Podcast 10 – Jedi Knight March 29, 2012
Posted by Maniac in Podcasts, Site Videos.1 comment so far
The gameXcess.net podcast has returned! In the latest episode, Maniac talks about the Jedi Knight series published by Lucasarts. In it, he talks about his first exposure to Jedi Knight, gives some behind the scenes information about the series and conjectures where he thinks the series is headed.
If you’re an old-school PC gamer, you’re going to love this!
A Gamer’s Dream March 27, 2012
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I’m not a very good sleeper, and whenever I do fall asleep, if I can remember the dream I had the night before at all when I wake up, it’s usually because I had a nightmare. But I’m not the type of person who has a typical nightmare. I don’t run from the monsters in my dreams, I stand my ground and fight them with whatever I can. Typically, this will bring the dream to a stalemate until eventually I wake up.
When I was in high school I had a dream that probably should be recorded in history books. My details are a bit fuzzy about it over the years but I still have a complete memory of its beginning, middle, and end.
The dream began and I was in a mall with my family just as it was closing. As the sky in the skylights turned dark, I saw them. The mall began to fill up with droves of aliens, and I’m not talking about just any aliens! Sharp pointy claws. Drooling mouths with sharp gnashing teeth. They were fast as hell and even able to climb walls. They were also filling up the mall, headed right for me and my family.
The decision was made that we had to make it to the top floor of the mall and get to the parking garage where our cars were located and escape. As more aliens piled into the mall and started filling up the lower floors we knew we would have to do that as quickly as possible before the aliens got to us.
But with all of my reasoning, I knew that our odds would be better if we had some kind of help. I hoped that something, anything, in the mall would be able to help us. I broke into a game store and after going through it, out of all the things there, I stole a Game Boy. Upon switching it on, I suddenly had the same technology of the Predator! Two plasma cannons formed holographically over my shoulders and a series of vision modes extended in front of my face. When I pushed the A button, one of my cannons fired, the B button cycled through my vision modes.
Armed with Nintendo’s technology, I was unstoppable in the halls of the mall. No matter what aliens appeared before me to tear me and my family apart, thumb fixed on the A button, I continued to plow them down. Leaving a trail of aliens in the wake behind us, my family finally arrived at the parking garage, which, thankfully, the aliens had not yet made it to. Rushing to pack into our cars, we leave the mall.
That’s when I woke up, and all the questions started entering into my head as to why I have such weird dreams. That was just at the beginning of my gaming life, and while it was a total fantasy, it sure was a wild ride.
Figure that one out, Freud!
New Episodes of Alan Wake’s Night Springs On Display March 27, 2012
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The original Alan Wake did a fantastic job at establishing the depth of the universe that Remedy had created for it. You could turn on a radio and hear the chatter of Pat Maine, The Night Owl, who could keep you in touch with what was going on in other parts of the town or what the consequences of your actions were.
Another thing you could do was turn on a TV and watch the game’s original programming. The show Night Springs was Alan Wake’s answer to classic pop horror shows like The Twilight Zone. In fact, the game had established that Alan had originally written a few episodes of the show back when he was just a fledgling writer. This little tidbit is very important information for anyone who plays Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
I loved these episodes, and while you could always watch them on the TVs in the game, now they’ve been posted online. But that’s not all, apparently there were three MORE episodes of Night Springs produced which never made it into the final version of the game, and they will be posted very soon!
The first new episode is up, give it a look!
Two more episodes are to come!
Silent Hill HD Collection Does Not Have Original Voices For Silent Hill 3 March 24, 2012
Posted by Maniac in Game News.1 comment so far
I know I already did a post that Silent Hill HD Collection gave users a choice to listen to the original voice over for Silent HIll 2 or a newly recorded voice over. It turns out Konami did not offer players this choice for Silent Hill 3.
When Silent Hill HD Collection was announced, the developers announced that they would be recording new voice overs for the re-release, but they only mentioned that it would be new voice overs for Silent Hill 2. The response to this announcement was overwhelmingly negative (as I noted earlier). In fact the response was so negative Konami changed their mind and included both the original and new voice over for Silent Hill 2 in the final version of the game. As far as I know what has gotten no mention was that new voice recordings were apparently also done for Silent Hill 3, and unlike Silent Hill 2, there isn’t a menu option to choose the original.
My apologies for taking a while to post about this, espessailly after the quick post that Silent Hill 2, but unlike Silent Hill 2, I never actually played the original version of Silent Hill 3, and had no frame of reference for if the voice over changed or not. I did however, upon starting a playthrough of the game, compare the game’s voices to online recordings of Silent Hill 3, and noted that the voices do not match.
The Playstation 3 version of the game did recieve a 250mb or so 1.1 patch this week. I have not been able to find any patch notes about it online so I don’t know what it did to the game, but when I did check the voice over it was after the game had been patched, so the patch did not affect this.
Disney Epic Mickey 2 Announcement Trailer March 23, 2012
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First premiered last night on Spike TV, here is the announcement trailer for Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2.
If you’d like more details about the game, you can watch the episode of GameTrailersTV it premiered on right here.
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 is coming Fall 2012 to Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii.
Epic Mickey Sequel Reveal Tonight March 22, 2012
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Tonight at 1am EST on Spike TV and Spike HD Warren Spector and Geoff Knightly will be premiering the first trailer and five minutes of gameplay footage for Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2.
The first Epic Mickey released as an exclusive to the Nintendo Wii and saw Mickey Mouse using paint and thinner to navigate through an apocalyptic wasteland made specifically for forgotten Disney characters. Along the way he runs into the Wasteland’s defender, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, the first forgotten cartoon character.
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 promises to feature the return of Mickey Mouse and Oswald The Lucky Rabbit and is releasing for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. More details and a trailer is expected to air tonight during GametrailersTV.
Silent Hill HD Collection Unboxing March 20, 2012
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As promised, here’s the unboxing of Silent Hill HD Collection for the PS3. You can also find it for the Xbox 360.
In the video I mention a fantastic parody video of Silent Hill 2’s menu screen cinematic done by Linkara. If you want to check it out for yourself, you can watch it here on his website. Note: I think I mistakenly credited his parody in the video to his Silent Hill: Dead/Alive #3 and #4 review, when in fact it was his Silent Hill: Dying Inside #3 and #4 review.
If you’re curious about how I feel about these HD re-releases of last generation games, check out this Mind of Maniac.
Silent Hill HD Collection Includes Original Voice Overs for Silent Hill 2 March 20, 2012
Posted by Maniac in Game News.1 comment so far
Just a very quick post script here folks because I know there was a huge issue about this for the past few months. Shortly after Konami announced that they were re-releasing Silent Hill 2 and 3 with the Silent Hill HD Collection they announced that the updated game would feature brand new voice overs.
Based on a lot of the comments I read on several internet retailers, the internet very quickly went into an uproar over this news. Silent Hill 2 had been out for so long that its original audio was just as classic as the rest of the game, and many fans did not want the audio changed for the HD Collection. The Silent Hill HD Collection, which originally was intended for release towards the end of 2011 got delayed, and delayed. I heard some musings online that the reason for the delays was because Konami changed their mind and decided to include the original voice over along with the new voice recordings.
I’m happy to inform everyone that the original voice over for Silent Hill 2 is included in the released retail version of Silent Hill HD Collection. Since I live in North America, my version is NTSC region 1, so I can’t speak for any other versions of the game that may have released in other territories. If you live in Europe or Japan and would like to post a comment about this feel free to.
UPDATE: Silent Hill HD Collection features new voice overs for Silent Hill 3, but unlike Silent Hill 2, does not offer the option to play with the original voice over.
Expect an unboxing very soon!
The Making of Silent Hill 2 and 3 March 20, 2012
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It’s March, Konami’s self-appointed Silent Hill month! Three major Silent Hill games are slated for release in the month of March. Those games are Silent Hill: Book of Memories, the Silent Hill Vita game, Silent Hill: Downpour, the new Silent Hill game, and today saw the release of Silent Hill HD Collection! For $39.99US it includes Silent Hill 2 and 3, (highly regarded as two of the best games of the series), updated for modern HD game consoles.
In honor of the HD Collection release, I’m going to do something kind of special for you guys. I did some digging through the internet archives and found this video someone had taken the time to resurrect. Two official making of documentaries for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. They’re extremely well made, and as far as I know, they were only released in Europe.
Enjoy and expect an unboxing later.
Silent Hill HD Collection is out now for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
My Date With The Calendar Man – Day 6: St. Patrick’s Day March 17, 2012
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Batman Inc suit on, I go to visit our friend Julian Day, better known as The Calendar Man, in his cell under the Solomon Wayne Courthouse in Arkham City. But first, I tell a funny little story about what happened to me on St. Patrick’s Day a few years ago. Enjoy!
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