Site Appearance Update Coming Soon March 31, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Site News.add a comment
As the site matures anyone who’s been visiting it repeatedly will notice some minor tweaks have been done to the site to improve it’s performance and streamline its interface. I’ve been doing that quite a bit recently (perhaps too much, ha) but it is in an effort to make the site more unique and professional.
Pretty soon a major appearance update will be coming. Someone has just been kind enough to submit to me his initial design for a site banner, and it was so good on a first shot that I would put it up in a second if he had told me it was his final attempt.
My hope is to also bring more writers into the site with editorials. I’ve talked to many opinionated people who have plenty to say, and hopefully a few will be willing to contribute to the site.
Also more unique video content will be coming as well. I’m currently in the process of filming a short film for the site. Once I have it entirely filmed I will edit and upload it as soon as possible, but it might be a week or so for that to happen.
New Alan Wake Footage Online! March 30, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Remedy has posted on their twitter feed a link to a new scene in Alan Wake.
This is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever seen in a video game. They’re really breaking the fourth wall with this one.
Since I can only embed YouTube files here, here’s the shorter YouTube version. You can check out the full version of the video on their Facebook site.
Alan Wake is coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 on May 18th, 2010. Special thanks to GamerGoddess for bringing this to my attention!
Nvidia Releases Most Powerful Graphics Cards on the Planet, Sold Out Everywhere March 27, 2010
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Last night Nvidia finally released their Geforce 480 and Geforce 470 graphics cards to the world. These cards are Nvidia’s flagship Directx 11 cards based upon their Fermi graphics processors and currently both outperform all other graphics cards currently avalible. The hardware is the first major revision that Nvidia has done in several years, and it is a few years coming. Up until this point, Nvidia has only released Directx 10 cards since their powerful 8 series.
I, being a person who has one of those 8 series cards, have waited years for this release. A check of Newegg this afternoon showed all 470 and 480 cards by all manufacterers to be completely sold out, apparently I wasn’t the only one waiting, but unlike the others waiting, they had the money up front. I haven’t seen a rush to buy graphics cards since the 6800 Ultra was released, but then again it’s been a long while since such a clear cut powerful card has been released to the PC Gaming enthusiasts.
New Layout March 26, 2010
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If you’ve been to the site at some point before today you had probably noticed the site’s looking a bit different. Well I had the day off from work and I decided to start looking into the backend of the site tools and start ripping out what I didn’t like, adding what I did, and tweaking everything else. Feel free to comment what you think of it on the comment’s section.
Also, I am in need of a site banner. The rules are it has to be 730×140. If you know how to make banners and want to make one for the site, so long as it says gameXcess on it and meets those requirements, I would gladly take a look at it and consider using it.
Have a good weekend everyone!
God of War III Ultimate Edition Unboxing and Walkthrough March 24, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Site Videos.add a comment
This is the God of War III Ultimate Edition. In the United States it costs $100 and as far as I know has sold out everywhere. Check it out with me will you?
As far as I can tell there is no reason why the majority of the content could not have been included on physical media such as CDs or Blu-Rays. The box could’ve easily fit them. It’s not like when they were released online it made it any better. The music CD retrieval site was completely down for most of the time I tried getting them, and you already know about all the trouble I went through trying to get the Uncovering the Legend documentary.
In short, if you didn’t get this, you saved $40, don’t kick yourself.
God of War III Release Night March 24, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Site Videos.add a comment
As promised, I was there for the midnight release of God of War III, unfortunatly, not many other people were.
What follows is what happened that night. Very little turnout, it was extremely dissapointing for such a major release, but there were many factors working against it. It was in the middle of the week, and the weather was quite cold.
Here’s what I was able to shoot. Expect more site videos soon!
Thank you Sony Support for Saving Me March 23, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
Well I’m very happy right now. I had a serious issue downloading the God of War: Unearthing The Legend documentary due to it’s incredibly large filesize and Sony’s unnecessary DRM system on videos preventing them from being downloaded or played on any PS3 other than the one it was registered on, and after being unable to download it more than once I hit a serious problem.
Well that was Thursday. I sent an issue to Sony Support that day. Today I got an email, they had restored my download link, and I was finally able to download and now watch the HD version of this fantastically produced documentary. I still argue this should’ve been released on a seperate Blu-Ray (or at the very least released with no DRM), but its nice they fixed my issue.
So if anyone’s having problems with their download codes still (like I did) contact sony support. There’s a phone number in the booklet that’s a good place to start. However it will probably take anywhere from 48 hours to 4 days to help (take into account I don’t think they work weekends). Their support staff are a bunch of really nice really helpful people I can’t give them better props.
UPDATE: I did a little reasearch on cases similiar to mine, (IE people wanting to download or redownload videos after the initial download wore off because maybe the file got deleted accidently or intentionally because they take up A LOT of space). Sony official policy is to give you ONE extra download after asking them nicely (Like I did) then upon a second request say SOL.
So apparently there was no question I was going to get one more shot at the file, but I’m screwed if my PS3 breaks or I want more hard drive space. After I get paid, I’m going to invest in a high capacity flash drive and back it up. I have no other option. Is this really necessary?
Splinter Cell Conviction Unlike Any Splinter Cell Before! March 23, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Game News, Site Videos.add a comment
Currently on Xbox Live, the Splinter Cell Conviction Demo is avalible for download. The last time we jumped into Sam Fisher’s shoes was in 2006 with the release of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, a game which broke all of the rules in the well established Splinter Cell formula. Now he returns in the upcoming Splinter Cell Conviction, and it looks like the rule book has been completely reworked.
The demo contains one part of one level. The level demoed has not been seen before in any of the previews that I’m familiar with, however it started with something I had seen before, and that was the bathroom interrogation, previously seen at E3 2009.
Splinter Cell Conviction will release for Xbox 360 and PC in April. Warning: The PC version will contain the incredibly stupid UBIsoft DRM which made Assasin’s Creed 2 unplayable for all users.
For those of you who can’t wait for the release here’s a promotional video that we have done for it.
God of War III Ultimate Edition Soundtrack Redemption Online March 18, 2010
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Godofwar.com has been offline almost all day today, all logins impossible either for playstation network or code redemption. That appears to be over now as the site is accepting logins again for the forums and for people like me who waited all day to redeem the digital soundtrack codes.
I was getting speeds of about 1Mb/s, pretty good for a site that’s been offline all day. If you have a UE, now’s a good time to get your mp3s.
God of War III Ultimate Edition: The Empty Box March 18, 2010
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
For those of you collectors out there, who just love collectors editions in every way shape and form, you’ve had to deal with extremely high priced ones with very little substance as of late. Originally collector’s editions would be 10 dollars over the initial price, come in a slightly better package and include a second disc with behind the scenes goodies which would be well produced and informative and entertaining.
Within the past year, I’ve noticed that these CEs have become more fluff than actual content. But recently the God of War III Ultimate Edition has earned my purchase. I paid 40 dollars more than the initial price for a mostly empty box. The box the game came in is quite beautiful, but it’s empty. Other than the hardcover art book (which is the standard size and shape for most other CE artbooks I’ve seen, there’s nothing in the box. The case the game comes in is identical to the standard edition, and the disc itself is identical as well.
The difference is (other than Pandora’s box and the Art Book, the only physical additions, and those alone would not fetch a 40 dollar price tag) that there’s a tiny leaflet included inside the game case with three download codes. One for a downloadable skin and Combat Arena, both of which could’ve been unlockable game content, one for a downloadable documentary starring Peter “Robocop” Weller which is taking me over an hour to download and is going to use up the very last of my 60GB PS3’s storage space, and one for two soundtracks to be downloaded off the God of War site, which doesn’t work because the God of War site is no longer accepting logins or code redemptions, all attempts to do either are just frozen, and then met with an error message.
Is it that hard to make some CDs? Is it that hard to do a second Blu-Ray? You have to be kidding me if you charged 100 dollars for this thing that you couldn’t have done all that and still charged the same price? Hell, I would’ve gladly sarificed having an empty Pandora’s box (which can’t fit the PS2 versions of the games, but can fit the God of War Collection if you need a place to put that disc) for having instead this content on physical discs.
I really like collector’s editions, but what’s collectable about revolving it around a leaflet with codes on it? It’s a great empty box though.
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