Games on Fire: Madden NFL 2009
August 27, 2008
Games On Fire
Love it or hate it, Madden NFL 09 has been another crushing success for the EA franchise. Perhaps that’s because there’s no competition whatsoever, but we could sit here and speculate all day. According to VG Chartz, the current #1, #2 and #3 American top-selling game is Madden 09.
Does this surprise anyone? I’d hope not. The Madden franchise will continue to dominate the market each year until they have some kind of competition. With the current deal they have with the NFL, I wonder if the day of competition will ever come…
Top Ten Video Games of 1987
August 23, 2008
Some of the younglings out there probably don’t know much about gaming in 1987, but for those of us who were there, it was really a sweet year in gaming. It’s tough to pick out 10 awesome games from one particular year, but 1987 was real easy. I was ten years old at the time and owned most of the game systems available on the market. Back in early 1987, I was the only kid in the neighborhood with a Sega Master System and probably the only person who didn’t have a Nintendo Entertainment System. This worked out well for me because I could play Sega games any time I wanted and just go to any of my friends’ houses to play NES games. I eventually landed a NES at the end of that year in a trade that involved me giving up the Millenium Falcon and a 1985 Donruss Dwight Gooden rookie card for the console and a couple games. It turns out giving up the Millenium Falcon may have been a bad idea, but Dwight Gooden turned out to be a crack head, so the value of the card dwindled over the years.
With that said, my picks for the “Top Ten Video Games of 1987″ follow. These are selections from games I have played thoroughly. If an awesome game from 1987 didn’t make the list, it’s probably because I didn’t play it or because I didn’t think it was that awesome.
Game Review: Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360)
August 23, 2008
The average score from 1Up editors and users for Madden NFL 09 is a shocking A+. Even G4’s X-Play gave it a perfect review score. The only negative aspects mentioned by X-Play was “minor glitches” and “minor online lag”. I’m not sure if the word minor is right, but I’ll cover that later. After reading dozens of reviews from around the net, I realized that the people giving the scores were probably not looking at the game in depth. Perhaps they were caught up with the “20th anniversary” hype or something. I’m just not sure how anyone could consider this to be a perfect or even close to perfect title.
Top Five Summer Movies of 2008…So Far
August 19, 2008
The following are some of the chart-topping movies of the summer. Most are good, one is bad (we’re looking at you, “Hancock!”), but we’re glad its been a good year for summer movie watching and hope Hollywood entertains just as well next year.
#1 The Dark Knight - $471.1 Million
Heath Ledger’s swan song performance and serving to elevate Christian Bale’s popularity — apparently, the movie industry had yet to see his acting in “Empire of the Sun” and “Henry V” — “The Dark Knight” has been blowing up the box office this summer. Viewers have taken so much to the film that many are speculating it will break 1997’s “Titanic” $600 Million U.S. lifetime earnings (the highest grossing film of all time).
#2 Iron Man - $317.1 Million
Re-energizing Robert Downey Jr.’s career might be “Iron Man”’s biggest accomplishment, but it hasn’t done too shabby considering its earnings this summer. It’s easily one of the better comic book adaptations out there and if you haven’t watched it yet, shame on you.
#3 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $315.1 Million
Proving that 80s franchises are still all the rage (and that Hollywood is still fresh out of ideas) has put “Indiana Jones” at #3, just narrowly missing to top “Iron Man” by a couple of million dollars. Actually…once written, that’s a LOT of money.
#4 Hancock - $225 Million
Wow. Sure, Will Smith’s latest might have provided a few chuckles and light entertainment for some but it easily beats all the other movies on this list to the “summer fluff and crap” title. Poor “WALL-E.” “Hancock” didn’t deserve to make more money than you.
#5 WALL-E - $214.1 Million
It’s a little surprising that “WALL-E” didn’t top a couple of the movies on this list (it should have taken down “Hancock,” at least!), but it was still hugely successful. The film showed a great maturation for Pixar as they took on touchy subjects while maintaining that high level of movie magic the studio is known for. One of the few movies this summer that entertained both kids and adults, alike.
2008 Olympics Medal Tally August 17
August 16, 2008
The United States currently holds the most medals with 54, but there are still many medals to go in this year’s events. China continues to dominate with 27 gold medals, so it may come down to the wire between the United States, China and possibly Australia. Click on any of the links below to find more information on the Olympics at NBC.
From NBC:
| COUNTRY | MEDALISTS | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
United States | see names | 16 | 16 | 22 | 54 |
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China | see names | 27 | 13 | 7 | 47 |
 |
Australia | see names | 7 | 8 | 10 | 25 |
 |
France | see names | 3 | 9 | 10 | 22 |
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Russia | see names | 5 | 8 | 8 | 21 |
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South Korea | see names | 7 | 9 | 4 | 20 |
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Germany | see names | 8 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
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Japan | see names | 7 | 5 | 5 | 17 |
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Great Britain | see names | 7 | 3 | 7 | 17 |
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Italy | see names | 6 | 5 | 5 | 16 |
NO PS3 Price Cut at Leipzig
August 15, 2008
Leipzig, Germany - SCEE spokesman Nick Caplin says “It’s not going to happen. If you’re coming for that you’ll be disappointed,” speaking about Sony PlayStation’s 3 price cut.
Those expecting for Sony to announce a price cut for the PS3 aren’t getting their wish this year. In Leipzig, on August 20-22, Europe’s Biggest Video Games Fair, many expected Sony to make this announcement of a price cut. With sales of the PS3 getting stronger in this year, the PS3 is no longer required to lower it’s prices. I mean Sony has already dropped their prices from the very high price of $599 for the 60gb system. One this writer picked up…
In the 12 months ending March 31, Sony sold 9.24 million units, below its initial estimates of 11 million sales.
Via Reuters
R3match Radio is Back!
August 14, 2008
Before Kezins, this writer got his start on R3match.com. We started a podcast on the site, but busy lives and conflicting schedules made it possible for only a few shows last year. Finally, we’ve got our “ish” together and have brought the R3match Radio Podcast back!
Listen in as Jason and yours truly dissect the latest in gaming and ramble on in this special “Resurrection Show.” 23-minutes of awesomeness awaits you here.
Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten ALL the kinks worked out yet, so to download you might want to try Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. If you just want to listen, any browser will work.
Please let us know what you think of the show in the comments below.
‘Halo 3′ Picks Up Edge Award
August 12, 2008
If you are into video games, you more than likely read Edge - the videogames magazine and website. They have just awarded Halo 3 the Edge Award for Innovation at this year’s Edinburg Interactive Festival. This was a surprising choice considering the game was going up against Grand Theft Auto IV, Portal, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit. Although Halo 3 is my favorite game of the ones listed above, I feel like Portal and Rock Band were actually more innovative.
According to the reps at Edge, the game won due to it’s “integration and coherence of Halo 3’s online content”. While I certainly believe that the Halo series has one of the best online setups in console history, it wasn’t a huge improvement over Halo 2. Maybe I say this because I miss Halo 2’s maps…
