Its Confidential, Remedy May 13, 2011

Given the very vague response we’ve gotten from Remedy Games over what their next project is, and the precise wording of some of the comments I’ve been reading about on the Remedy forums, I have come to a certain conclusion.

Take a look for yourselves, and you be the judge.

The Poet and the Muse Music Video May 9, 2011

This isn’t really gameXcess.net releated, but I have made music videos for games in the past.  I usually get especially inspired by songs designed specifically for games when used in those games.  About 5 years ago I made a video for YouTube for the Max Payne 2 song “The Late Goodbye” and it’s currently had over 230,000 hits and counting.

Well, Remedy has done it again and there is another bunch of fantastic songs used in Alan Wake, including my personal favorite “The Poet and the Muse”.  So last night I finally edited how I believed the music video for that song should have looked, since as far as I can tell there was never an official music video released for this song.  Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

Movie of the Week: SiN: The Movie (Part 1) May 2, 2011

Maniac reviews SiN: The Movie.  While this probably wasn’t the first video gane related Japanese anime feature, this was the first video game animated movie tie in he had seen on retail store shelves back when it was released.  Ten years later, a torrent of animated adaptations of various video games are on store shelves on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

This is the first part of Maniac’s review of the movie.  A lot was changed from the game, and a lot stayed the same.  Take a look at what Maniac thinks of the first part.

Update:  Well, YouTube blocked the video in some countries due to a copyright claim with whoever won the lottery to get the rights to this movie.  Since the claim is pretty legit (my research confirms the organization who claimed copyright in a very rare event actually DID own the current rights to the movie in question), the video got next to no hits, and I really wasn’t looking forward to finishing the series, I pulled the video.  Sorry guys, but you can blame The Anime Network for it.

Maniac and diskreader117 Play Gears of War 3 Beta April 19, 2011

It’s time for another match of Team Deathmatch on Thrashball.  This time, Maniac is joined by diskreader117 in this video, a person who has not played a single Gears of War game in his life.

The controller switches hands a few times, but you can hear both of our comments.  As you can see, it is EXTREMELY difficult for a person completely unfamilar with Gears of War’s controls to get a handle on this game, and most attacks that will cause death in this game will usually happen instananously, making conventional machine gun attacks impractical.

We still won the game, overall, but that was probably more due to us being matchmade with a better team, and for the fact I made a consious effort to not get killed, since I knew that killing enemies the way I wanted to (with stop and pop) was just not going to happen.

Of course this is still a beta, and the weapons all have time to be tuned before the game ships in September.  If you got a copy of Bulletstorm feel free to join the party and unlock everything you can.  If you had just preordered the game, your codes won’t be active until the 25th.

Gears of War 3 will release September 2011 exclusive to the Xbox 360.

Gears of War 3 Beta Footage and Comments April 19, 2011

Hey, at gameXcess we’ve been playing a lot of the Gears of War 3 Beta.  For those of you who don’t have access to it yet, here’s just some preliminary gameplay footage I’ve been able to upload so far.

Here’s a little quick peek at some of the menu screens, showing statistics and what the game considers important for medals, ribbons, and chararacter unlocks.  Now please be aware that unlockables between the beta and the retail game are different, but I don’t think that awards and medals will be changed.

And here’s footage of the first game I played.  Please be aware that I SUCK at my first game.  The reason is becuase I was at first playing a different game than the seasoned reviewers were.  I had thought that the stop and pop gameplay of Gears of War would be enough to defeat your enemies.  I was wrong.  The only way to really get a surefire kill under any circumstances in this beta is to get up close and personal for a one hit kill, with something like a sawed-off shotgun or a instant kill impalement.  (And for the life of me I could not get the chainsaw to work but I’ve always had the problem).  By mid-round I switch to a shotgun and my tactics improve, and my team wins the game.

More footage will probably be coming later.

Gears of War 3 is coming September 2011 exclusive to the Xbox 360.  If you have a copy of Bulletstorm Epic Edition, pop it in and enjoy the beta!

Maniac Examines the Video Game Anime April 8, 2011

Maniac has quite a collection of Animated Movies made from Japan which feature stories taken from all kinds of Video Games.  Take a look at his DVD and Blu-Ray Disc collection, and you’ll see all the pros and cons of each release he has.

In the end Maniac ponders, just what medium are video games taking next?