Celebrity & Entertainment

The Feb/March issue released today.

Pick it up for some Valentines Day suggestions and my quick takes on Mac World and giving a little techie love for greeting card day (get your mind out of the gutter, this is a family blog!)

Get yer free Live Game here

Undertow will be a free download to all gold and silver LIVE members next week Wed, January 23 -through- Sun, January 27. What a bizarre time frame. Why not the whole week? Or month? Oh well, it's still free- and it's one of the more popular LIVE games to boot. Not too shabby.

Here's the link for the press release http://http//gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/01/18/UndertowFreeofCharge.aspx
Even if you don't care to sit through the boring PR, hit the link for the comments to marvel at how people can complain about anything. Good gravy, call the wahhhhmbulance.

Mac World re-cap

I wrote about a few of these item in my column in Celebrity & Entertainment but here's a few more bits and bytes.

Not much new in the iPod realm. Pretty disappointing actually, the only updating was done to the Touch and the iPhone. (With a much beefier one for the iPhone)

One really cool addition was made to iTunes in the form of movie rentals. After download you can load up the flick onto your portable or watch it on your Mac or PC. After you start it up, you've got 24hrs before the file terminates. So that's kind of un-cool but still, not bad overall.

The Mac Book Air is another story altogether. It's a super-light 'n' thin notebook Mac that has no disc drives and no ports of any kind other than USB (to attach all the peripherals you'll have to buy). It also has a 'gesture sensitive' touchpad which recognises basic finger signs. It's also nice looking since it's encased in an aluminum shell. Yes, encased. In other words- you can't open it. You have to take it to Apple to change the battery. Some people are loving it and that's the thing I don't get. There are so many negatives to this thing that in no way could I recommend it to anyone. I would say that if you want to get a Mac just to try it out, then pick this up but really it's just too expensive for that at an $1800 price point.

And it's really just a laptop when the day is through. A really under featured laptop. Not good enough from a company I expect so much from.

On 'Live' Support

What happened to Xbox Live over the holidays?

I've heard everything from hacker assaults to overloads from all the new members. The latter being the official word on the subject. It's easy to believe that from the glut of new games released over the fall/winter/holiday buying period. But if that's the case, why hasn't this happened before?

There were lots of games released last year too. What changed? Did Live get too big too fast? As long as it's working now, I suppose no one really cares but still...

Edit: forgot to mention the free game. MS is giving away a free Arcade title to all Live members who got caught up in the outage. Pretty cool move, at least it softens the blow of not being able to play online during one of the only times when everybody gets a chance too. When they announce the details, (should be in the next few weeks) I'll post 'em up.

2007 Sparkys

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is now time for the first annual Sparky awards. These awards are for the greatest and the worst of 2007. They'll be given away over the next two weeks and will be divided into two sub-categories- The 'best in games' and the 'best in tech'. Then one champion of champions will be promoted overall as the biggest waste of*ahem*best thing ever(of 2k7) First up-

THE BEST IN ACTION GAMES 2007 (and there was much rejoicing)

Winner: Halo 3

Runner's Up:
Bioshock
Assassin's Creed

I'll bet you're surprised. After all, it seems to be all the rage to sling mud at H3. But, then again, that's always the case when something reaches the heights of popularity that the Halo universe has. It is, unarguably, a force in the gaming world. Halo 3 is polished to a chrome-like shine. So much so that it almost blinds. It's cool, it's a perfected experience (both single and multiplayer), and most of all- it's fun. Thank you, Bungie. I can't wait for the Chief's next Marathon.
Bioshock and Assassin's Creed are both exceptional experiences and deserve to be on this list. Certainly an argument could be made for both to have won. But not in my mind.

THE BEST IN RTS 2007

Winner: Supreme Commander

Runner's Up:

Universe at War

Command and Conquer 3

There were a lot of good RTS's this year- and a lot of them were surprisingly good. I'm not usually the kind to get enamored with them but this really was a banner year. Both C&C3 and Universe were gems -as were a bunch of others- but none had the grandeur of SupCom. Truly the awesome blaster was aimed at this one. And it caught one right in the temple. The sheer scope of the battles and the varied unit types and the number of them- phenomenal. The weakest point of the title is the story, weak at best. But for some reason, I don't care. And I'm a huge proponent of having a solid story behind the experience. The game is just so much to handle though, I barely noticed. Action packed+fun+beautiful= RTS GOTY

THE BEST IN RHYTHM 2007

Winner: Rock Band

Runner Up:
Guitar Hero 3

No other music game even comes close to Rock Band. Not just settling for guitar, RB gives you bass, drums, and lead vocals to play with too. I can't imagine anywhere else the genre could possibly go- all the bases are covered right here. The song list is impressive to boot. The Mtv backing was used well here, RB got a kickin song list without having the Mtv logo plastered all over the place. Not only is this puppy fun all by your lonesome, but it's better than ANYTHING ELSE at a party. Well done to all involved.

THE BEST IN RPG 2007

Winner: Mass Effect

Runners Up:

Super Paper Mario

The Witcher

Mass Effect is an engrossing, beautiful, and cinematic experience. Simply awesome. It's been a while since an RPG has sucked me in as much as this one did. Right from the opening, you just know this is going to be a special game. The conversational scripting is very well done and the action sequences are great. I even just enjoyed wandering around the Citadel- again, awesome. Even if you just have a passing interest in RPG's, I think you'll thoroughly enjoy this.

and THE SPARKY GAME OF THE YEAR IS -

HALO 3

The end cap of one of the most popular series in gaming history comes to a close and it's successor begins. (you did watch the whole ending right?) What didn't I say in talking about H3's action game win? The single player is very well done, the multiplayer rocks and I love everything about the universe Bungie has created here. That probably makes me biased but I really think this is a hat trick here for MS and Bungie. Well done all around.

Runners Up:
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Rock Band

Happy Merry

A very Happy New Year to all! I haven't really posted much over the Holidays but then again, there wasn't much to post.

But, anyway, I hope everybody had a safe and happy season and lets all get ready for another awesome year in tech!