight. Also besides throwing knives it would have been great to get a crossbow to do some longer range sniping to clean out the guards.

What I found more promising was the story that is revealed as the game progresses. The world that Desmond and Julie live in is a world turned on end. An experiment gone wrong in Colorado, the evidence of more objects like the piece of Eden all these elements will lead to a plot that can explain myths and legends from the past.

But the criticism that the hardcore game press outlets spoke about the repetitive nature of the game. You only experience really a handful of different activates leading up to each of the games 9 assassination missions. So after the 25^th building scaled to find where you need to rob some moron talking about their plan and broad fucking daylight or be a complete douche and beat up flunkie for your target for information only to kill them once they serve no more use for you. I found myself playing very sloppy trying to get through as fast as possible. Even during the assassinations I played very recklessly when I found out I could just fight my through any mistakes I make, which took me out of the experience as well.

To sum things up Assassins Creed was only a taste of the true potential of this series. It’s being billed as a trilogy and I hope the sequels don’t all take place in the past but also to take experience the near future of the games true setting. But the Ubisoft has to take more time to develop a better pace in the game play, I am tired of getting cock teased by games that have you start out with all of your abilities and equipment but then takes it away in the first 30 min of the game (I’m looking at you Link and Samus, try and hold onto your shit for once!!!!). More variety is needed in the sequels in this franchise, giving the players more tools in their arsenal could also help alleviate this. I know the three main cities in Assassins creed are having slightly different looks and feels. But it’s still the desert in the Middle East. How amazing would it have been to fight in Caves and catacombs bellow the cities or even exploring the city at night would have been enough of a change to fool me that it’s different. The game almost feels like a demo, stretched out for the length of an entire game but for the most part i enjoyed my experience and i saw what Ubisoft was trying to accomplish with this title.

Mission Satement From Game Rage

It's time for me to stop waiting around waiting for something good to happen.Today I'm starting Game Rage,
A blog that analyzes the aspects that Anger, Annoy and Frustrate Gamers as a whole.

For the now this is a solo mission but if others are interested and creative then i am more then eager to work with you. Together we can help develop this blog into something more then a blogger page. But most great things must come from humble beginnings... and it doesn't get more humble then this.

Wow that was fucking cheesy. Let me Digress folks, Do you want me to rant and rave about beating my head through a cement wall doing the same five fucking things in Assassins Creed(i know it's a little late i explain later douche), Do you want me express my disgust for shitty shovel ware titles that Plague us. Or to express my hate for being nagged at Lame Stop about pre-order games too far in fucking advance… even though I’m thinking about getting a job there. I got things to bitch about come bitch about things with me and together maybe we can get through this cluster fuck. Yeah i like to write fuck often... I could use better vocabulary but i don't really have any and I think it makes the point clearer don't you. I 'm not getting a journalism degree, and I'm writing how i would talk about and i like dropping a few F Bombs... if you don't like get the fuck out. If you find this somewhat interesting stick around, this is only the tip.

Done

Note: also in the works adding new media (podcasts, forums etc...) if interest is there. Feel Free to comment and speak your mind. I am no way an expert I am merely and enthusiast looking to share my ideas. I am wrong fucking yell at me, if you want to me to discuss a topic shoot me I’ll ignore and refuse to acknowledge the fact that it was your ideas.