Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do

I finally beat Shank. That was a tough button masher but I had fun playing it. Getting past the last boss, Caesar, was no joke. I took me a couple of tries, wait, it took me a lot of tries to defeat him. Even getting to him was a little annoying in the last few parts of the game. There are some parts towards the end of the game when you might think that its totally impossible to get through. There was one part towards the end where I had to avoid heat seeking missiles that constantly kept searching for me. I had a bunch of goons coming at me when that was happening too. I don't even know how I got  through that.

Near the end of the game it was just one of those scenarios where there was just always one more guy to get through before you got to the actual boss just like in the movies. I pretty much just ran through the game. I didn't really have a scheme or a plan to play it. I mean come on, it's a button masher. I should have though. For instance if you watched the bosses when you fought them they all had a certain pattern to follow in order to defeat them. It took me a few times because I did everything the hard way. Once when I saw the patterns though the game was much easier to play.

I finally make it to Caesar after getting through all the goons and I just went at him with everything. I'm watching his life bar and noticing that I was barely making a dent into him and he was having his way with me. I was trying to figure what I could throw at him to deplete his health but nothing. Every time I fought him I ended up dying. I tried changing my weapons, throwing bombs, and grappling or lunging, but nothing worked. The grappling was funny because as soon as I tried to do it he would grab me and slam me on the ground like 3 times. The other scenario is that he would grab and slam me then throw me up in the air and shoot me with his guns.

I was confused and I didn't know what to do. So after losing about 30 times I started to play again and I went at him just as I did so many times before and I accidentally did this move where I countered him after hitting L1 on my PS3 controller then I lunged at him by pressing R1. I was so surprised at what happened. Shank grabbed him and jumped up in the air with him and pulled off this aerial slam giving Caesar massive damage to his health. I was so surprised that it happened. It was so unexpected. So after that I focused on trying to get into position with Caesar so I could counter him then pull off the lunge move to perform that aerial slam.

After some time maneuvering with that strategy I finally beat the game. I was more or less relieved that I had finished it. I wasn't expecting the second half of that fight where we fight outside of that room. That caught me off guard the first time around. I was lucky enough to beat Caesar inside because his hits towards me were so punishing as they are with every villain in videogames.

For a button masher it had a funny story to it. The story really reminded me of a Quentin Tarantino movie. Okay the story reminded me of all of Quentin Tarantino's movies. I could really see him taking this game and running with it. I would love to see it in the movies. So towards the end of the game we find out Shank isn't just on this mission for revenge of the death of his girlfriend. We find out that she was also with child. Then Caesar nonchalantly says that if he would've known that then his decision about killing her would've been different. I think that's enough to make anyone lose their grip. I think the game had a good ending when you finally defeat Caesar and Shank starts slicing him up and finishes with a knifed-dragon punch which was pretty neat to watch.

So I've beaten the game somewhat and I have all of the trophies except 2. I still have to beat the game on hard and I haven't played the co-op back story yet. I played the hard mode and I barely made it into the second level. I don't know how I'm gonna beat it this time around. I don't know why they set up the co-op like they did with the back story. It kind of sucks that I have to team up with someone to play it. It would be nice if I could play it on my own. I'd have to say though that Shank is one of the best button mashers I've played in a while. I can say that I won't be annoyed playing it again to get those last 2 trophies. Watch the boss battle and story ending in this clip.

Adam Sessler's Take on Shadows of The Damned

Shadows of The Damned is finally out. I watched this review and I thought Adam was gonna keep me from buying this game with his in depth review. Luckily he ended it with a nice score allowing me to still want to maybe at least rent it and try it out before I buy. Like I said before it plays like God of War or Devil May Cry then I might like it. Watching the review though is sounds like it might play like No More Heroes and Resident Evil 5. I haven't played No More Heroes yet but I have played Resident Evil 5. The controls for that game, as it has always been for the Resident Evil franchise, were clunky and clumsy. So I might be more annoyed than pleased. Check the review and decide for yourself.

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2011 - Shadows of the Damned

The War on Horror Has Just Begun

 

Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D was released yesterday as a full release for the Nintendo 3DS adding to the large Resident Evil franchise. Well not really. The game has been apart of the series since Resident Evil 3 as a short mini game. I kind of wish I had a 3DS so I could play it for myself. The game is a survival horror where you are allotted a certain amount of time to kick some zombie butt. You can play the game by yourself or as a co-op via local or online. 

There is no story mode unfortunately which really sucks. I'm not really sure as the game as a full feature meaning I'm not sure if it stands up to the other Resident Evil titles. From the video it does look like there's a lot of action in which is good. You'll just have to find out for yourself by watching the review from IGN.

More Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D Videos

It's You They Want Ryu Hyabusa

 

They say when you talk something up a lot you bring it into existence. Well I'm counting the days until this next game in the Ninja Gaiden franchise is release. I can't wait. The game is still in production and already it looks good. I'm really looking forward to playing it. I'm a huge Ninja Gaiden fan. I've been a fan since the days it was on the old NES system. I'm just glad the game and its story could come into the next gen scene. I would love to see this franchise continue. A reboot of the old NES games would be really nice. The very first Ninja Gaiden had a really good story with gameplay. I would love to see it be redone on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. We'll just have to wait and see. Who knows what they'll come up with from Team Ninja. Watch the Ninja Gaiden 3 trailer. 

PS3 Games - E3 2011 - Ninja Gaiden 3

Taking It Back To The Old School: The Sega CD

 

Back in the day, when I was a kid Sega was the don dada of home console gaming. I know because I had one. I had a NES and a SNES at the time too and Sega, to me, was the best. They had a faster system and large game library with a lot of popular titles. They were pretty much running things back then in the gaming market and decided to push forward with the CD format. They introduced the Sega CD into the world. I had got my parents to get me a Nintendo, a Super Nintendo, A Sega Genesis, but the Sega CD was out of the question. It was just too high at the time. My mom and pop were not gonna empty out their wallets for it. 

Luckily I had a friend who had a crazy cousin that was a game fanatic. He had every kind of game system and game that you could think of. Well everything short of a Neo Geo system. His cousin would come over his house every Friday and bring his video game collection over. I would go over there and stay the whole day with them playing all kinds of games and all kinds of systems. I used to think that this guy was some kind of game god. He even had a freakin Panasonic 3DO. Those things weren't cheap. They were about $700 dollars at the time in 1994 so that was big.

So from him I was able to play the Sega CD. He had a ton of games. My favorites Eternal Champions CD, Sonic CD, Fifa Soccer, and the Lunar Silverstar Story rpg game. It was a great system. I even got a chance to borrow it from them. The Sega CD worked in conjunction with the Sega Genesis. The cartride slot for the Genesis was used for cartridge ram for the system. Like I said the games were fun to play. It was the first system where you could see full motion video. The video wasn't really best though. It was more or less grainy but it was definitely worth to see. 

The system sort of fell short due to lack of popular titles and the Night Trap game scandal. It was funny people made a big deal about that game. They referred to the game as obscene. When I say "they" I mean parents and the government. The game was something more or less an episode out of the Benny Hill show. Back then it was a different time though. We had all kinds of social issues regarding women to deal with. 

So Night Trap didn't necessarily rub people the right way at the time. The good thing out of that was that they started the game rating system. Also Sega pushed the system too far and too fast. I don't think people were ready for the wave of CD media. The system didn't last long but it was great to play. I'll never forget it. It introduced me to games like Lunar and Lunar 2 which were great games for the system. It definitely paved the way for future CD based systems. Watch the clip from G4 on the system. 

Video Games - E3 2011 - AOTS Exclusive

A Game You Can Pee On, Litterally

 

Who says that you can't take a pee break and have fun too? Not Sega as they bring forth their urinal game the Sega Toylet. Just when I thought I had seen just about every kind of novelty item/game this comes along. Sega has certainly brought the term "playing with yourself" to a whole new level. Well they've basically reinvented it. Now I wonder how many guys will play with this thing. I wonder how many guys would want to play with it but just can't bring themselves to because of what they feel others might think. 

We're all grown men here. If we have any criticism towards another guy using that urinal console that means were also admitting to watching another guy taking a piss. I'll speak for all guys and say that no guy wants to admit watching another guy urinating. No guy does. I wouldn't mind trying to get the highest score on that game though. I wonder if we win prizes for playing. Watch the clip.

The Life of An Immortal Is Never Easy

I've always wanted to become immortal, you know like the Highlander movies. Just traveling through time and watching the world change right before your eyes. I wouldn't want to have kids though. It would be kind of weird to watch your kids grow up and grow old while you're still relatively young. You could travel the world or be somebodies lab experiment because it would be kind of weird explaining how you've lived for over five hundred years. I'm just saying.

This is exactly the situation in Neverdead. Neverdead is a game where you play as the immortal character Bryce, who at one point in his life was dutiful noble soldier who lived by the code of justice. That is until he was defeated by the evil demon king. Now Bryce is a less than former version of himself who has been wandering the world for the last 500 years laying waste to demons of all kind.

The game is kind of unique to the point that Bryce never dies. Yeah, I said it correctly. He doesn't die at all in the game. When you're immortal you don't die. You know, that's pretty much their thing. On the other hand though Bryce can be dismembered in many different ways. He can also put himself back together again. It kind of a weird feature for an epic action fighting videogame character. I would say the game is along the lines of the Devil May Cry and God of War series. I'm just basing this on the videos I've seen of the game. I'd love to play a demo of it so I can get a better gauge on the game.

It might sound knd of silly to have a feature where the main character's limbs can constantly come off but the game's creators say that the title's theme has a more serious tone than people think. They also say that the particular dismemberment feature can also be used the character's advantage. Watch the clips.

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2011 - NeverDead

Sessler's Take on Supreme Court Ruling

Well you've heard my take on the Supreme Court Ruling. I could talk all day about it but I don't wanna put my readers to sleep with my rants. lol Now here's Adam Sessler's take on it. I was waiting for their responses so I could merge it with my previous post. Oh, well nothing is perfect. Watch the clip.

Game Trailers - E3 2011

Motion To Restrict Sales of Violent Videogames Denied By The Supreme Court

The videogame industry wins big today as the Supreme Court rules in their favor. The motion to stop the sales of violent videogames in California was denied by the Supreme Court. The court cited that their was not enough evidence to stop the sale of violent videogames and that forcing the stoppage of sales impeded upon the videogame's industries right to freedoms of speech. This is a very big win for the videogame industry as a whole. Looks like the conservatives lose big this time around. I really think it will change the way people look at videogames. Some people really believe that videogames are nonsense and are a waste of time. They look to do away with videogames all together.

I sort of take issue with those so called "crusaders" going out of their way to ban this and ban that because they think it ruins their so called way of conservative life. It annoys me to the core that some people have this notion that their way of life is the only way to live and its just not reality. No two individual are a like when it comes to personalities. So when you try to make people live a certain way based on your say so there's always gonna be a clash. You have to accept that people are different and they have different avenue's of expressing themselves. Some choose music, sports, others choose art, and many more choose making or playing games of all kinds.

From the 20th century to today there have been so many frivolous and ridiculous bans that have lead to extreme results. The government banned liquor in the thirties only to have people bootleg it. Then they banned marijuana, which is a natural plant, only to have it sold illegally worldwide. They tried to restrict porn and nudity only to have it explode with hundreds of porn studios and publications all over California. My point is, in today's world, If the sale of violent videogames were banned it wouldn't stop the making of them. When you stop people from doing something and you don't give them a valid reason it makes them want to do it even more.

Now today, we have all kinds of liquor to drink, all kinds of porn to watch, and marijuana use is more rampant than ever. There are even marijuana dispensaries now in select states. You can't force your views and opinion on other people just so you can live your way of life. There are many ways of life that people live. As long as they're not endangering others people have a right to live their lives the way they see fit.

I have never understood why some things have band tags and others do not. The only thing I can think of is that one is backed by one or several importantly major entities and the other is not. Just because someone makes a violent videogame doesn't mean that it affect you or your family directly. No one has told you to buy. No one has even told you to play it. You certainly have the right to decide whether or not your child should play it.

So why try to ban it if it doesn't affect you directly? I have played tons of violent videogames and I've never been influenced by them in a way that would me commit a violent crime or do anything severely illegal for that matter. I've made good grades and have graduated from high school and college. There are other people that play videogames and have done the same as well who have jobs in the videogame industry. So I ask, where's the fire? Why try to block others from doing what they want to do if it doesn't directly affect you?

The 7 to 2 ruling was a big blow to conservatives. That's what you get for trying to block free speech and expression. I don't think you ever win when you do that. Check the news clip.

I'm Fightin' Against The All Girls Team And Their Winning!

Skullgirls is a 2D throwback fighter featuring an all girl cast. It kind of visually reminds me of a cross between Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Dark Stalkers, which both were made by Capcom. Just as I've said in earlier posts before it seems like developers are having flash backs all of the sudden and are rolling out with all kinds of 2D games. They're back in again. Which isn't a bad thing. There are a lot of fun 2D games to play these days that are just as good as the featured 50 to 60 dollar next gen games that they have for sale at your local game shop. The good thing is that you don't have to get up from off of your couch to buy them anymore. They're all online for purchase via your current console.

The game is a fast paced combo tactical fighter featured in the fictional Canopy Kingdom. The quest and the goal is to capture the mystical and mysterious "Skull Heart". This heart once obtained has the ability to grant wishes but it doesn't come without a cost. If the female fighter's soul is not pure in nature her heart and her wishes will become corrupted. This event will turn the world as they know into a living nightmare thus transforming the fighter into a Skullgirl, a monstrous creature with unnatural power. Now isn't that just a treat. So if you're player is a bad girl she could single handily alter the state of the world from good to worse just by making a crazy wish. This reminds me of Ghostbusters when Ray accidentally wished for the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Yeah something like that can definitely change the fate of the world. lol

It's amazing how the characters look when you look at the game footage. The developers definitely took their time and care into making this game. The characters were sketched up on paper not created on the computer with software. That's really neat to see nowadays since most game creating these days is rendered with some kind of software on a PC. They really made this game from scratch. The creators are Alex Ahad, Art Director, and Mike "Mike Z" Zaimont. Their work has been featured in games such as Scott Pilgrim, and Lava Punch. The game also features real-time lighting and shadowing. I love the cartoony feel of the game as well. it really shows within the characters. Check out the clips.

E3 2011: Skullgirls Art Process Documentary:

More Skullgirls Videos

Skullgirls E3 2011 Interview

PS3 Games - E3 2011 - Skullgirls

Check out their website and their Facebook Fanpage for more footage and info about the game:

http://www.facebook.com/skullgirls?sk=info

http://www.skullgirls.com/home

UbiSoft: Who Knew The French Could Be So Good?

This year I've really been impressed with UbiSoft. They've really made it to the forefront of gaming. They're games are really unique and they keep expanding their horizons. Up until recently I didn't even know that they were a French game company or that they had been around for 25 years.

Watching the footage from E3 really opened my eyes to that. They've made so many great games to speak of. I think the Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed series are my favorites right now. Watching this year's E3 really made UbiSoft one of my favorite game companies to make games. They had a really nice line up this year. I look forward to their future projects.

I watched a really nice news piece about them on CNN early this morning. It talks about their humble beginning and where they are at now. It was interesting to find out that UbiSoft never initially started out as a game company and that it was started by five brothers. Some nice little tidbits to know. Check out the news clip.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Video Review By X-Play

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has jumped into the 3D club for the Nintendo 3DS. It looks even better than the original from the Nintendo 64 with the vivid 3D graphics. There are also some added changes from the previous release as well. I love game reboots. It's almost like a second chance at perfection. The game industry has really taken advantage of that a lot. I have a few games in mind that I would like to see rebooted. If they bring back Zelda 3: A Link To The Past, then I might just pick up a 3DS. I loved that game. Watch the clip.

3DS Games - E3 2011 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Call of Duty: Black Ops "Annihilation" DLC Trailer

Watch as the guys from Treyarch talk about the new Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC. This DLC is bundled with some pretty decent maps. It kind of makes wish that I didn't return my Black Ops game. Its gonna be really embarrassing going back to GameStop to buy it back again. I'm sure they're gonna have a few I told you so's waiting on me when I get there. Watch the clip.

PS3 Games - E3 2011 - Call of Duty: Black Ops

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Approved by X-Play

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition gets approved by X-Play. Its kind of hard not to. Its Super Street Fighter. Who's gonna say no to that? It pretty much a staple in videogame history. It's a game that your mom and dad know about and is recognized around the world just the same. I bought the update from the PlayStation Store last week and was pretty pleased to play as Evil Ryu and Oni. Yun and Yang I could pretty much care less for. They're cheap hit gimmick characters which I found out online playing against them. That wasn't fun at all losing to those two. Gamers use them because their moves are very easy to pull off and you can mix it up with cheap punch and kick combos follow by a quick super combo.

I was a little disappointed about the responsiveness of the game. I couldn't pull off my moves when I wanted too leaving me open for attacks. I think a lot of that may have had to do with my controller though. I may have to switch to a 6 button surfaced controller in the future. My hands felt like dead weight on my Dreamgear controller. It felt a little too sturdy. When you play a game like Street Fighter you need to have a loose free flowing controller with a lot of fluidity. Enough where you can pull off every move with ease. Overall the game was what I expected. I even won some online matches along the way. The menu system was updated nicely as well. When you purchase the update you get a bunch of Street Fighter 8-bit avatars for free which was a small bonus.

Watch the review from X-Play:

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2011 - Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition

Ladies and Gentlemen Scarlet's In The Building

Scarlet, the newest character to the Mortal Kombat franchise, is definitely in the building via a new Mortal Kombat DLC. She's similar to Mileena and Kitana but just as deadly. So don't sleep on her folks because she will cut you up just the same. She's the first in a series of four new characters to come to Mortal Kombat. The others are Kenshi, Rain, and a secret unknown character.

Wanna know her fatalities here you go thanks to Donnell Tucker of the G4TV staff.

Fatality 1: Blood Bath

Down, Back, Down, Down, Block (Close Distance)

Fatality 2: Make it Rain

For PS3 users - Forward, Back, Down, Down, Circle (Jump Distance)

For Xbox 360 users - Forward, Back, Down, Down, X (Jump Distance)

Babality

For PS3 users - Down, Back, Down, Forward, Triangle (Jump Distance)

For Xbox 360 useres - Down, Back, Down, Forward, Y (Jump Distance)

Stage Fatality

For PS3 users - Forward, Back, Forward, Square (Close Distance)

For Xbox 360 users - Forward, Back, Forward, X (Close Distance)

Check out her story trailer:

Mortal Kombat Skarlet's Story

Fatalities & Babality

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2011 - Mortal Kombat

What's The Deal With The PS Vita?

The PS Vita made a great showing at Sony's E3 conference and didn't disappoint. There were some questions left unanswered though. Also I think there were limited interactions with the new handheld console for gamers to actually get acquainted with it. I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to run some promotional tours with the PS Vita so that gamers could get the feel and gameplay of it. In addition it would be very beneficial for Sony to start placing demo systems in retail stores for more familiarity. That by the time it releases people would have a definite decision on whether they would want to buy it or not.

The announcement of the prices were not necessarily all that bad. I expected the $250 to $300 sales tags so it didn't bother me all that much. Some people may complain about the price but you have to see it from the business end of things. They have to have a way to make their money back on the product. There are so many elements that revolve around the price of this particular product. Its about the same price of that of the PSP when it first arrived. It also has better features of the original PSP as well. So with that said its probably well deserving the suggested retail tag price.

Like I said there were some other key questions left unanswered in Sony's E3 conference. One was about the 3G networking. Sony announced that they had joined up with AT&T to provide the 3G experience but I'm wondering if that's going to be the only 3G vendor involved. They didn't mention anyone else but Kazuo Hirai did mention that other vendors were to follow. He didn't specify on which ones though. I hope that it won't be a situation where I would have to buy into AT&T to gain 3G access. That would be a pain when I'm already with Verizon. I would rather use the 3G service I already have and not have to pay for another one. So hopefully more vendors will come on board. If not, luckily they have two versions of the Vita. I'll probably end up buying the wireless version.

Another major question was about they types of games that would be available upon the Vita's release. This is a critical element to a brand new console. You definitely want to have a nice collection of titles to choose from when you buy your new console otherwise your basically purchasing a brick literally. I can't believe how hard it is for companies that make gaming hardware to comprehend this. I've seen it time and time again. It happened to Sega's SegaCD, Saturn, and Dreamcast. It also happened to Atari's Jaguar, Panasonic's 3DO, Nintendo's VirtuaBoy, and their Nintendo 64. For a minute we thought the PlayStation 3 was going to see an early demise but it quickly rose from it's death bed. I was so happy for that because I spent a lot of money on mine.  I don't think that Sony was gonna let that happen at all because they heavily invested in that system and are just now reaping its rewards.

The game titles are essentially key to keeping game hardware alive. It's what keeps these systems so ever popular. Microsoft was very successful at that with the Xbox 360 but they had very faulty hardware at the time. There were so many complaints about hardware but you never heard anyone complain about the lack of games that were available. This is what Sony needs to focus on with the PS Vita. If they come out with the right games they will most definitely be successful in this endeavor.

I found a great article explaining the PS Vita in full detail on GameSpot.com written by Sarju Shah. It has everything you need to know about the PS Vita and more. All of your questions will be answered there. It just may solidify your decision on buying one for yourself. I for one will eventually have one. I'm a Sony geek. I've been attached since the days of the original PlayStation. Some people are Apple fans, some people are in love with Microsoft, but I'm just big on Sony. They're like the Nikes of the electronic world. You just gotta buy it. lol

Check out the article here:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6320422/sony-playstation-vita-wrap-up/?tag=bg_toggler%3Bbg_dark

E3 Interview with Scott Rhode, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Studios Product Development at SCEA

F.E.A.R. 3 Video Review

Fear 3 has been highly anticipated since last year. The game has a lot of new elements especially the ability to use Paxton Fettel alongside Point Man. He has the ability to take over and control the enemies body which becomes very useful. There are also new unique online modes that will have gamers playing for hours on end. I'm so far behind on this series that its gonna take me forever to catch up. I have all the games except this new one and I'm still stuck on the first title. So many games to play and so little time. Let's see if the game gods think that this new Fear game measures up to the hype. Check the review.

Time For Some Real Hard News

If you like being in the know about the world off gaming then this show will definitely keep you up to date. Its also fun to watch. Hard News is a short gaming media show delivering the latest up to date news in the gaming industry. The show is short and to the point. Its about 2 to 4 minutes per episode give or take the latest events. If you're not gonna watch it for the show at least watch it for the host, Jared. He's a character. He sort of comes off like an ass but you'll laugh at him in the end. I love his ad libbing and wise cracks. He's a pretty interesting person. The show is hosted by ScrewAttack.com via YouTube. You can search for it there or directly go straight to the page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/screwattack#p

Watch the latest episode here:

Call of Duty Elite "Legend Of Karl" Trailer

 

Watch this trailer as "TheLegendofKarl" explains the ins and outs of the Call of Duty Elite package. I always wanted to make a trailer like this where they match the actions of the game characters with the dialog. I always wanted to do that. This one is pretty funny.

PC Games - E3 2011 - Call of Duty: Black Ops

Enter Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim garnered a lot of attention at E3 with its open world environment and exiting adventure gameplay. I was extremely impressed with its ability to switch from first person to third person. I really love that feature because I'm not a big fan of first person view. There have been a lot of great games I've skipped out on because of the lack of the third person option. This is probably the best Elder Scrolls game to date. Elder Scrolls is not really my type of genre I get into but I think I would like to try this game on for size. Take a look at the E3 gameplay demo hosted by Morgan Webb and Adam Sessler.

PS3 Games - E3 2011 - The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

Shadows of The Damned Launch Trailer

Check out the launch trailer for Shadows of The Damned. This might be one of my fav games to buy. I'm looking forward to playing it.

PS3 Games - E3 2011 - Shadows of the Damned

Ryan Dunn Star of Proving Ground Killed In Car Crash

Ryan Dunn, 34, Jackass star and one of the stars of the new G4 show Proving Ground show, was killed in a fiery car accident earlier this morning. The car Dunn was driving, a 2007 Porsche, burst into flames as it left the road near the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester. An unidentified passenger was also killed in the car accident.

TMZ sources report Dunn drinking at a bar hours before the fatal accident. Speed may have also been a factor that resulted in his and the unidentified passenger's death. Here is a photo of Dunn with friends hours before his demise:

Photo from TMZ

The Proving Ground Show was pulled off the air by G4 today. Nine episodes have already been shot for the show and only 31,000 people viewed the first episode. Proving Ground's basis was based on attempts to take elements and features from videogames and movies and try to make them happen in real life setting.

This is really crazy I just blogged about the Proving Ground show last week. I woke up to the news and I was shocked. I wonder what will happen with the show now. If I were them I would probably still show the remaining episodes while probably looking for another highly anticipated star.

Its really sad Ryan died this way. I'd hate to think that his drinking may have played a role in his death. I know its definite blow to the Jackass family. I was a fan of the Jackass gang as well as many others. They did crazy things that I know I will never do in my lifetime and they put on a good show doing it. You will be missed Ryan! Rest in peace.

Source Articles:
http://www.tmz.com/2011/06/20/jackass-ryan-dunn-dies-dead-car-crash-accident-pennsylvania/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tv-column/post/g4-pulls-proving-ground-off-the-schedule-after-star-ryan-dunns-death/2011/06/20/AGu285cH_blog.html

MekkaChyld on Madden

Today I was so bored that I found myself playing with a tennis ball and throwing it up at the ceiling in my apartment. Luckily I live on the top floor and didn't have no one to complain about the noise. Finally I decided to play some Madden 11. I hadn't played it for a while. When I say a while I mean I haven't played it since January. I think I was in a slump losing at the time. So I popped it in and immediately went to play online.

I figured I'd test my Madden chops and see just how decent or fairly decent I was. Of course I had to play with my beloved hometown Indianapolis Colts! The best team in the NFL, yeah! lol My opponent picked none other than the New England Patriots. It was definitely the perfect rivalry game to play. The game started out smooth and I was at ease. The first quarter went really well. I was definitely holding it down with the defense. I had my online opponent locked up. He couldn't throw to any of his receivers without me trying to make a play on the ball.

I even played the ball on 4 down in two possessions with flawless completion. I was definitely on "No Guts No Glory" mode. With about a minute and a half left in the 1st I had scored my first touchdown. It was a bomb to Pierre Garcon on 4th down with a huge blitz coming at me. Luckily I got it off in time. I definitely thought he was gonna play the pass but I guess I got away with one. Lucky me. That's when I felt I was getting back in the swing of things. I thought it was going to be a close game because there was no scores made in the second quarter. Finally the guy I was playing against got one in the third. After that I thought it was gonna be a serious game.

Right after he scored I had score once again with ease. This time it was an open strike to Dallas Clark. After that it was raining touchdowns. I didn't even get a TD catch with Reggie Wayne. Three of them went to Dallas. My defense was really focused. They were flying all over the field just like they do in real life. They were fast and quick to the defender and the ball. I even got some nice picks. One of which I had a decent return. Addai got a decent 11 yard run TD and the rest was history.

There's a method to my madness and I don't want to share my trade secrets. lol I'm just happy I got a win after a long hiatus from playing the game. I finished on top with a blowout win outscoring my opponent 35 - 7. So if you own a PS3 and you catch me playing Madden hit me up. I'm up for the challenge.

Here's some video of 2 of my highlight touchdowns. Get @ me! ;-)

My TD to Pierre Garcon

EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight

My TD Throw to Dallas Clark

EA Sports: Madden NFL 11 Video Highlight

The Fight Between Man & Machine

The war between man and machine has begun. Human fight for their stay of existence in Binary Domain. Binary Domain is a unique squad based shooter created my Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of several fame Sega titles such as the popular Yakuza series. This game takes me back to the Terminator and Matrix movies. It has the same theme, same struggle. I won't say I've heard and seen it all before because though this game might run parallel with those movie franchises every story is different in its own way.

I love the man versus machine theme. It makes you wonder if we could create robots and machines in an intelligent enough way where one day they could possibly take over. Could you imagine being policed and governed by a robot. I really should have said owned. lol I don't think I would live like that. I wonder if we would still have to pay taxes though? Hmm... Take a look at the game trailer and interview with the game's product manager Dan Gallardo.

Battlefield 3 With Jimmy Fallon

I watched the Battlefield 3 demo on Jimmy Fallon's show a couple of nights ago and I really liked the gameplay. This really looks like a game of war. Watching the bullets tear into the buildings and environment was really awesome. It looks like hiding places will be pretty seldom in the game. Jimmy was talking about how he would just hide the whole game and change the title to hiding field 3. lol I found that pretty funny. I've tried that in multiplayer shooters before and it doesn't really work. Somebody always finds you. You can also be saved in the game by a friend when you get injured when they pull you out of harms way. I would love to play for myself to see just how good it is. Unfortunately its  tagged with a release date of October 25th. Take a look at the clip.

100 Years of IBM

You probably don't think about it or even consider that IBM (International Business Machines) have been a technological part in our daily digital lives for the past 100 years. The company is the mastermind towards numerous technological advances in the 20th and 21st centuries. IBM recently, this past week, celebrated its 100th birthday. The company started back in June 16th 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Company. The company was headed by Thomas J. Watson who was a former exec of the National Cash Register Company.

The company is known for building the Mark 1, an early version of a computer created in 1944 in with assistance Harvard University. They later went on to build the IBM 701 in 1953. It was the first large computer based on vacuum tube technology.  The system was mainly used in government and research facilities. They made quite a bit of money renting the machines out at a rate of $11,000 a month. The machine executed 17,000 instructions per second.

IBM also dabbled in the production of typewriters. During the 1950s they sold their Model B Standard and Model B Executive typewriters which became the office norm appliance for companies all across America. They assisted airline companies in developing much more efficient computerized systems that handled flight schedules and transactions with customers. They even developed systems for NASA to help with their efforts to reach the moon.

IBM's imprint is everywhere these days. Their systems are used in police departments, government agencies, hospitals, and all over corporate America. They even have a super computer named Watson that played in Jeopardy and won. They are a really huge brand name. You might even say they've had something to do with the gaming industry.

Without a lot of their technological pioneering the gaming industry might not see the light of day. So for that I guess we have pay homage and thank them for making their technologies possible and allowing the game industry to ride on its coat tails. Makes you wonder how many IBM branded dedicated servers are out there hosting online console matches everyday for various games.

With so many innovations and so little time to tell their story I'll let YouTube do the rest. 100 years is a lot to summarize in a blog post. Happy Birthday IBM! Here's to another innovative 100 years. Check out these videos of IBM history here.

Screen Team - Call of Duty: Black Ops Parody

I just had to put this up. Its so funny. I was just browsing around on Mashable.com and I came across this video of Rebecca Black's video dubbed Friday. Amazingly some how this video received close to 170 million views. It was recently taken down by YouTube for so called probable infringement. Personally I think someone was mad that she got so many hits to her video than they did. So petty.

I checked to see what all the fuss was about and here was this little girl singing about Friday in the most lame way. Her vocals were super flat so bad that Simon Cowell would've had a fit. How could a video like that garner 170 million hits. There was nothing really significant about the video. The video had tweens behind the wheel of a car driving which I found really ridiculous. You could tell they were too young to drive. Where the hell where they going? I lost precious minutes of my life watching that video.

Just below that video was a parody video of Rebecca Black's Friday made by the group Screen Team called Saturday. This video was stupid funny. I laughed all the way to the end. I liked that more than the original video. I clicked on one of their links within the video and it took me to their YouTube page and that's where I found the Call of Duty: Black Ops parody. That was even funnier. I can't believe that I'm just now finding out about this group. The Black Ops parody actually came out several months earlier. So maybe you've probably seen it already but I'm gonna post it up so you can see it again. For those who haven't seen it. Be prepared to laugh. lol

Prove This Jackass!

If you wanna sit back and laugh your ass off this would be the show to do it with. Proving Ground, which features videogame hottie Jessica Chobot and Jackass' Ryan Dunn, is a show where they take features from games and movies and try to apply them to real life. I watched the first episode this week and laughed a lot. The show is hilarious as they try to make their ideas come to life. In the first episode they tried to put Mario Kart to the test.

It was pretty amazing with what they came up with.  This show is a must watch. It has inklings of the Jackass show in it thanks to Dunn. He really brings the comedy. Imagine if the rest of the guys were in it. I'm really watching it though for Jessica she's really easy on the eyes. They also have this guy who brings all their ideas to life by building and fabricating their gadgets.

These two are definitely funny together. Check out a clip from the show.

Duke's Long Overdue Return

It took 13 years for Duke to return. That's pretty much unprecedented in the gaming world. You have your one hit wonder games and then you have your block buster hits with continuous sequels, don't forget about the reboots. For titles that have been on hiatus though, that doesn't really happen to often especially not after 13 years. You'll have games that have been put on hold for months or maybe even a year or two but not as long as Duke has been on the shelf.

Duke's return has been long awaited but it really hasn't been block buster. You would expect a game being on hold for that long to have a few nuances added to it. Graphics of course should be updated tremendously. Gameplay should be improved of the years of idle inactivity. In this case Duke didn't really come to the table new and improved. He's basically the same ol' Duke. He looks just as he did all those years ago and the gameplay is still all blocky and choppy. He still says all those lame one-liners and Forever just doesn't look as refreshing as it should.

You would think that after all that time this would be the best game to play right now but it isn't. On top of that they're asking for full price of the which I don't believe it should get. $45 is too rich for my blood when it comes to this game. This makes me happy that I bought Assassin's Creed 2 for $9 from the PlayStation store. It's the deluxe edition too. For this particular Duke game I'd only pay, well actually, after seeing the review I wouldn't wanna waste my money. There are other games to buy. I don't think we should pay full price based on nostalgia and novelty. I thought the game would be updated immensely but it definitely doesn't seem like it has at all. Watch the disappointing review.

The 80 Million Dollar Game: Star Wars - Old Republic

If you're spending $80 million on a creating and developing a video game it better be the best damn video game ever made. That's what EA is reportedly spending to create their first MMO, Star Wars: Old Republic. I mean it better be so good that it makes me wanna play it. I don't even like playing MMOs, never have. I hate MMOs because they have no ending. Either that or they have an endless supply of dedicated servers with endless updates. They can go one forever. I hate that because I believe that there always has to be an ending. I love to be immersed in a game but to be tied down  and married to it playing everyday, that's a lot of committment.

Nonetheless, no matter what I like or don't there is a large gaming culture of gamers that love and dwell in and live their lives in MMOs. It's their second life so to speak. It's so bad that people marry their characters together. Some people get together in real life because of the game. It's crazy that people don't think as normal as me. I shouldn't say that because if that were true the world wouldn't be as entertaining with the weird people in it. lol I stay away from MMOs because a game like that can really bog down your life and cramp your style.  I've got other stuff to do with my life and I want to make sure I get them done. I'm not getting any younger.

When you think about it $80 Million dollars is a lot to invest in a game. You always hear about how much movie producers/writers/directors spend to make a movie but you never really hear about the budgets towards making a game. It makes me wonder how much it took to creat the Halo series or the Gears of War games. When you think about everything that they have to do get the game up and running and then to maintain it, I believe it would average out to be that amount but you have to wonder, will the game be good enough for the fans to play?

In The Old Republic you play as your own created player in a setting that takes place way before the days of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. You can choose to be either a Jedi or a Sith in this game or from several other roles in the Star Wars universe where you make decisions that will define your story through whatever path you take whether it is from the Dark side or the Light. Along your path you'll run into various individuals that will either help or hinder your progress based on your actions.

I actually hope the game succeeds. It would suck to hear that it failed after investing so much money into it. I can't imagine it flopping like that.  Here is some of the game in action. Enjoy!