Video Game Releases 10/6

This week was kind of lame in game releases so we admit, yes, we kind of forgot (oops!) about our weekly “drop” report. Please, don’t spear us — “Ice Age” reference.

For those of you playing on PC exclusively, Hell’s Highway should be fun and…well, some big basketball games coming out this week. Choose between NBA Live and NBA 2K9. Other than that, you’re better off saving those pennies you turned into cash at the coin machine for next week.

Full list of games dropping this week after the break… Continue reading »

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Amazon, Army Men, bad, Basketball Games, Brothers In Arms, Coin Machine, crash bandicoot, DS., Fracture, Game Party, Game Releases, good, Guilty Gear 2 Overture, Ized, Line Rider 2, Metascore, Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nba 2k9, NBA LIVE, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii, PC, Pin Alley, Soldiers Of Misfortune, Sony PS2, Sony PS3, Sony PSP, Spanish Coach, Unrated, Week, Widgets

R3match just released show 4 of the “R3match Radio,” podcast for you guys to take an ear to.

The official word from the site:

We see the return of Juan, “the kid,” Perez on the show this week and we dig into the latest gaming news. Carlos talks about some of the exploitin’ he’s been doing in Pub Games, Juan’s “The Last Guy” on PSN, and Jason flies high in the remake of 1943. News is a bit Gears of War 2-flavored with some Sony updates trickled in and we end the show with a some site pimpage.

Pictorial Discussion this week (Fail?):

Halo 3’s “Mythic“

Inside you’ll find a few details on how you can get to workin’ at Kezins.com and we exchanged a few fanboy-ish words.

Download it here: R3match Radio Podcast - Show 4

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Carlos, dig, ear, exploitin, gaming, guy, Jason, Juan, Kid, news, Perez, podcast, Pub, radio, return, show, site, Week, word

Each week, XBLA received either good titles or really terrible ones.  This week, it looks like we have two iffy games and one pretty good one.  Blazing Lizard’s Pirates Vs. Ninjas Dodgeball (800MP) will be available and I’m sure it will do fine, even though I wasn’t really impressed with anything I saw in the game.  Shred Nebula (800MP), the space-shooter will also hit the scene.  I’d probably say this is the safe bet for the week, because it’s at least a fun game.  Finally, they will be adding Gin Rummy (400MP).  The last time I checked, 80-year old grandmothers were playing the Wii, not the Xbox 360, so I have no idea who the hell is going to buy this game.  

One thing that continues to upset me with the arcade is the lack of quality “arcade” titles.  There are so many great old school games begging to be re-made, but we typically see mediocre titles released most weeks.  Shred Nebula isn’t the greatest game, but it’s still one worth picking up, so this week wasn’t a total loss.  At this point in the game, I expect better games.  XBLA has been around too long for this to keep happening most weeks.

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: anything, Arcade, Blazing, Dodgeball, game, Gin Rummy, Lizard, Microsoft, Nebula, Ninjas, Pirates, Shred, tomorrow, wasn, Week, XBLA

Making a repeat appearance this week to, what we’d think, repel potential buyers from its stench further is Vampire Rain: Altered Species which sucked it up on Xbox 360 and is looking to do the same on PS3. It never bodes well when a game’s demo is only released in Japan (like Vampire Rain did) and Americans never get a taste of it…tsk, tsk.

Other than that, we get some quality games this week with Mercenaries 2 and the long-awaited Spore. We’ve heard that the former’s online co-op might be a bit limiting with friends needing to be in close proximity to work, but we’re still looking forward to blowing shit up with a buddy in beautiful high-def.

(The following scores were “aggregated-tive-ized” as of September 1, 2008 via Metacritic)

The Good…

• GTR Evolution (PC) - Metascore: 88
• Spore (PC) - Metascore: 85
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise (360) - Metascore: 83
• FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (PC) - Metascore: 79

The Bad…

• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (360, PS3) - Metascore: 73
• Infinite Undiscovery (360) - Metascore: 70
• Spore Creatures (DS) - Metascore: 68
• NFL Head Coach 09 (360, PS3) - Metascore: 66
• Combat Mission: Shock Force - Marines (PC) - Metascore: 62
• Warhammer: Battle March (360) - Metascore: 59
• Facebreaker (360, PS3) - Metascore: 56
• Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball (360) - Metascore: 46
• Vampire Rain: Altered Species (PS3) - Metascore: 32

The Unrated…

Xbox 360

• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
• Warhammer: Battle March
• Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball
• Rapala Fishing Frenzy
• Facebreaker

PS3

• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• FaceBreaker
• Rapala Fishing Frenzy

Wii

• Rapala Fishing Frenzy

PC

• GTR Evolution
• Spore

DS

• PictoImage
• Spore Creatures

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Altered, Fishing, Flames, Japan, Mercenaries, Metascore, Rain, Rapala, repeat, Species, Spore, tsk, Unrated, Updated, vampire, Viva Piñata, Week, world, Xbox

Surprised by our own persistence and dedication to keeping a podcast up and running on a weekly basis, we bring you Show 3 of “R3match Radio.”

The word from the site:

After ONE show co-hostin’ with Jason and Carlos last week, Juan took a quick vacation out…somewhere in the East Coast. But the show must go on and the super-duo brought it this week with some Mercenaries 2 talk, Xbox 360 motion-control rumor-mongering, as well as “Red Ring of Death” reminiscing.

Pictorial Discussion: Halo Wars Box Art

We threw in the following song, from our favorite ad at the moment, for some added affect:

‘Mercenaries 2′ Ad Lyrics

Oh, nooo…
Oh, nooo…
Oh, nooo…

Yo, yo, yo.

Oh, no, you didn’t,

Sucka try to play me,
But you never paid me,
Never,

Oh, no, you didn’t,

Payback is a-comin’,
You will be runnin’ for-e-ver,

Oh, no, you didn’t,

Until I get my vengeance,
I will never end this may-hem,

Oh, no, you didn’t,

I’m a mercenary,
You ain’t got a prayer,
You owe meeee

Feel free to download the show here:

R3match Radio Podcast - Show #3

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: basis, Carlos, dedication, didn, East Coast, Jason, Juan, Mercenaries, nooo, persistence, podcast, radio, show, site, Surprised, Talk, vacation, Week, word

Too cheap to buy the full retail version of SoulCalibur IV?  Well, this week’s FREE demo is a nice appetizer to the main dish.  Also, The Last Guy looks pretty cool, but stay here for review.  Other than that the two Warkhawk Add-on’s are the other updates worth noting.  Enjoy your last update in August!

Downloadable Games

• The Last Guy ($9.99)

Add-on Content:

• Rock Band DLC
  • “She Does” - Locksley ($0.99)
  • “Don’t Make Me Wait” - Locksley ($0.99)
  • “Don’t Make Me Wait” - Locksley ($0.99)
  • “All Over Again” - Locksley ($0.99)
  • Locksley Pack 1 ($2.99) - includes: “All Over Again,” “Don’t Make Me Wait,” and “She Does” by Locksley.
• Warhawk Fallen Star Pack ($7.99)
• Warhawk Booster Combo ($15.99)

Game Demos

• NHL 09
• Soulcalibur IV

Game Videos:

• SOCOM Confrontation Extraction trailer
• LittleBigPlanet Leipzig “Sackzilla” Trailer
• Motorstorm Pacific Rift Leipzig Trailer
• PAIN Trauma Mode Trailer
• GT5 Prologue Play the Pros with Tanner Foust!
• Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Machine Gun & Bazooka Video
• Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway Squad Gameplay Video
• Facebreaker Audition Video #1
• Facebreaker Audition Video #2
• Facebreaker Audition Video #3
• Madden NFL 09 Gameplay Trailer
• Madden NFL 09 Madden Moments Trailer
• Madden NFL 09 Play Call Trailer
• Top Spin 3 Player Creator Trailer

Movie and Blu-ray Trailers:

• Quantum Of Solace
• Prom Night

PS3 Wallpaper:

• (2) The Last Guy
  

Via Blog.PlayStation

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: All, are, Ares, August, band, Blu-ray, Brother, buy, call, combo, Combos, Content, cool, Creator, Demo, DLC, download, Downloads, Edition, Enjoy, Facebreaker, Facebreakers, Fallen, free, game, game games, gaming, GUI, gun, guy, Hell, Highway, Include, Leipzig, LittleBigPlanet, look, Looks, machine, Machines, Madden, make, Makes, making, mode, MotorStorm, movie, Movies, NFL, NHL, night, Pacific, Pack, PAIN, play, Player, Playstation, PlayStations, Pretty, Prologue, Retail, retailer, Rift, Rock, Soulcalibur, Spin, Star, Stars, Stay, store, Than, Top, Tops, Trailer, update, Updated, Updates, version, Via, video, Videos, wait, Waiting, Wallpaper, Warhawk, Week, Weeks, WIth, worth

This was one of the best weeks we’ve had on the site in a long time. As far as traffic, it was probably the best week we have had in 2 months, which makes all of us happy. We’d like to thank our loyal readers and random visitors for making things happen. Hopefully we can expand and make some bigger things happen if we continue the way we have been.  Our top article received over 15,000 unique views this week and covered the topic of the famous “Wilhelm Scream”.

Top Ten Posts:

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: article, China, Disappoints, Heavy, Hopefully, Kezins, Nintendo, Nintendo Wii, NOT, Quotes, Rain Gameplay, site, Tally, time, topic, traffic, way, Week, Wilhelm Scream

This hasn’t been the most exciting week in video game news, but there’s always something worth checking out. If you want to send us an article link in the future, feel free to send it to tips@kezins.com. We read articles from hundreds and hundreds of game blogs each week, but we’ll always miss something. It’s not possible to catch every story out there. If you have a site you’d like us to check out, feel free to contact us. Here’s our picks for the top news in video games for the weekend:

Register To Vote On Your Xbox 360?!

Confirmed: There will be no PS3 price drop in 2008

Red Alert 3 Beta Opens

Games Convention 2008: Games Convention’s Most Ignored Games

LAME and TERRIBLE Video Game Endings - Second Edition

Blizzard’s Newest Cinematic is Truly Epic

Top 10 unique game controllers

Rumor: Some Rapper Has An Xbox 360 Phone

Wii Shortage: Shrewd Marketing or Flawed Supply?

Square Enix to reduce time it takes to kill FFXI mega bosses

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: article, Beta Opens, checking, com, Convention, future, game, hasn, link, news, something, story, Top, video, Week, Xbox

We talked about GameDaily HUD #1 last week and now they have released #2.  For the second time in a row, they selected my old blogging partner in crime (Daniel Perez) from FileFront as one of the poll members.  Head over to GameDaily and find out what the fuss is all about this week in the gaming world from the writers in the industry.  Here’s a quick description of this week’s HUD:

Olympic games versus video games? Biggest convention news? Music game royalties? Ten writers reveal their answers to all that and more in this week’s HUD.

GameDaily HUD #2

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: crime, Daniel Perez, Description, FileFront, GameDaily, gaming, head, HUD, industry, Olympic, partner, Poll, row, time, Week, world

This week we take you back to 1984, where Hulk Hogan defeated Iron Sheik to become WWF Champ, Michael Jackson is burned during filming for a Pepsi commercial and McDonald’s made its 50 billionth hamburger. Oh yeah, it also was the year the Summer Olympics took place in good ole Los Angeles, California. What a better way to commemorate this years Summer Olympics than to show you how it was done.

Summer Games is a sports video game developed by Epyx and released by U.S. Gold based on sports featured in the Summer Olympic Games. Released in 1984 for the Commodore 64, it was also eventually ported to the Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari XL/XE and Sega Master System platforms. Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Atari ST versions were also created for inclusion in compilations. In 2004 it would be “re-released” on the C64 Direct-to-TV.

The game was presented as a virtual multi-sport carnival called the “Epyx Games” (there was no official IOC floppy disk. licensing in place) with up to 8 players each choosing a country to represent, and then taking turns competing in various events to try for a medal. On most versions, world records could be saved to the floppy disks.

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: Atari, California, Champ, EPYX, game, Hogan, Hulk, Iron, LOS ANGELES, McDonald, Michael Jackson, Old, Pepsi, place, School, Sheik, Summer Games, Summer Olympic, Summer Olympics, US, Week, WWF