When I was first told of the concept of Darkest Of Days the newest XBOX 360 game from Phantom EFX, I couldn’t help but think, amazing.  A war game that transcends 5 different War eras, but unlike the Call of Duty series where you are multiple people, you are the same character all the way through.  But how can that work you ask? Time Travel.

After getting whisked straight from Custards Last Stand, to 300 years in the future, you find out that somehow, the outcome of the wars are changing.  It becomes your job to go back in time through the different wars to ensure certain people make it out alive, and maintain the history books.  What makes that even more difficult then it sounds is that not only do you need to make sure people on your side don’t get killed, there are certain people on the other side you have to make sure survive as well.  That’s right, you are getting shot at by people who you can’t kill, well you can but it will only cause problems for you in the future.  These NPCs, notated by their blue auras, can be taken out by the use of chasers, little balls that act like mini personal homing concussion grenades, harmlessly knocking out the opponent soldier that needs to survive.

While the games story really drew me in, I immediately noticed a few blaring problems with the game that made it very hard to work with.  First off is the lack of “hero complex”, i.e. you play someone from the civil war era, who is transported to the future, and he isn’t freaking out?  Today we have TV, Movies, and SCI-FI programing to tell us, hey maybe it can happen.  Back then they had no such thing and I find it hard to believe our hero would be able to adjust as quickly as he does in the game.

Secondly is the long list of game play problems I had with the game.  The guns accuracy definitely has kids gloves on.  At a long distance, intentionally shooting over the shoulder of the enemy we were still scoring one hit kills. Graphics at many times was blocky, and the refresh rate was very poor. Many of the sounds in the game were repetitive, including a very loud and annoying Indian war call that sounded like kid was just hitting a button as many times as he could to make the one sound clip keep playing over and over again.  The music was just as bad, I never really heard it change, it was the same few notes over and over.  Controls were sluggish but I think I can chalk that one up to game mechanics.  If it was my first time using all these new-fangled weapons I’d be a bit slow too.

With the all those little hiccups it made it hard for me to play the game.  If you can get past those little hiccups there is a great story to be had in this game, and the more you play, the more the story becomes apparent.  This is one of those games that you can choose the simple path to get to the end but if you want to get full enjoyment out of the game you have to play as many levels as possible.  

Final Rating: 7/10 – Graphics and below average gameplay, scar a great story line, but the story line still shines through

till next time…

“And here they come rounding the final bend.  On The Back Of Natal Still has a huge lead, but look!  Here comes PSP-a-Go-Go coming on strong!  Can she catch Natal, it’s neck and neck, the jockeys are giving it all they got.  They cross the line, it’s a photo finish!”

Well e3 has finally come to a close, and i think it is safe to say no new news is going to be coming out from e3.  Let me get right to the review for Sony’s conference so we can get to see who won.

Presentation 8/10 – Presentation wasn’t half bad.  It lost something being online then being in the room though.  I must say I would have loved to see that huge screen in action.  They did drown out a bit with numbers and presentations, but the games they hit with were big, and overall I felt pretty excited about Sony’s showing.  I actually felt like I have been using my PSP all wrong, and I strongly considered saving for a ps3.

Announcements 9/10 – The “worst kept secret” at e3 was the PSP Go.  The one thing I didn’t take away from all the leaks though, was what the unit was really about.  It was almost the size of a cell phone, and really had me intrigued, until I saw the price.  All in all though, 16gb built-in and expandable, and the size could make it something to reckon with.  On a publisher side, they announced they are dropping the price of the psp developer kit so now more quality Independent companies can afford to pick up the package and bring better games to the psp.  Now, how do you trump Microsoft’s playable demo of Final Fantasy 13? A Trailer!  But not just for Final Fantasy 13, but for Sony PS3 exclusive Final Fantasy 14 online.  Personally I enjoyed Final Fantasy 11 but never kept up with it, however I know there are a lot of people who play it, who will likely jump at getting a PS3 just for ff14.  The announcement of PSOne games coming to PSN was nice but not huge (mainly cause xbox and Nintendo have been doing that now for almost a year) until they said the original version of Final Fantasy 7 was not only going to get released, but was to be release that day.  As I write this it is available on The PlayStation Network for $9.99.  Original, unopened copies of the game go on eBay for $50+ !  So now all the people who damaged their copy and really want to play it again but don’t want to shell out the money for it can.  And remember when Microsoft announced Metal Gear Solid for xbox 360?  How they played it up that it was a Raiden adventure?  Well here’s why, Sony announced that the next game in the true story line (i.e. not a spin off or alternate reality) will come out for the PSP.  That’s right a full fledged Metal Gear Solid Game on the PSP.  They had a couple of other good showings, but the announcement that killed it from getting a 10 in this department was the EyeToy Motion Controllers.  They looked like, well we will keep this family friendly and just say they looked like Wiimotes with over sized pimples.  Regardless if they say they were the first to have true motion control with the Eye Toy (what about the Power Glove on NES) this attempt to improve it was on the tail end of everything, and nowhere near ready.  In a world where motion control is become more and more of a standard to come out with something that isn’t finished feels like they are arriving to a costume party in casual clothes and a pin that says “Boob Inspector”.

Games 10/10 – God of war 3, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 and 14, Mod Nation Racer, and all the rest, were just huge games.  They looked sharp, and again left me saying “Maybe this is the year I get a PS3.

Overall 9/10 - Iknow this is like the 3rd time I am saying this, but anytime you get someone who was hell bent against getting a PS3 (lack of games that interest me, and price) and get them to consider buying your system, you did something right.  When the only low points of your briefing is too many numbers, motion control and the fact that most of your good stuff got leaked pre-expo, and you still made the show interesting, you did something right. 

Ok so now who won…well let’s check the photo finish….

“And now here’s the official results…according to the finish, the winner by half a nostril…On The Back Of Natal!”

Yes, Microsoft wins.  When the Wii came out it was innovative and insanly popular.  All it had however was motion sensor gaming.  Natal really shines as the next new innovation, and it feels like Nintendo will have to get out of the way.  Meanwhile Sony, while trumping many of MS’s bigger with similar announcements, their motion sensor idea was about 2 years late and followed in Nintendo’s footsteps.  Aside from the motion sensor based controlling, Microsoft portrayed a  greater air of excitement, and really got me psyched about a lot of their upcoming products.  Yes Sony trumped Final Fantasy 13 with Final Fantasy 14…but even with the trailer I felt no excitement about playing 14.  And while I immediatly wanted a PS3 when I was done watching the Briefing, I was still more proud to already own an Xbox 360.

“And here they come now rounding the first bend approaching the half-mile marker, On The Back Of Natal still running strong, and Nintendo’s Vitality’s Run is trying to make a push.  Can Vitality’s Run get ahead of the strong lead set by the front runner.  Wait a second, something seems wrong, it looks like Vitality’s Run has broken a leg, no strike that, all 4 legs.  Looks like she will get trampled by Sony’s PSP-a-Go-Go.  Can PSP-a-Go-Go do what Vitality’s Run could not, can she over take On The Back Of Natal?”

So out comes Nintendo and practically trips over their own feet.  Clocking in at only a little over 1 hour long, the media briefing showed exactly Microsoft’s “showing not telling” mentality worked.  The entire thing reminded me of a conference where they were announcing big new consoles, except the were practically the same videos for the previous consoles.  Let’s check my details as I get to the point in the same fashion they did, quick simple and boring.

Presentation 5/10 – Ok Nintendo this is where you dropped the ball.  You focused on the media in attendance at the venue I get that, but you still missed something huge.  I understand you are known for screwing this up, but the conference was broad casted live to the internet.  You again missed the online opportunity to really broadcast your new wares.  No special guests, boring talk about numbers that I doubt even the Media that was there cared about.  I can’t expect that anyone left that room saying “I have to go post all this exciting stuff right now.”  And you can’t make a dramatic reveal of something we already know about when someone has already trumped you and expect that to be exciting.  Just poor performance.

Announcements 6/10 - A few new games I haven’t seen before, almost everything else though has already been talked about somewhere.  The highlights were simple, a 4-player co-op Super Mario Bros.,  A new Mario RPG, Super Mario Galaxy 2…Mario and Luigi minis march again…ok way too much Mario. New Metroid game is coming out being developed by Team Ninja which could make for a very good game.  The trailer definitely showed both classic Metroid and Team Ninja Stylings.  And now the lead weight.  I tweeted it, and I still believe this.  If it wasn’t the Nintendo press conference, that image of a pulse sensor hooked up to a Wiimote, I would swear it was photo shopped, like a bad prank.  Now I know this shouldn’t go in the announcements section as we have known about this for awhile, but the way they presented it I feel it should go here.  Nintendo treated their new Motion Plus as this amazing new feature, that would change how we played the Wii.  It would allow for accurate motion detection, allow you to control your character in game…wait this is what it could do…oh it does it BETTER!  Which is funny cause the video makes it look like all this is only possible now which says to me Nintendo got it wrong in the first place.

Games 7/10 – The games look good, the new Super Mario Bros for the Wii with 4 player combat looks fun.  A Nice Crystal Chronicles game from Square Enix.  Metroid looked nice.  Wii Sports Resort had some nice gameplay to it.  Sadly presentation is killing this section for me.  The games all LOOK good, and on the surface I have to give it an appropriate rating but the truth is I don’t feel excited about ANY of these games.

Overall 6/10 – I said I want to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt, last year they announced Wii Music and it bombed, ok maybe the Vitality sensor might work out, but I feel no excitement or anything towards it, or anything else Nintendo put out today.

Ok Sony’s conference is starting in a few minutes, so check back after that.

“Welcome one and all to the e3 derby!  The horses are lining up in the gate. AND THEIR OFF!  Coming out of the gate strong is the microsoft owned horse, OnThe Back Of Natal. Meanwhile the Sony Owned horse seams to have stumbled out of the gate…”

Yes, welcome to the week known as e3.  By the end of today, the winners of the e3 derby will be determined by me based on who i felt had the best showing.  And this is like a derby because out of the gate with a huge head start was Microsoft.  The ability to go first lent them a few advantages, first they are setting the whole tone for the convention with their “Showing not telling” mentality.  Secondly going first allowed them to unleash the first in game demo of Final Fantasy 13 on the XBox 360.  Square Enix has really spread their wings as of late, deviating from their Sony mentality.  This isn’t to say they haven’t always been multi-platform, but with Final Fantasy being mostly Sony exclusive (although not contracted) they always felt Sony-centric.  Now this is one bullet that has literally been taken out of the chamber of Sony’s gun.  Sony can no longer say that any announcement for Final Fantasy 13 is new or interesting, Microsoft beat them to that punch.  Microsoft also came out with a nice selection of exclusive games, including stealing another one from Sony.  With the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming out for the Xbox 360, I don’t know if anyone can catch them. 

Let’s go into a bit more detail and go with some ratings.

Presentation 9/10 – A lot of what makes e3 what it is, is gaudy press confrences.  With a set that would rival almost any major award ceremony, Microsoft took the stage strong.  At first I thought, opening with Rock Band: The Beatles seamed a little weak.  I understand a lot of people still enjoy music games, but I think the craze is starting to die out.  Then they pull out all the stop with Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono, and most importantly Paul and Ringo, the remaining surviving members of the Beatles.  Then they follow that up with more star power, bringing out Tony Hawk to introduce his new skateboard controller.  The rest was very general till the end, when they unleashed Project Natal onto the world, but that’s for another section.  OVerall the production was amazing, and by not letting the confrence get dragged down by numbers, they were able to keep excitement up and kept people interested.

Announcements 9/10 – Another 9 here, the only reason it doesn’t get a 10 is cause if you bring out the maker of one of your best game properties (Gears of War) and have them announce that they are working on an XBLA game, it’s a big let down.  Last year CliffyB from Epic Games comes out with a Lancer (Chainsaw gun from Gears Of War) and that was the big moment.  I understand Epic may only be ready to release this XBLA game, but don’t announce it here, let it leak before the confrence.  However the advent of Metal Gear Solid: Rising coming to Xbox exclusivly, Facebook, last.fm, twitter, Halo: Reach and of course Project Natal makes up for it.  When Peter Molyneux came out and showed that video from Lionhead Studios showing what Natal can do, I was blown away.  Now I am sure they only showed off what was already programed, but think of the applications.  A friend who can help your son or daughter out with their homework.  Someone who will help keep your children active, and maybe, in the future, a babysitter.  You may think it strange to leave your child in the care of a computer, but what if you know you are only going out for an hour or two for a nice dinner with your spouse.  Turn it on, and hook up a special Xbox 360 alarm system  to your house. At the first sign of trouble, if they kid looks sick or starts crying, it can through the internet, call you immediatly.  Or in the event of a break-in can call 911.  I am sure there are more practical uses (personally I can’t wait for the golf games) but these are just some of the many options that now become available.

Games 8/10 – Showing off Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach was nice.  It was good to finally see some actual game play for ODST.  Alan Wake has the feel of another Blacksite: Area 51 type of game to me.  A very simple style third person shooter that may have great story but weak gameplay. The in game demo they showed, he spent more time walking then anything else.  Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 both look great but not a lot of good footage from either.  Tony Hawk Ride looked nice, especially with the skateboard.  Shadow Complex does look like it can be a fun game.  Final Fantasy 13 is looking good but in true square enix style, they gave us only a small clip to leave us wanting more.  Rock Band: The Beatles has some nice new innovations like actual harmonies (something I was hoping for in rock band 2). 

Overall 9/10 – I think Microsoft has more then set the tone for all of e3 with this briefing.  They left it open for more news to come out over the course of the week.  They came out strong setting a bar for the rest of the big three to try to catch.

 In a half hour from the time of writing, the Nintendo Confrence will start.  Lets see if they can come out strong enough to even be noticed.  Nintendo doesn’t need to come out as flashy cause of what Nintendo is about.  If they can drop a few hardcord gamer’s games, and a bunch of high quality first party games they can still do well.  I will be back with part 2 sometime later today.

               Hi there everybody, thought I would drop in and make my introductions and get right to business.  The Name’s Ray and I do consider myself a geek.  A quick rundown of my geek credentials, I have a Blackberry Curve which I love, an iPod, a spiffy PC built myself, an unholy love for Bawls, and almost every video game system made since the originaly Nintendo.   I lose the occasional Geek cred when I say things like I have never seen the original Star Wars Trilogy, but I get weird looks when I say I love Kevin Smith Movies so I guess it all evens out in the end. Other interests of mine include sports, writing, making things (i.e. Tinkering, crafts, woodworking), playing and watching poker, playing and watching golf, going for long drives at night, pretending I can rock a hot dress…did I go to far? If you can’t tell I also enjoy dropping in a bit of comic relief from time to time. Figured I would get right into it with something that has been on my mind the last 48 hours.

            So Wednsday was the tear jerking Scrubs finale, or at least so I expected. It almost felt like instead of connecting loose end, Bill Lawrence (executive producer) came by with a pair of scissors and cut them all off. Instead of providing story it was more like, “let’s give the fans everything they want in one episode, who cares if it fits or not.”

           This isn’t to say it was a bad episode, I was happy to see that all issues were resolved and the season left it so there were few loose ends to cut off.  I did enjoy the episode.  It just didn’t feel like the end.  Which brings me to an interesting observation. All the things the fans got were “J.D.” related. It didn’t feel like a farewell to scrubs, it felt like a farewell to Zach Braff (who plays J.D.). Given that Lawrence has said he would consider coming back to produce a new style of scrubs, almost the entire cast saying that if their new projects fail they would be interested in coming back and that includes Zach Braff saying he’d be willing to direct an episode or two and even make cameos, I can’t imagine ABC not at least trying to give it a shot.

            Even if there was only one season of it, it can’t be worse then this season which felt more like they weren’t worrying about story or the same wit and charm as it was snipping the lose ends. It still had its moment but especially the last few episodes felt like they were tired of waiting for the big moment. If the show was to come back, which we should find out in a few weeks if it does or not, it won’t have that weight on its shoulders. It can be a fresh new comedy based on doctors in the same setting. With new characters that have already been introduced fitting the profiles of what could make a great cast we can leave the old scrubs behind us and move into another show. Not a better show but certainly not a worse one, just different and fresh.

            So with that I offer my first interaction here, can’t wait to see what everyone has to say.

RAL