Author - Jerry Paxton

Sierra Online’s Battlestar Galactica Review

GameSpot has posted their review of Sierra Online’s Battlestar Galactica. The Xbox Live Arcade title has been criticized by many fans for not being the X-Wing style space sim it should have been >(

From the article:
Battlestar Galactica is easily one of the best shows on television right now. Of course, it always helps to have some of the prettiest and most visually poetic space battles seen in a long time. Sadly, the same can’t be said of Battlestar Galactica, the Xbox Live Arcade and downloadable PC game. All the complexity of the series has been ditched for a frustrating and twitch-heavy arcade experience.

Much Like ‘The Thing’, the Halo Movie is Not Quite Dead

AICN is reporting that Peter Jackson’s agent, Ken Kamins, has said Microsoft is spending tons of money at the moment trying to resurrect the Halo movie. Peter Jackson and Neil Bloomkamp are still attached to the project in their respective roles.

It is really only a matter of time considering that the game brought in over $300 million dollars. A movie studio would be foolish not to greenlight this project.

LucasArts and Bioware Announce ‘Alliance’

Gamespot is reporting that LucasArts and Bioware have joined forces on some upcomming mystery project. Could this be the KOTOR MMO that has been rumored for the last few weeks?

From the article:
Today, though, the KOTOR MMORPG rumor flamed up again, fueled by the unveiling of an official alliance between LucasArts and BioWare. Early this morning, the two companies announced they are collaborating on ‘a ground-breaking interactive entertainment product’ and launched a co-branded Web site, www.LucasArtsBioWare.com.

‘Through our previous collaborations, we know that BioWare has an impressive ability to blend gripping stories with technological advancements, and we believe that our upcoming product will deliver an experience that will span the traditional boundaries of video game entertainment,’ LucasArts president Jim Ward said in a statement.

Unfortunately, despite Ward’s kind words and similarly rosy statements from BioWare co-CEOs Ray Myuzka and Greg Zeschuk, next to no information was revealed about the game. ‘Details will be unveiled at a later date,’ was as specific as the announcement got. However, since LucasArts almost exclusively publishes games based on the Star Wars universe, the chances of the game in question being Star Wars-related are high.

This could be especially excellent geek gaming news!

AMDs Veldenstein: Future is Combining CPU and GPU

Gamasutra has an interview with AMD’s VP of Strategic Development Bob Veldenstein where he ‘enlightens’ us on the ‘future’ of combined CPU/GPU machines.

From the article:

‘I’ll say that what I see the future as is a combined CPU/GPU, where the delineations are not there anymore. You combine them into a chip; you have compute elements of both, and jobs get kind of — threads get kind of put on the resources that are best suited for them. GPU-like resources, vector engines for problems that simulate the real world, graphics, and physics. And for sequential problems, about other parts of this, you know, you’ve got your typical sequential processor.’

Hellgate: London Developers Speak to the Masses

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Hellgate: London developers Bill Roper, Aletheia Simonson, Bill Manegold, Amir Ebrahimi, and Guy Somberg will be in an Xfire-hosted online interview this Halloween.

From the article:
‘We are thrilled that a phenomenal title like Hellgate: London is exclusively utilizing the Xfire In-Game Voice Chat feature, and we welcome the game’s creators on their launch day to Xfire,’ said Xfire CEO Adam Boyden.

‘This exciting live online chat will give users the opportunity to discuss the title’s finer points, classes, mechanics and what went into making this amazing game.’

Epic President Wanted to Cut Gears of War Multiplayer and Ad

Joystiq is reporting that at one point, Epic President Mike Capps had considered pulling two of the most succesful things surrounding Gears of War, it’s multiplayer and it’s highly successful ‘Mad World’ ad (video below). Talk about a bone head decision, he is thanking his lucky stars all the way to the bank that he left that stuff in there now.

From the article:
‘First and most troubling is that he had considered pulling multiplayer from the game because it wasn’t moving quickly enough. (Boy, that would have made that eight-hour single player campaign a much more bitter pill, wouldn’t it?) Also, he said he wanted to scrap the famous ad set to the brilliant Gary Jules’ equally brilliant ‘Mad World’ because, he says, ‘I thought it was stupid; I was like ‘What are you thinking? Nobody knows Donnie Darko any more.” Wow.’

New Ninja Gaiden II Screenshots

Strategy Informer has a host of new Ninja Gaiden II screenshots.

From wikipedia:
Ninja Gaiden II is an upcoming sequel to Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox in 2004. It is being developed by Team Ninja and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. This is also the first time that the game won’t be published by Tecmo. While sharing the number as the NES game Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, it is not related to said title.

From Youtube:

Review of Ace Combat 6

1up has posted their review of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and given it a not-so-great 6.5 out of 10! And here I was hoping it would be an amazing game, well worth the expensive optional controller to go with it!

From the article:
‘Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation certainly looks a hell of a lot better than Combats 1-5, but once you get past the incredibly detailed planes and crisscrossing contrails you’ll find the same old Ace Combat, still on autopilot. Some gamers will be quite happy with more arcadey shootin’ and missile dodging in licensed aircraft. Others may (continue to) wonder why they should care about some arbitrary conflict between improbably-named countries, and an overwrought series of cut-scenes that might actually be improved by a liberal application of signature John Woo slow-mo doves.

Combat’s missions are long and relatively varied — and I qualify that with ‘relatively’ because launching a homing missile at a battleship really isn’t much different from launching a homing missile at a tank or at an AA gun. But you will have to make choices within each mission based on incoming radio chatter and shifting battle conditions. Lend your help to advancing ground forces or head over yonder and take out a nest of fighters, but you may not be able to do both. At least not with just one playthrough.’

Preview of Condemned 2: Bloodshot

1up has posted a preview of Condemned 2: Bloodshot for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. The first Condemned ended up a sleeper hit, gaining a large fanbase. This time arounf it appears as though Sega has taken it even further.

From the article:
‘We stopped by Sega’s offices earlier this week to get a look at Condemned 2’s third mission, which just so happens to take place during Halloween. And sure enough, in the mission players come across masked enemies fighting each other on train tracks in what Sega calls a ‘riot.’ We’re not sure if that’s the best word to use, since the screen isn’t exactly filled with enemies, but it’s an impressive scene that comes as close as we’ve seen in a game to a real fist fight.

When you come across these enemies attacking each other, they’ll turn and start to pursue you, but at all times they remain aware of everyone in the room. So if an enemy takes a wide swing at you and there happens to be another enemy within breathing room of his elbow, that guy will get taken out as well. With the sound effects and enemy animations where they are at this point in development, even a simple scene like this looks great and adds a lot to the physical feel of being in this world.’

Vid featuring stills from the title:

Gamestop No Longer Offering PRPs For Xbox 360s

Gamersreports is reporting that Gamestop stores have stopped offering product replacement plans for Xbox 360s.
From the article:
‘When we asked our source why this is happening, we were told it was because GS is losing too much money on the program! You can read this all for yourself, we included three different copies of the document, as it was taken with a cell phone and is a bit hard to read.’

Below is a photo of the official order from Gamestop Corporate to stores everywhere.