Recently Xbox Solution was invited to Vancouver BC for the FIFA Soccer 08 community event. I attended last year’s event and was looking forward to see the changes for the Xbox 360 version. This is a little different than our normal Community Event coverage since the review will be up soon.
Last week XBS was invited to Vancouver BC to attend the FIFA Community Event at EAC. In case you’re not used to the lingo, EAC is simply Electronic Arts Canada and it’s the largest studio EA has. Heading off I saw they had a full schedule for us at the event. I arrived at the Sutton Place Hotel, a 5 Star Hotel that is way out of my league. I soon met up with a few others including Daylon, from http://www.unscripted360.com/, and Kyle, from http://www.gamefreaks365.com/. I also met DJ from http://www.gamingtruth.com/. We got there a bit early on Thursday and had a few hours to kill so soon we were playing Mario Kart to pass the time. Later that night we had a great dinner at Earl’s where the main action was the Mets game. We hung around talked and got to meet Rob and Clive from EA as well as a few of the other team members of the game. It was a nice group and we all got along great joking, laughing and talking about our personal favorite games. We also talked about the worst game ever made for a console, which I have to admit was not as easy but still fun. Since the flight was very long, the first night was over pretty early and we headed back to the hotel since we had a full day ahead of us.
Okay, in case you have not heard the rumors the past few days, it is official. The ESA has announced that they are changing the format of E3 for 2007. While they announced some of the changes, it ended with more information at a later date. Having attending E3 and going through their press credential process just to prove I am worthy of getting the plastic Press Badge holder, I think they are making a huge mistake! Read more…
The Tuesday of E3 2006 Microsoft held their press conference at the Mann’s Chinese Theater. Since I arrived in LA on Monday, I already heard plenty of rumors about what was going to be shown and announced. While the journalists and others were trying to be helpful, I wanted to go into the conference without any pre-determined expectations. The theater was packed with journalists, press and camera crews. I took my seat and waited for the big event to kick off.
What you are about to read are the events leading up to and through the 2 day event held by Electronic Arts to help give community sites like Xbox Solution a better feel for what they have in store for gamers with the upcoming Xbox 360 game release of Need For Speed Most Wanted. We have another write up that is just a Hands On Preview of Need for Speed Most Wanted on the Xbox 360; but I wanted everyone to get a feeling of what was involved in this special two day event. Read more…
Over at Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows, you can now read an indepth interview with Jeff Henshaw the Executive Producer for Xbox Digital Entertainment at Microsoft regarding the new exciting features we can expect from the Xbox 360.
Do Video Games Alone Impact Your Child’s Behavior?
Anyone who listens to the news or reads the newspapers, without being in the videogame industry, will probably have a negative view on videogames and their affect on children. We have all heard the reports of a child learning violence from a videogame title, or a crime being blamed on videogames. Even the politicians have entered the arena, and are trying to enforce restrictions on what your children can and cannot buy on their own. However, if you are in the know when it comes to gaming, you will notice one key factor missing from all of these ‘alleged’ reports – the parents.
I was just sitting here wondering why more games don’t have the co-op option on Xbox Live. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of games out there like Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six 3 Black Arrow, Ghost Recon IT & GR 2, Phantasy Star Online, DOOM 3 and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory to name a few, but there just aren’t enough. I don’t know the specifics in regards to stats on what people play the most, but I’m almost certain its not co-op, and part of the reason behind that may be the lack of availability. Playing a game against someone else, say in a deathmatch mode, is fun, but for me it gets old quick. I like working together as a team against the AI (artificial intelligence), especially in some of the newer releases where the AI is actually pretty smart, like Doom 3 or SCCT.
Editorial by: Agent Smith
As the months pass by, more and more speculation is dug up concerning release dates for Microsoft and Sony’s next generation consoles.
Take
a look at any list of upcoming titles to be released for the Xbox (among
other consoles) and you could be forgiven for muttering the words, “There
has never been a better time to be a gamer.†While these words are true
to a certain extent, in reality there really has “never been a better
time to be a gamer†whether the year was 2005 or 1995.
If you haven’t already pre ordered the most talked about game in history, then what are you waiting for? No doubt this game will be sold out by the time you make it off your couch and to your local EB store.
Of course if you haven’t already guessed, I am talking about Halo 2, November 9th, 04 (or for us poor European folks 11th November 04) will forever be tattooed on our minds; it will be the date all gamers will be proud to be associated with, a day that will go down in history, a day all Xbox owners will be able to turn to those green faced PS2 owners and finally go – HA PWNED.
First
Person Shooters is one of the oldest genres as old as video gaming itself and
has evolved from pixilated 2D monsters in the original Doom to spectacular light
shows in Unreal 2004. Easy to get into hard to master, quick reflexes and knowledge
of every corner of the map is a must to stay on top of the scoreboard at the
end of the round. However while FPS could break out into intense heart pounding
battles they can also be a perfect way to spend some quality time with your
family on a Sunday afternoon. Almost any FPS that comes out has multiplayer
support for up to 16 players which means fun for the whole family.
Written by: Mr Underscore
I have spent one year of my life playing that one game, and when I wasn‘t playing it I was thinking about it. It consumed all my free time. I would feel
excited to get back home from work because I knew I would get to play it. I
don’t know what was so special about it but I just got so hopelessly addicted
to it. I began playing it because a good friend of mine kept talking about how
good it was and how much fun he had playing it. Bunch of other people that I
knew were also playing it so I decided to try it out and see what the buzz was
all about.
Xbox Live has finally grown so much, that if a game does not include at least
a downloadable content gamers think twice about buying it. Is this a good thing,
or a bad thing? The good news for Xbox gamers is that now most games are enhanced
by online playability, scoreboards, downloadable content, Live awareness, etc.
But when you create a product, you create a demand, and this is what game developers
are here for, to make money when selling their games.
When I was a little girl my parents used to go down to Atlantic City and gamble. I recall sneaking into the casino (us Jersey kids have a streak like that) and playing the slot machines and getting thrown out for being underage. There were about 10 of us, we called ourselves “The Casino Kids.” After some time had passed, the hotel decided to open up an arcade, this was in the late 1970’s and the very spot I fell in love with gaming. I remember walking in and seeing all of my favorite games like Ms. Pacman, Centipied, Qbert, Galaxia, Galaga, Pole Position . . . and I was hooked!
Howdy Gamers! It’s been a while, but your old pal Elder is back with a tired refrain, Why is it that some folks Continue to blame videogames for the violent behavior of some of today’s youth? The answer, because it’s easy!
In this election year, more and more of our elected officials have jumped on this hot button issue and drafted legislation designed to protect our Children from the dangers of M (Mature) rated games. They bring out studies and surveys stating the adverse reactions that Kids have after playing violent video games. If you don’t know any better, some of the reports will make you believe that playing a mature rated video game will turn you into a crazed maniacal killer.
Now that our beloved
Xbox has seen its second Christmas, I have just about settled down with my machine.
I have become familiar with the way it works, the controller setup, I’ve even
become used to getting my ass kicked when enjoying a great game on Xbox Live.
All of this has become accustomed to me, and I like it. But when I stopped and
looked back on it, I was floored with my console the day it arrived via Fed
Ex. Not because of the awesome logo present in the middle of the case. Not because
of the controller that fit so nicely into my hand. I was amazed with all of
the little things. The little things that were thrown in as an extra, but which
have made all the difference. Most notably, the Xbox Live features that I was
presented with a little over a year after I first started up my console.
As all good things, evolution is bound to happen. Recently it has been console
gaming that has begun a sudden evolution from the standard system with 2 player
capabilities, to the online gaming powerhouse it has become. Contributing the
most with its online service has been the Xbox Gaming Console and its Xbox Live
service. The addition of online gaming to the offline closed off world of console
gaming was no surprise. Before the Xbox allowed users to go online, the Sega
Dreamcast was allowing people all over the world to compete head to head. With
online gaming came another face to the console market, Local Area Network (LAN)
matches.
Video game sales reached more than $10 billion in 2002, surpassing the movie
industry by $1 billion. So obviously with video games sales going through the
roof, video games have moved from a small group of hardcore gamers into a more
widely accepted group of casual gamers. So the question that remains is; “Is
this a good thing for the more hardcore gamers among us?”
The age of the internet has brought through some of the most important innovations
in terms of convenience of accessing information, transferring information around
the world, and more importantly, being able to ‘head shot’ someone from the
other side of the globe (in games of course). It has created entirely
new genres of games, programs, and services. The speeds we access this information
has also skyrocketed. From the age of the hardware modems of 56kbps to the new
era of broadband offering speeds of over 1 mbps at affordable costs that make
it available to the home user (1 mbps is approx. 1000kbps). But people
have still, and for the most part, been wired down by their internet connections.
This is where the wireless revolution is about to come in.
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