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EB Games Expo 2012

EB Games Expo 2012, what an amazing spectacle.

From the FMX stunt team, to the dancers, to the amazing amount of epic loot available and amazing presentations. I'm one sore reviewer.

The Sydney Olympic Park was packed at all time and game queues had many people waiting in excess of two hours just to get a taste of some of the amazing games heading out to a games store near you, soon.

The only thing I suggest for people next year is: get the Express pass. It's well worth the money.

EB Games really put on a fantastic show and the running of it was executed amazingly.

Also, props go to the Just Dance 4 dancers who danced for days and days and never showed any fatigue at all. Great work.

I personally would like to thank all the EB staff and helpers, game devs and publishers and media for making this the best show we have seen thus far.

What we played and how we felt:

BEST IN SHOW
Assassin's Creed 3:
Although the level we got to play was "more of the same old", the story and the game play seemed much better. The AI of the enemy is a little more forgiving and I can see this being a top seller for sure.

Injustice, Gods Among Us:
Simply amazing, this Mortal Kombat based DC fighting game was nothing short of amazing fun. Kicking ass as some of our fave DC heroes and villains was fantastic, the detail and graphics were amazing and the game play was button spam HEAVEN

Medal of Honor: War Fighter:
I have already stated my love for this game, and it was echoed by fans young and old as they raced around ganking each other in the multiplayer. I also got some time on the single player and for me, this is where this title really shines.

Skylanders: Giants: I was a little disappointed with this sequel as they didn't really add much to the game and it feels even more like a money sink hole than the first.

CoD: Black Ops 2:
More of the same? not exactly. Same game, new maps, better kill streak rewards. It was a lot of fun to play and even more fun to play with a bunch of other gamers. The game feels new and makes me wish I did actually pre-order it.

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance:
Blown away. This is the only way to describe the game play and feel of MGR:R. The AR mode we got to try just felt like a new IP, it did not feel like "much the same copy paste bored now" like some of the previous MGS games.

Zombie-U:
If ANYTHING would make me buy a Wii-U, it would be THIS GAME. Look for a review on why, soon.

WORST IN SHOW
Marvel The Avengers: Battle for Earth:
Kinect games always make me wonder why they bother at all, and this game is no different.  The sensor wasn't picking my movements up very well, the game play was chunky and slow and it felt like a turn based game. Not the exciting action we were hoping for. Nothing like the trailers.

Fable The Journey:
Please no, no more Kinect. Just say no. This was for sure one of the worst games of show. If you want a kinect game, go buy Star Wars Kinect, it is actually BETTER than this game has thus far shown.

The Wii-U: still not 100% sold on it as a console.

The Camper Issue Does Not Exist.

What?!?! OUTRAGEOUS, SIR. HOW DARE YOU.

This is the sort of response I’m expecting from gamers in relation to the title, how dare I point out something so obvious. How dare I even suggest such a notion?

The funny part about the whole “campers ruin game play” is the fact that people cry foul when a game is not “realistic enough” and I have even seen claims made by people stating that campers should not be allowed in games, that camping should be made as difficult as possible because it spoils all the fun.

 

Well, I have some news for you. You’re wrong. You’re totally wrong and also MISSING THE POINT.

BUT...CAMPERS?!?!?!

What would I do if I was at war? Send my BEST snipers out on the field under cover where they can minimise casualties to MY troops and take out the opposing force as much as they can before I send troops to potential deadly situations.

 

THIS IS WAR.

Indeed, you scream for “realistic combat” yet these “campers” who “spoil the game” for you are, in fact, PLAYING the game how they want. They are using VANTAGE POINTS to minimise their own deaths in order to defeat the enemy.

 

YOU PAY, YOU PLAY.

 

Don’t like campers? That’s fine.....Don’t buy the game. Don’t play the game. There will always be campers/snipers in games that are made to recreate battle simulated combat.

 

CAMPERS ARE DIFFERENT TO SNIPERS.

 

How so? Different weapons? Sure. But I for one would do the same in a battle, I would sit and wait. Quiet as a mouse, take my time. Bide my time. Wait for the best moment to put someone on ice with minimal risk to myself, especially if I knew it was a path frequented by the opposing army so I could knock them out one by one.

 

This is why armed forces have co-ordinated attacks and special sniper squads.

As yourself one question, would you be a camper IRL if you thought you could survive that little bit longer?

Commander Shepard Needs YOU For N7 Day!

BIOWARE DELIVERS THE ULTIMATE VALUE WITH THE MASS EFFECT TRILOGY COMPILATION

Get all Three Critically-Acclaimed Mass Effect Games and Join BioWare in Celebrating Commander Shepard on November 7th for “N7 Day”

This morning, EA and Bioware released some very interesting news for fans of the Mass Effect franchise:

"Coinciding with the launch of Mass Effect Trilogy, BioWare will kick off the first annual “N7 Day,” a worldwide celebration of the Mass Effect franchise on November 7, 2012. Stay tuned to http://MassEffect.com for updates and announcements for a variety of in-game, online and live events which fans can congregate and fly their N7 colors."

The amazing thing that we see is that the first Mass Effect game will be available on Playstation for THE FIRST TIME EVER. So all those Sony fan-boys/girls who missed out, here you go, enjoy.

Australian prices will be around the $90 mark, very affordable for all three games!

Borderlands 2 Review: XBox 360

            A BAZILLION GUNS!!

There is something to be said about any game where you lose track of time and play for hours on end and suddenly realize you have been playing for six hours. And it can all be summed up by one simple statement: if you loved borderlands, you will love Borderlands 2.

The story so far:
Handsome Jack, evil CEO of weapons manufacturer Hyperion. Jack takes credit for finding and opening the Vault from the first game and is massively mining the alien substance, Eridian, and looking for an even bigger vault. He's ruthless and takes pleasure in killing anyone that gets in his way. It's now up to you along with a few returning characters and the resistance to defeat Jack before he discovers the new Vault.

BL2 is far superior to the first art wise, with blues, greens, purples just popping out of the game like a comic book. The level design is fantastic, and not the same "mostly brown" that BL1 gave us thanks to the addition of areas filled with ice, grass and volcano surroundings.

The game play is very fun, however at times it gets a little tedious when you run out of ammo. Gearbox Software must have realized from the first game that the ammo vending machines were not getting used much at all, but I can't help but feel that when they decided to reduce the ammo drops, they actually made it a lot harder as you will find yourself with no ammo with your two primary guns and having to run a good five minutes back to an ammo vendor to be able to continue a quest or instance you're doing.

The enemies you face have been upgraded and the AI is much better than the first game, some of you may remember you could pull aggro and run backwards with a conga line of baddies, mercilessly pumping round after round in to them. Now, the enemies roll out of the way, dive for cover and some even try and flank you.
Also there is not just new types of bad guys, some level up if not killed pretty much straight away and this can lead to some fun and challenging kills.

The story line is great, but I haven't felt like it's really epic. More to the point, I feel the focus is still on the loot rather than on the story, and I'm OK with that. Anyone how played the first and will play the second  mainly for the loot and shooting things in the face with a wide variety of weapons.

Skill trees have been vastly improved not only aesthetically pleasing, but the skills have been vastly improved.

Vehicles are still more than anything, horribly useless. Mainly used as transport and still no flying machines for you to use (or so far as I have seen). The vehicles drive better, but you will still find yourself crashing into a raised section of road now and then or trying to steer around something and fail.

Some new features have been added and some completely reformed to better utilize them.

BAD-ASS RANKS: for certain things like killing x of creature type x there are skill points that can be put into things like extra accuracy and shield recharge.

CUSTOMIZATION: Loot drops can some times be skins for your characters outfit, head or vehicle.

SHIFT ACCOUNT CODES: Gearbox have stated you will be able to get codes for Golden Keys, all you need to do is link your BL2 account in the settings/extras menu and keep an eye on Gearbox's twitter. AMAZESAUCE!

MULTIPLAYER LOOT: I have big issues with multiplayer loot, it still comes down to the system of "whats mine is mine and what drops is mine", there is no roll system and I think this does hurt the multiplayer a little, play with your fiends and avoid loot ninjas.

The other issue with loot seems to be that even though you share cash and ammo when picked up, you are unable to trade them, making it feel like a set back when your sniper runs out of ammo and you can't give them more when you don't use that ammo.

All in all, this is still an amazing game and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.You can tell that Randy and his team at Gearbox Software put a lot of time and love into this game.

SCORE:8/10 Claptraps.

Wall Street Journal's Worst Review?

An article was posted over night on the Wall Street Journal's blog (Speakeasy) of Bordelands 2 and has received almost 1000 negative comments.
Why? One of the most poorly executed reviews of a game the internet has seen in some time.

The reviewer, Adam Najberg, compares the rimping first person shooter role playing game to the likes of the Halo and Black Ops franchises. I'm not even kidding.

check it out HERE

The best thing? People aren't even flaming him, they are providing clear reasons as to WHY the article is so bad, it would make any other reviewer place a hand on forehead and cry.

One poster commented:
 "So because it’s not Call of Duty or Halo it’s not good? Laughable. You are woefully unqualified to write any game review. How in God’s name did you get this gig? Hell, since when does the WSJ think it’s a credible source for video game critique?"

Another posted:
"Borderlands is nothing like Call of Duty. It’s a ROLE PLAYING game that just so happens to have First Person Shooting in it as well. It’s more like today’s MMOs in that you have a talent tree and you build your character a certain way. Call of Duty is an Arcade Style FPS. You’re comparing apples to oranges."

In this reviewers honest opinion, the guy seems to have little to no idea what he is talking about, and that makes me sad that some how he landed (it seems) a job of such high profile, with little to no experience in games and this is apparent by the way he compares Borderlands 2 to games that are nothing like it at all.

Niot only that, but saying that Borderlands "Cussing" is worse than Black Ops. You sir, obviously have never played BLOPS or have had the sound turned off.

-Al

What's Happening Soon?

Well, I'm happy you asked that question.

September and October see a slew of great new major releases coming to platforms, such as Borderlands 2, Assissin's Creed 3, Dishonoured, Battle Field 3: Armoured Kill (already released), Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Torchlight 2 and the list goes on.

But what is happening in real life? what events are on that you should check out?

Well, EA Games Australia have the "First Play" event boasting a time of fun and getting some HANDS ON with a few games yet to be released!

"Our very first EA First Play Tour kicks off September 13 in Melbourne and will feature a major community launch event, gaming tournaments, celebrity appearances and exclusive merchandise giveaways. Can’t wait? Here are the details you need:

The Westfield Carindale leg of the EA First Play Tour will take place Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th October
For your chance to attend exclusive launch events in each city keep an on eye on our Facebook page for more information. Excited and want to talk about it? Follow us on Twitter @EA_Australia and tell us which game you want to most desperately play using the #EAFirstPlay hashtag."

Check out their facebook page for more information and to see where YOUR local First Play event will be held HERE.
Also, October is the EB Games Expo in Sydney. A weekend of gaming, demo games, cosplay, a full service bar (yes, that makes us here very excited), guests from developers, publishers and much, MUCH more. We will be there trying to get the scoop on what ever we can and take as many pictures as we can.

Information HERE.