Are you really that surprised? After it’s release in November, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has pulled in an impressive $1,000,000 from all you pretty little fanboys and girls. Good job!

  But who didn’t expect it? Modern Warfare 2 shot straight to the top of every chart I saw in video gaming. Every person on Xbox Live, Playstation Network and even PC players has heard of it since it came out. Will this change any time soon? Has Infinity Ward’s release hit it’s prime and will slowly make a hilarious and pathetic downfall? No, not at all. Online matchmaking fanatics, as myself, will probably be playing this game over and over for hours until the eventual release of the next title. So, congratulations Infinity Ward! Now go scare the pants off of Bill Gates!

  There’ve been a lot of rumors floating around on the internet about an expansion for Bioware’s latest hit, Dragon Age: Origins. Being a big fan of it myself, I’ve been awaiting a yes or no answer about these rumors for a while. Bioware and EA, having kept it a tight secret for a while now, have finally released a lot of details about the upcoming expansion pack, ‘Awakening’.

  From what they’ve released so far, the expansion pack will include 5 new playable characters, enemies, specializations and spells. The story follows that of the old game, taking place after the defeat of the “Arch-Demon” and the success of the Gray Wardens. It seems that after a brief period of peace the new-forming Gray Wardens find that there are still Darkspawn crawling around. This raises many questions; and it is, predictably, your job to answer them. Apparently, you can start this expansion pack off with a mysterious new Gray Warden from Orlais or your own preferred character. It’s obvious that it will play exactly like the original and follow the same battle-system. No co-op additions, Bioware? That’s a disappointment, but I’m sure the fans will survive without it.

  Dragon Age: Origins ‘Awakening’ has been set to release sometime in March this year with a $39.99 price tag and will be available for all previously available consoles. I probably won’t buy it as soon as it comes out; but I certainly plan to pick it up as soon as possible. When I have a spare $40, that is.

  For the Xbox 360, that is. You Playstation 3 fans will have to wait until January 7′th. Unfortunately, PC players will have to wait even longer…

  But if you have an Xbox, then you’re in luck! You can get it today! And what makes it so special, you ask? Well, Gear Box finally decided to put in a “bank” system to store all of your loot, for one. That was a little too long of a wait in my opinion, but hey, at least it’s there now. Following up on the additional loot on the game’s previous Doctor Ned’s Zombie Island DLC, Underdome Riot will have plenty of new loot for you perfectionists out there. With some new loot and a few new riot-based challenges, Underdome Riot is surely worth your precious precious $9.99 (800 MS). And who doesn’t like exploring new areas?

  Will I be buying it? No. I don’t own Borderlands for myself. …But I know a handful of people that will!

  Come on, admit it. In one way or another, we’re pretty much all looking forward to the follow-up of the Ubisoft smash hit, Assassin’s Creed. In Assassin’s Creed II (creative titling, no?) you’ll be playing as a completely new character, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, seeking revenge on a certain family enemy. As you play as Ezio, you’ll find a whole new array of weapons, skills and items spread throughout the game. Developers have released a good bit about the new campaign. Assassin Creed II’s campaign will be even more open world oriented than the original, as it creates a whole new way of completing tasks and missions. Fortunately for many of us nit-picky gamers out there, it has also been confirmed that you’ll finally be able to swim, and even be able to drive small boats.

  The first Assassin’s Creed, as many would know, boasted of a deep and even intriguing historical storyline. Being based off the Crusades, a series of religion based military campaigns spanning between the years of 1095 and 1291, Assassin’s Creed has a very interesting story to tell indeed. A lot of this story was told through beautiful, two to ten minute long cutscenes depending on the particular event. This was fine by me, as I became very interested in the story and wanted to know as much as I could about it.

  Assassin’s Creed II was predicted to have the same style of historical story. Being based in Italy, and during the same time period, it’s been confirmed that at least a few historical figures, a young Leanardo Da Vinci for example, will make an appearance as NPC’s. As one would expect, this game is going to be told mostly through cut scenes. At least three hours worth of them.

  That is a lot of movie watching. Personally, I don’t mind it one bit. It sounds like yet another deep and interesting story to me. To other gamers, however, this might pose as a turn off. Many players across the internet have criticized it, saying that it’s going to be more of an interactive movie at this point. Or that they would simply rather skip the cut scenes.

  I am relatively sure that I’ll end up watching them all at least once. Even if I do skip one or two while playing, or miss one, I will most likely be going onto the internet or going back in the game to watch them at one point or another.

  Anyway, feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think. Whether you think this is a great idea, or it made you want to run over your mother, I’m interested so don’t be shy!

  Two days ago, only a day before it’s release, video game analyst Michael Pachter accused 2K Games and Gearbox software of releasing Borderlands prematurely. He stated that sending it out in 2009, along with games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, that they were only sending it “out to die” and that the other releases were going to “kick it’s butt”.

  Mr. Pachter couldn’t have been more (predictably) wrong. Randy Pitchforth, Gearbox’s studio chief, couldn’t be happier with the release. Borderlands is already selling quite fast, and according to Pitchforth himself, it’s becoming hard to find and he urges gamers to pick it up quickly if they want to play it soon.

  On his Twitter, Pitchforth warned, “Getting reports from everywhere that Borderlands is selling out. If you want a copy, grab one fast. Supply and demand.”

  This is probably just some hype from the chief himself; but you do need to look at the sales. Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age are both going to sell well, yes. They may sell even better, but they are most certainly not going to sell out Borderlands and kill it. Borderlands has been hugely anticipated by a dedicated fan base for a long time, so the idea of it being drowned by something just because of it’s release date is absurd.

  Don’t forget to drop a comment and let me know what you think! Or you could email me at darthv3gan@gmail.com. Do you think Borderlands deserves all of this praise? Do you even LIKE Borderlands, or do you think it’s just a “Fallout 3 ripoff?” Either way, I would love to hear your opinions about it, oh great internet!

  Playstation 3 fans went crazy around the globe when they heard the rumors that the January 2010 release of Mass Effect 2 will be coming to the PS3. This was excellent news considering the PS3 has so far been lacking in major game series, especially those that were on the Xbox 360 and Windows Live.

  These dreams were in vain, however. As it was just recently announced by EA that, just like with the Left 4 Dead listing, that the Mass Effect 2 bundle was bogus. That’s…That’s really disappointing. Not only is the Playstation 3 lacking in exclusive games; but just great games in general. After Square Enix and Konami decided to share Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid with the Xbox 360, there are very few PS3 exclusives that would entice a person to purchase it over a 360. Granted it still has games like Killzone, Infamous, and Uncharted; but all of those games can be easily replaced.

  I would expect to see a port eventually. I mean, come on. It wouldn’t make any sense not to eventually put it out for the Playstation 3. It’s an entire group of people, and a whole other money pile for EA to have part in. I’m thinking it will end up like Bioshock and just eventually be ported later after the release. Considering the fact that PS3 version of Bioware’s “Dragon Age: Origins” is labeled to come with an “an unlockable item for Mass Effect 2″, I won’t be shocked if they do SOMETHING to make it work.

…Or, they could just completely let us down. Thanks EA.

  Anyone familiar with FPS games has probably heard the term “Crytek” or “CryEngine” at some point. …then probably forgot about it. If you haven’t heard about it, CryEngine is a game engine that was made popular by the EA published and Crytek Frankfut developed “Crysis” series. This series was famed for it’s gorgeous graphics and tight gameplay. It was, however, also know for it’s insanely high system requirements. Most everyone who wanted to play this game, at least at an enjoyable level, was required to upgrade their computer; or their video card at the very least. It’s a bit of a bittersweet fact considering it caused so many problems for so many people because it was such a beautiful game.

  Other than Crysis, the only other hugely known games that have used CryEngine are the MMORPG Aion and Far Cry. The latter of the being owned by Ubisoft. With that being said, it’s understandable why Crytek president and CEO Cevat Yerli would want a larger piece of the gaming industry. While working towards licensing the latest engine, CryEngine 3, to other developers, Yerli had this to say:

  ” [CryEngine 3] is the only game engine solution that enables real-time development and can ensure teams are able to maximize their own creativity, save budget and create greater gaming experiences,” boasts Yerli. “Even producers, project managers, and suits will love CryEngine 3!”

  No matter how many nice things Yerli has to say about the engine, it’s still going to be rough competing to the likes of the Unreal Engine 3 by Epic Games. Unreal Engine 3 has been the most largely used engine in this gaming generation. After winning out against the general failure that was idTech’s latest engine after Doom 3, UE3 became the standard.

  Due to the fact that there are already major standards in the market, most game developers and artists are already familiar with a certain engine. Switching from one to another, especially with such a dramatic difference between the first and the second, it seems an almost futile attempt on Crytek’s part.

  Despite the amount of pessimistic things about switching to CryEngine 3 for most developers, it is good to see Crytek at least trying to get it’s name to grow. Already having a number of gorgeous games under their belt, it’s hard to imagine that at least one more well known series won’t take notice.

  What do you guys think? Do you think it’s a good idea? What games can you see using it in the future? …Or do you just hate Crytek in general? Whatever the case may be, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!

  As most of you may have heard, Valve announced recently that they are going to invest 25 million dollars into their Left 4 Dead 2 ad campaign. …Is it just me, or is that insane? Left 4 Dead was a fun game, but in my opinion, it wasn’t that much fun.

  My experiences with the original Left 4 Dead were both positive and negative. It was a fun enough first person shooter, but the complete and utter lack of an in depth story was a major disappointment. I could never sit down and play it for more than a half an hour at a time without growing bored. It wasn’t particularly thrilling, and it definitely wasn’t scary at all.

  Considering the fact that there wasn’t a story, Left 4 Dead was more of a party game than anything else. It was really fun to sit around with some friends, laughing at one another as you all get completely owned by a Tank or a Witch; but by yourself that fun for the most part disappeared. Online play was smooth and the gameplay remained the same, but the community pretty much destroyed it. To be honest, there were more annoying thirteen year olds that only wanted to play with glitches and show off their “awesome XBL hacks” and inevitably get crushed by the end of the game than actually play. This, combined with the absolutely thin gameplay and storyline made the online experience generally boring.

  There was no real online “deathmatch”. There were only the weird Left 4 Dead games that involved humans up against the infected. I never played this very often; but I also never really enjoyed it. I much, much preferred just playing the campaign.

  I just feel like Valve really dropped the ball on Left 4 Dead. With games like Half Life, Portal and their other multiplayer exclusive game, Team Fortress 2 under their belt, you’d think they could have made Left 4 Dead so much cooler. It was a decent enough game with tight gameplay; but it was generally boring to me. Obviously, many other people don’t share this opinion. There were always games going and it’s still one of the most played games on Xbox Live. I just couldn’t force myself to get into it. I’ve been too spoiled on games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3 to be able to play something with no story.

  I am curious to know what you guys think, though. Do you think advertising Left 4 Dead 2 is worth all of this money? Do you think that it will be a worthwhile game? Or do you think it should have just been considered an expansion pack? Feel free to leave a comment and talk about what you all want to see from the game. You can all expect to see Left 4 Dead 2 on store shelves on November 16′th, 2009.

  Looking for a cool place to bring all of your online games together? Need a site to update your other social networks such as Facebook or Twitter when you play games? Or do you just want a place with interesting forums, excellent developers, and plenty of ways to make friends?

  Then Raptr.com is for you! I hope you saw that coming. Raptr is a cool site that pulls all of your online gaming info into one site. It updates your profile as you gain Xbox Live achievements, Playstation Network trophies, or you level up a character on an MMORPG such as World of Warcraft or Guild Wars and shares it with sites like Friendfeed, Twitter, etc. I can’t say the full potential of these features, and I can’t name all of them either because I haven’t had a full experience with them yet thanks to a couple of bugs that Raptr’s developers are ever-so-kindly trying to fix.

  Along with the forums, Raptr provides an instant messaging client for download. It’s pretty buggy from what I can tell, but it is a great idea. It does just like the site. It pulls all of your gaming information into one spot and updates a status, making it easy to share what’s going on with all of your friends. Except with the IM client, you can add your AIM, Windows Live, Xfire, and other friends to the list.

  It is a little spam-ish if you allow it to be since it updates on almost every piece of news you put out, but this can be managed. You can change what it updates on, when it sends out a summary of your daily gaming experience and what networks it sends it to. Just be careful with it, you don’t want to drive your friends insane!

  As of now, I’m having a lot of problems getting it to update correctly. It’s only updated once in the past two days when I played Prototype, and didn’t show my achievements until the day after. It isn’t a perfect site, but it is a great idea. Raptr’s developers are all hard working, and very nice to the community. They’ve talked to me back and forth to try and get everything working correctly, and I’m sure my problems will be over with soon enough.

  I would definitely recommend atleast trying out Raptr (http://Raptr.com). It’s got a great community and plenty of interesting features to keep you entertained for a while. Bugs aside, this site has huge potential and is extremely useful for hugely multiplayer gamers. …Like me!

  Oh, and if you do decide to go join up, my account is right here. See ya there!

Man, I have to say, this is ticking me off. I’ve tried it fifty different ways, and I can’t get the leaked Wolfenstein beta to run on my Windows Vista PC. I’ve updated my drivers, I’ve rebooted several times, re downloaded and re extracted. It’s extremely frustrating ’cause I would love to be able to test it out with friends and get other people’s opinions on it while I play..

In the end, I guess it’s really not worth it. Considering it’ll be out in a little under two weeks and I’ll be purchasing it for the Xbox rather than the PC, all of this effort feels abysmal now. I would just love to be able to beta test it and play with it a little.

Oh well, I still can’t wait for the release!