Court ruling could affect pre-owned game sales

Court ruling could affect pre-owned game sales
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Sep 13, 2010 11:12 am PT

Ninth Circuit appeals court disallows resale of drafting software due to EULA terms; PC, console games come with similar restrictions.

Pre-owned game sales account for a major chunk of GameStop's profits and have other retailers wanting a piece of the pie. However, a decision on Friday by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit could imperil sales of pre-owned games--or any other software with a particularly worded end-user license agreement (EULA).

The court overturned a May 2008 decision by the US District Court for the Western District of Washington in the case of Vernor v. Autodesk. The original decision stated that Washington resident Timothy Vernor was within his rights to sell a sealed copy of Autodesk's AutoCAD design software he got at a garage sale on eBay.

The 9th Circuit's decision may imperil sales of pre-owned games.
Though the copy of the software was sealed, Autodesk's EULA--which was not visible externally on the retail box--said that the software is only licensed to purchasers, not actually sold. It also said that the license cannot be transferred, so after purchase, the software had to be destroyed if not used.
The Western Washington court's decision upheld the idea that customers own the software they purchase, commonly referred to as the "You bought it, you own it" principle. The appeals court's decision, however, undermines that idea if the software has "license only" language in its EULA.
Tech blog Ars Technica pointed out that the EULAs used by Electronic Arts and many other publishers have similar language in their games. "This software is licensed to you, not sold," reads EA's EULA. "Access to the software requires software registration with the serial code enclosed with the software. Software registration is limited to one EA Account per serial code and is non-transferable."

The EA EULA is for a PC game, which typically requires acceptance of such terms to play. However, comparable wording can also be found in console game manuals, such as that of Take-Two Interactive's recent hit Red Dead Redemption.

"THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD," reads the license agreement on Red Dead Redemption. (Capital letters in original.) "You agree not to: (a) Commercially exploit the software; (b) Distribute, lease, sell, rent or otherwise transfer the software, or any copies of the software, without the express consent of the licensor." (Emphasis added.)
Inquiries sent to EA and Take-Two about the appeals court's decision were not answered as of press time. However, EA and other publishers have recently taken measures to deter pre-owned game sales, from which they earn no money.

In EA's case, it is enclosing single-use codes in new games to both award extra downloadable content and enable online modes. The latter applies to all of the Redwood City, CA-based company's sports games, which will charge buyers of pre-owned games $10 extra to access online modes. THQ recently adopted a similar model for the online modes for its wrestling and mixed martial arts games.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6275683.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B4

Power A Pro Elite and "GRIP IT" Reviews

If you love your PS3, but hate the controller then this is THE controller that will make you finally dump hours into your PS3.


I received mine in the mail last week and I absolutely love it. I've put around 7 hours on it already between MW2 and Assassin's Creed 2 so I have a very good base for my review. Since the controller is obviously a shameless ripoff of the 360 design I will compare the controller directly to it.


The controller is slightly "girthier" (had to use that word) than the 360 and it feels great in the hands. I could absolutely see people with smaller hands or all asians having a problem with this design. Which is probably why the DS is as small as it is.


The face buttons are all quite larger, flatter and require a more deliberate push to use. Where the 360 buttons are great I do enjoy the larger buttons on the Power A.


As much as well all bag on the DS one thing I do prefer on it over the 360 is that the joysticks (while slippery as hell) do seem to have a larger range of motion and this continues on the Power A, but without as much "looseness". The joysticks are tighter than the DS, but not quite as tight as the 360. All in all I still prefer the 360 resistance on the joystick, but prefer the larger range of motion on the Power A.

The sticks are also longer on the Power A which can arguably help with accuracy in shooters.


The triggers are top notch. I described them to Lead Salad as more of a "saddle" than a large trigger like on the 360. They are much shorter and wider and your fingers rest directly in them for more of a snug fit. There is a surprising amount of resistance on the triggers as well and I really enjoy the feel of them.


This is the most solid construction I've ever felt on a 3rd party controller. It feels absolutely solid. No creaks or squeaks when you squeeze it. Just a very well put together controller just like the DS and 360.


The Power A also has built in grips that aren't all that different from a pistol grip and it's awesome. On my 360 I installed a rubber cover years ago that really helps with marathon gaming, but without the rubber cover I def prefer the Power A for "feel".


I played "Flower" on the PS3 to test the SixAxis and it works just as it should.


All in all the controller is amazing and I recommend it to anyone that prefers the 360 design over the DS. It's arguably one of the best controllers on the market today and with a price tag that's cheaper than either the DS or 360.

GRIP IT joystick covers are my new lover and while they do look silly as hell they work very well. They install in seconds without glue and give you a ton more grip on the joystick. It does give a more "sure" feel while playing shooters and def adds more padding on the sticks for marathon gaming where jamming L3 for running in CoD can tend to bother your thumbs.

The set comes with 2 pair of covers so I have them on my Power A and on my 360 controller. Get them.

Favorite game of the year?

I know we've still got 4 months to go, but I'm curious what everyone's favorite game for 2010 so far has been? I'm talking mainly about games that have been released in 2010, but if you've played an older one that you really liked, feel free to put that, too. I think a short explanation would be appropriate, too.

2010 game
Bayonetta - released in January, 3rd person action, over the top in every way, excellent combat with tons of weapons and combinations, huge bosses, excellent level design and variation. The only weak point is the convoluted storyline, but everything else is top notch so it balances that out in my opinion.

Older game
Prince of Persia (2008) - cell-shaded "reboot" that branches off from the Sands of Time trilogy, bright and sharp graphics, climbing all over walls, tons of fun. Combat is the weak point in this one - it's just kinda blah. Other than that, it was tough for me to stop playing.


I think it would be cool to do a post like this again shortly after we get into 2011 to see if anything changes, due to all the quality stuff being released this fall.

Honest thoughts and opinions please.

Sorry if you guys are tired of my constant up and down and bitching about the 360, but I'm really tired of Microsoft and let me vent just once more.

I was pretty okay with everything until I read Lead Salad's post on the price hike on LIVE and it's just kind of sent me into a spiral.

I know that it's only 10 dollars more a month and that it's not a big deal, but I'm just tired of getting nickel and dimed by M$. I'm well aware that I've spent well over a hundred bucks on useless themes and avatar crap, but this really bothers me. I "deactivated" my auto renewal of Gold Membership and it's up in July of next year so I'll see what happens, but I really feel trapped as a consumer by this machine.

I want to keep my 360, but I think it's fair to say that my 360 WILL break. It's not a matter of "if" as Amateria once said, but a matter of "when." They break. It's what 360's do. It's a shame that as consumers we've allowed ourselves to be okay not with a console that will just not function properly after 8 or 10 years or so, but a machine with such a huge fail in it that it just stops working at any time. It could be broke out of the box or 3 years from now, but it WILL break. I refuse to buy another machine when my goes out again. It blows my mind when M$ brags about sales figures because in my mind the numbers greatly skewed. How many of those sales have been from guys like us that had to purchase another machine because our 1st, 2nd or 3rd broke? I think you'd all agree that this revelation for myself leaves me in an interesting spot. Why put more money into a system that I know will break and that I have no intention of buying again once it does? Why buy more games if I know I can't play them in another year or so?

The other thing that has me trapped in is that my two brothers and my dad all have a 360 and they'd be really upset if I got rid of mine. For those of you that don't know my oldest brother is a missionary in Indonesia and playing Call of Duty 2 (the only shooter that can run decently on his terrible internet) with me is one of his few releases from a very stressfuly lifestyle.

I'd bet that I've had my LIVE subscription for longer than 90% of all LIVE members so I think I've been around long enough to form a solid opinion of M$ and LIVE.

Over the last 2 days I've matched and confirmed shipment on the rest of my 360 games that aren't 360 exclusive so I can pick them up on PS3. I'm left with the HALOs, Crackdown, CoD 2, L4D, Mass Effect 1, Tiger 09, Gears 1, Condemned (the sequel is on PS3 thank goodness) and my back catalog of old XBOX games, but an original XBOX purchase isn't hard to do.

What this post boils down to is HALO Reach. I'm really excited for the game and playing with you guys, but as this post points out I don't want to drop another 60 bucks on a game that I can't play in a year or so. We can hardly all find the time to play together as it is.

I think my frustration is justified and was just wondering if you guys would weigh in on it and tell me if I'm crazy or not.

Power A PS3 Controller

A long while ago I remember reading about this amazing new PS3 controller coming out that rips off pretty much everything from the 360 controller and I couldn't have been more excited!

Well, it just launched and normally it retails for 50 bucks, but I just ordered mine for 35 on amazon! As much as I love my Afterglow, that Lead Salad found, the Power A is wireless and still packs in sixaxis control. User reviews are very positive and the several "professional reviews" I've read say it's a great controller and what 360 players have been waiting for.

I'll let you guys know how it goes when it gets here.

$60 for Xbox Live

Does anyone have a strong opinion about this? I really don't. I would probably care more if not for the ESPN deal that starts in November. That's easily worth $10 more a year to me, but I've been known to watch a lot of sports. I'd like to see more stuff like this to justify the cost, though, considering that the competition has similar online services for free. I thought it was so cool when Netflix first hit Xbox Live and I was kind of like, "Oooh, eat it, PS3." But now the PS3 and even the Wii can stream Netflix.

Well....is anyone highly offended? Anyone going to refuse to renew their Live subscriptions? Anyone going to write to Major Nelson and tell him to suck it?

Nintendo 64 and GameCube

Maybe it's the charm (and sometimes super annoying-ness) of the Nintendo cast or the easy pick up and play, but why the hell can I not get over how much fun my N64 still is?

Allow me to explain. Recently my sister-in-law got married to a very cool guy that some of you on this blog have played with named Silent 1988. Luckily, they literally moved across the parking lot from my wife and I and he comes over regularly and we play Super Smash Bros and NFL Blitz like it's our jobs on 64. When we want to crank up the difficulty of said games we'll play SSB Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash on Cube. These games are every bit as fun years after they've been out and with hundreds of hours already dumped in to them. Why is this?

Is it the local play? Is it Nintendo nostalgia? I think it's because of the super fine tuning and incredible game design on Nintendo's part. Unfortunately, SSB and Mario Kart have been what Amateria wisely put "HALO'ed" on the Wii. They have taken rather simple games to play (but truly challenging to master at times) and neutered them even more for "waggle" play and for the greater masses.

All Star Baseball 2000 for 64 has been getting regular weekly rotation on my 64 with Silent and another buddy on a weekly get together. At the time the game was the top of the line baseball sim, but now they extol the game's difficulty and love the fact that it's not needlessly complex like all newer sports games.

The same can be said of Blitz's bare bones footbrawler. It's probably the most fun I've ever had in a sports game and now that Silent and I are truly awesome at it the tension is through the roof! We've even started a tally sheet much like Lead Salad and I use to use for win record keeping.

I don't feel that my thoughts were well written in this post, but I can't stop marveling at the fact that I have the world's best, newest and brightest games at my disposal and I keep playing all these old games and it's not just on whim. It's because I have someone to play with locally again.

I guess that you just can't beat the classics and that sometimes great gameplay doesn't need any refinements to still be compelling by today's standards.

Sidenote: 64 and Cube have been in boxes for years, but as of these last few weeks space was cleared in my entertainment system and now they are both permanent tenants again. Right next to my 360 and PS3 are two dinosaurs battling it out for my time. Video games are awesome.

Gaming This Fall

I've had to cheer myself up after the release of Starcraft 2 in all it's awesomeness. Between therapy and constantly rewatching Diablo 3 videos, I've been able to pull out of my dark slump. Then a light descended from heaven and revealed to me several other great games coming out that I'm really looking forward to playing.

1. Fallout: New Vegas - more fallout!? yes, please!
2. Civilization V - Never got into this series until there was a large Steam sale and I picked up Civ IV and a bunch of expansions for dirt cheap. Fun strategy game.
3. Fable III - Not quite as good as some other RPGs out there, still will be worth my time.
4. CoD: Black Ops - The PC edition is getting dedicated servers plus modding abilities so Treyarch is completely redeeming themselves. And another zombie mode! Still hesitant about giving any money to Activision so this may be a Goozex purchase.
5. Max Payne 3 - no release date and probably won't be this year but one of my top 5 favorite franchises. I played through the 2nd game 5 or 6 times.
6. Diablo 3 - Diablo 2 set the standard for years of action/RPGs and this sequel is looking amazing so far.
7. Torchlight II - the first one was a cheap Indy game that sucked up 30hrs of my time. A Diablo 2 clone from several developers behind Diablo 2. 2nd one looks even better.
8. Brink - This game caught my eye just this past week and looks like it has potential to be an enjoyable FPS.

Post up some games you guys are looking forward too...

Resistance 2 review

I played the first half of the game a few months back, and then came back and finished a few days ago. Due to this, I can't really recall the storyline too well (sorry). It's got something to do with the Chimera invading the U.S. after Britain from the first game. Your character, Nathan Hale, is infected with something and goes thru some changes as the game progresses. I think he's slowly changing into one of the bad guys and needs a serum to keep the transformation at bay. Nothing really groundbreaking in terms of story - pretty standard for a first person shooter.

Like

-The weapons in the game are a ton of fun, with the exception of the Carbine, the standard machine gun with a grenade launcher attachment....not too special. But then there's the Magnum, with remotely triggered explosive rounds. The Bullseye fires 'tags' into a guy which serve as a homing point for your bullets. Tag a guy, then hide around a corner and shoot. Your bullets will go around the corner and home in on the guy. Sweet. The Fareye is the sniper rifle with a controllable zoom and the ability to enter a sort of "bullet time" where you have some extra time to snipe. The Auger can shoot through walls and can deploy its own barrier, which you can also shoot through. The Pulse Cannon is sort of a BFG wannabe. Rocket launcher is pretty standard. Mini-gun with a 300 round clip and deployable shield can do some damage. The Spinner shoots saw blades that bounce all over the place. Spike grenades and spider grenades (they create an expanding hot zone under guys where you throw it) round out the list. Lots of variety and lots of fun.

-Coop mode with up to 8 players is fun. Different classes work together to play shortened versions of some of the maps from the single player campaign.

-Bosses are huge, loud, and scary. Unfortunately they're all a little bit too easy, too. The Leviathan is a huge Godzilla-looking creature walking around in a city knocking down buildings but it only takes a few rockets to put him down. There's also a boss that looks like a swarm of bees that keeps picking off your teammates as you progress through one stage.


Dislike

-Worst NPCs ever. There's one point in the game where you get dropped off at the bottom of a ramp that leads into an enemy stronghold. This is towards the end of the game and it's a HUGE firefight with literally about 75 bad guys pouring out of this place in waves....and you have to kill every single one of them. Your AI teammates will do nothing except sit at the bottom of the ramp. They don't shoot, they don't throw grenades, they don't advance until you do. Ridiculous.

-Finicky checkpoints. Sometimes I would pick up a gun, get a checkpoint, die, and then would not have that gun, so I'd have to go pick it up again. Also, if your flashlight is on when you get a checkpoint, it won't be on if you have to reload, so you'll have to keep turning it on. A small gripe, but annoying.

-Objectives are sometimes unclear. There's one point where you clear out a house and then a big T-Rex lookin' thing starts stalking around outside. There's a guy talking into your ear through a headset and he says something like, "Hide....don't let it see you." So I figured this beast would check out the house and then move on. I thought they were mixing up the gameplay a little with a stealth section, because it keeps moving around to different windows. After a couple of minutes and a few deaths later it was still out there and I was wondering what was going on. I paused and the objective said to "Kill the Marauder." Weird. Why didn't the guy just tell me to kill it?

-Multiplayer. I only played one game but it was awful.



Bottom line: A good shooter elevated slightly by its varied weaponry and huge bosses.

Bioshock 2

Just started it last night on PS3 and I can already tell I'm really going to like it. Especially with the streamlining of the camera and hacking mini games that were soul crushers after 2 playthroughs in the original.

One major thing I wonder if anyone else has experienced. I can't stop looking around at the amazing environments. I did this in the original Bioshock too. Basically, I progress slow as hell because I don't want to miss a thing or a detail. This is one of the few shooters to ever do this to me. It's awesome and annoying at the same time. I guess it's because after years of conventional shooters with same old same old level design when something comes along with this kind of "eye candy" it's hard to not enjoy the sights. The attention to detail in almost everything should make other developers feel ashamed of themselves.

I'm playing on "Normal" with Vita-Chambers turned off for that "Big Brass Balls" Trophy. Glad I've finally gotten around to playing it. Brjahu has been pestering me about it since launch.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Review)

My story with this game is long and bloody, but the short version is I got this game at launch on 360 and experienced a mindblowingly terrible game breaking unfixable glitch so I traded it on goozex. The game hasn't been doing the best and I found it at Target for 20 bucks new and decided to play it on PS3 because the 360 version is not playable for me.

For those of you that don't know PoPTFS is a return to the old style PoP games. In the timeline of the series it follows "The Sands of Time" and is before "Warrior Within." I've read a lot of negatives about this game and while I can say that some of them do hold true the game didn't get the credit it deserved.

Graphically the game isn't overly impressive, but does look good. For some reason though the Prince looks like a caveman, but at least the original voice actor is back and Nolan North (from the cell shaded reinvention of 2008) is out! There's something fun in hearing the Prince's thoughts spoken out loud and his sarcasm is back in full swing.

I won't bother telling the story aspect in much detail, but as you could have guessed an all consuming sand army was released to help the Prince and his brother, Malik, fight off invaders, but of course it was a terrible idea and now the Prince has to get Ratash and the sand army back in prison.

Combat has been much improved over previous entries and there are plenty of enemies to fight at once. Many times throughout the game you'll fight between 20-50 enemies at once which is a lot of fun, but the combat is never very challenging. This is due to the fact that the enemies are retards and when you take their retardation into account with your ball busting powers they're really no match for the Prince.

Platforming finally isn't super easy! I was let down the first couple hours of the game because the platforming in some ways is very easy. It seems almost impossibly to mess up jumps most of the time unlike the older versions. Luckily, the game throws in some very nice curve balls of freezing water and "memory recollection" to make platforming much harder and makes it feel like your actually working hard and concentrating for perfect timing to nail huge jump sections. Definitely some of the best platforming in the whole series and some of the most "holy crap I made it" platforming I've ever played in any game.

RPG? Unlike previous entries there is a leveling up system to combat and powers and it's not a huge deal, but does add some depth to the game.

While the game does feel "meaty" it's not a long campaign. I clocked in probably around 6 to 7 hours and did everything. It's about as long as the new Splinter Cell campaign, but I liked PoP more overall.....and this doesn't have a tacked on lame coop section.

Overall, I really enjoyed this outing with the Prince and while I can't say it's my all time favorite of the series it's definitely a great game that got unfairly beaten up in reviews. Get it if you're a fan of the Prince.

Games That I ♥

Refusing to be considered a troll on this blog, I thought I'd make a quick post of games that I've loved over the years, since starting out on my little handheld football game whose graphics consisted of blinking red lights. Yes, my gaming career started out on a handheld device, neither on PC or the console. We would laugh at the toy today but it was amazing back then. All this big red dots were the football players and the tiny red dot was the ball. I remember how hard it was but I kept at it until I could destroy the enemy AI with ease. I can't believe I had such determination back then.

Anyways, without getting distracted, I'd like to compile a list, though not complete, of some of the games I've really enjoyed over the years and sunk some serious time into. Some of these I'll lump together...

1. Doom, Doom II, Wolfenstein - I remember spending hours on my SNES or on friend's computers playing these games and how their impact back then has led me to still enjoy the FPS genre today. Buying Doom on the 360 was still just as enjoyable today as it was back then.

2. Marathon (Doom for MAC) - This game was indescribable. My neighbor friend, Steve, probably hated me for coming over to his house and ignoring him for hours while I took up his PC and beat this game.

3. Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger for the SNES - 3 classic RPGs for the SNES (that I went back and purchased a couple years ago just to have). I can still go back and play these and have a blast. Chrono Trigger especially with the time travel and the MAIN HERO DYING! It was so shocking... :P

4. FFVII - another amazing game. The cartoony graphics were awful but the world was huge, the backgrounds amazing, and the story priceless. Sephiroth is still one of the best bad guys ever.

5. FF Tactics - A game that has never been equaled, it was soooo challening in the beginning but once I started getting the hang of it (and bought a guidebook), it became one of my all time favorite games, if not the favorite. By the way, if anybody knows of any games like this one, please let me know. I've considered buying a DS just to play some of the other tactics games (which I've heard aren't as good).

6. GTAIII - this game made me go out and buy a PS2 the very next day after playing it. At the time, it was like nothing that had ever been done before. And then Vice City was better and then San Andreas was even better than the previous two. And let's not forget how much GTA2 was...

7. Tony Hawk 1 to 4 (the early years) - Being one of the worst skateboarders in real life (I could barely ollie though I could pull of a sweet boneless off a ramp), this game let you do all the tricks you could only dream of in real life. Playing HORSE in this game ate of hours of my time a decade ago.

8. Syphon Filter - another great PSONE game. I was able to pull off headshots in this game like no other, a skill that I have lost over the years to my hours spent on the PC. :(

9. Elder Scrolls & Oblivion - A game that was so deep at the time, it blew my mind. Although it was insanely annoying trying to find some locations in this game (objective arrows are a great invention), it sucked me in and wouldn't let me leave. Oblivion built on and expanded the world and just made it all better. They took out flying, a minor grievance, and Oblivion ate up hours of my life anyways.

10. Starcraft - never good at RTS games, I learned quickly when I would have LAN parties with an old roommate who had several PCs set up in his house. I remember finally beating his friend (who rage quit and stormed out of the house, haha) and it was a proud gaming moment for myself. The student had now become the teacher.

I realize how long this list could be so I'll just cut this short of descriptions...

Titan's Quest, Battlefield 2 & 2142, Bad Company 1 & 2, Call of Duty 1 & 2, Half-Life 1 & 2, Diablo, Diablo II, Fallout 3, Rise of Nations, Age of Empires, Freelancer, FEAR, Far Cry, Crysis, Lego everything, FFXII, Gran Turismo, Killer Instinct, Spiderman 2, GTAIV, World of Warcraft, Fable 1 & 2, Starcraft 2...

And the list goes on and on... for every bad game that I play, there's probably several that I enjoy. But there are definitely some games where one tiny feature can kill it for me. One hit kills from AI on the easiest difficulty setting, glaring bugs or glitches, awful physics, bad controls, etc., etc.

John Carmack could be the Jesus of gaming.

Alright look....I'm not the most techy guy, but I'd be lying if I wasn't in awe of the genius of John Carmack. If you follow him at all or know any of his history with games he's pretty much the end all be all tech guy. Just the other day at Quakecon he showed "Rage" running on an iPhone at 60fps....then acted like it wasn't a big deal. He also builds rockets....real manned rockets....just for fun.

I know I was one of the few really big Doom 3 fans in our group, but just watching the id team in some of the "making of" videos was really refreshing because all of these guys really love games and it shows. Plus, they never lost their independent size as a developer.

What prompted this post was this news that the most mind bendingly good looking game engine, id Tech 5, isn't going to be licensed to anyone, but other Bethesda developers. Unlike 80% of the games out today that are made with the Unreal 3 engine this game and developer will keep their distinct look for themselves. I love Epic, but seriously I can't tell you how many games I've played and actually said out loud: "You got Gears of War in my game!"

Fanboyism rant is done.

Fight Club...

I don't think this needs much of an explenation. I know we have several huge Smash Brothers fans on this blog so this is for you guys.

(ps. Kotaku has a post on this, so if credit goes anywhere it is to them for taking it from another site.)

Just Cause 2

It's amazing. I highly recommend you run to your nearest retailer and pick it up.

It's the largest game world I've ever seen with jaw dropping draw distances and it's immensely fun! I'm playing on Experienced/Hard so it can be hard at times, but never overly so.

What's been most surprising to me is how you're simultaneously a badass and very vulnerable at the same time. Many sandbox games I've played you're either one or the other. For example there are helicopters a plenty and when you're rocking out a base you're the badass, but if you aren't watching incoming rockets or fighting off other helicopters well you're going to explode and be vulnerable on the ground. When you're on the ground all you have is your grapple hook, guns and explosives.

The grapple hook is incredibly fun because it latches on to ANYTHING and has a very long reach. Nothing is more satisfying in a game than attacking an enemy base with a helicopter, getting attacked from multiple sides and after your copter blows up you jump out to free fall, deploy your parachute, grapple to an enemy helicopter, kill the passenger, then throw out the pilot to steal the copter to continue your reign of terror and it was all done without touching the ground. JOYGASM!

I've logged six hours so far and I can say with confidence that there's easily over 100 hours of game here. Get this game.

"Monday Night Combat" from LIVE Arcade

Here's a review from GamesRadar. I played the demo last night and I think it has a ton of potential.

Reminds me of old school Unreal Championship a bit, but it's a 3rd person shooter. Has a "Horde" like mode and 6v6 in tactical play where you have to destroy the other team's money ball. Earn cash to power up weapons and turrets like Counter Strike.

We don't really have "the ONE" game we all love to play together anymore so I just thought I'd throw it out there for something new and tactical in our game catalog that could be tons of fun.

I know that Reach will be fun, but I don't plan to play the MP heavily and I'm pretty sure there are a couple others out there that share that opinion sooooooooo...."Monday Night Combat" could be a good thing.

Damn my friends!

You all know that I have a kid and that being a Dad is the greatest thing I've ever experienced, but man do I miss game time.

I'm a big single player fan and have been trying to fully replay Jade Empire again and the amazingly badass Just Cause 2. This is hard to do because I have a lot less time for games and I seem to always be incredibly tired my 12am now. To further perpetuate the problem I've been having a great time playing ODST Firefight with my friends!

I want to play my SP games so bad with the little time I can squeeze in, but I can't miss out on the fun of playing with you guys.

So damn you all!

The most boner-tastic news I've heard in some time!

2 of the better trilogies ever (IMHO) are getting the God Of War 1 and 2 PS3 treatment!

Games yet to play....

I know that over the last several months I have been lacking in my posts... well, lacking might not be the best word but hopefully those of you who know me or have been following for a long time understand my gaming habits. The short version: I keep everything I buy, and play most of them to death. Although, I always argue that I get my money's worth and more out of games, what ends up happenings is that I will pass on some great games because I am still playing a game I bought a couple of months ago. To remedy this, last year I started creating a list of games that I am required to play at some point before I die.

Here are some examples of games that I was "late to the party" but finally played:

Mirrors Edge

Assassins Creed 1 and 2

Fallout 3

Oblivion (kind of... I bought my 360 late)

Mass Effect

Portal

God of War 3

and even... Gears of War (yes, I was late... 3NEMY convinced and now... well, ask him)

It never fails that after playing one of these, I'll message 3N3MY or Skatch and say "why didn't you force me to play this earlier?" Below is the list as it stands today. Are there any games that I am missing?

Half Life

Batman AA

Fable 1 and 2

- I'm missing a game or two, but my coffee hasn't kicked in yet -

*** Lastly, I want to point out that I have harassed a couple of you on some games too. A Thank You will suffice.***

The awesome Ken Levine editorial I've been talking about recently.

Original link here, but I've copy and pasted it below.

Ken Levine To The Video Game Industry: Grow A Pair

[This editorial originally appeared in issue 207 of Game Informer and is written by Ken Levine, a founding member of Irrational Games and one of the minds behind BioShock.]

Since Roger Ebert wrote a post a few weeks ago entitled "Video Games Can Never Be Art," the game-o-sphere has been abuzz with a broad range of rebuttals, assents, teeth-gnashing, and spleen venting. Ebert spends several thousand words making it very clear that video games aren't worth his time. Even the developer Ebert name checks in his article (Kellee Santiago from thatgamecompany) gets in on the act. The very first line of her response proclaims "Roger Ebert wrote an article about me."

Now excuse me for asking, Kellee, but you are an accomplished game developer. You are a USC alum. You are feted by your peers and your fans. You are coming off Flower, an impressive release that garnered the attention of the entire industry. You're giving speeches at TED. You're a star. And now you're telling me that a watermark in your career is that Roger frigging Ebert deigned to slow down his chariot long enough to notice you? And not simply notice, but vigorously endeavor to establish that your career, your work, and your passion are essentially beneath his notice.

I read another thoughtful open letter to Mr. Ebert on a prominent gaming blog that, before getting around to effectively saying, "You sir, are a film critic, not a game critic, so piss off!" spends several paragraphs name-dropping great filmmakers, as if to say, "See, Ebert? I know film, so I'm worthy of your respect. Take me seriously!"

Jesus, Mary, and Miyamoto! How insecure are we as an industry that we rush to seek validation not from our own peers, not even from creatives in other fields, but from critics in other fields, to tell us if what we're doing is worthy of notice? Look, I was in high school once. I spent the entire four years trying to match up with what I thought other people thought was cool and worthwhile. And I was miserable because the things I loved were not deemed valuable.

Dungeons and Dragons? Lame!

Video games? Nerdy!

Comic books? Pathetic!

And so I hid my passions. I tried to fit in. I played sports and was terrible at them. I tried to make friends with a collection of people whose only interests in the world amounted to Molly Hatchet records and Marlboro Lights. I tried to make myself a part of things I didn't care about and sought the approval of people who looked down on me.

And I was miserable. The sad truth is that once a new form of media shoots out of the womb, one of the first impulses it seeks to fulfill is validation. Like me! Approve of me! Respect me!

Hey, I get it. I went to Vassar. I like a vigorous round of Socratic wankery as much as the next liberal arts undergrad. But what I can't stand is the insecurity. Are games art? Will they become art? What stage of development are we in as an art form? Are they more akin to George Melies' A Voyage to the Moon or Welles' Citizen Kane? What methodologies should we investigate to make a proper determination between the state of video games, Aristotelian aesthetics, and Robert McKee's definition of good writing?

Here's my answer in three simple steps:

Remove the beret from the top of your head.

Throw said beret out the window.

Light a fire. Into that fire toss your copy of Aristotle's Poetics.

Crack open a two liter of Mountain Dew. Snap into a Slim Jim. Proceed to Xbox Live and shoot your best friend in the head with an M-16.

You're a gaming geek. Be proud of that. You don't need the "by your leave" of Roger Ebert, your loving parents, or the Library of Congress to validate your passion.

The world is changing. I've spent some time around Hollywood people lately, and I've even thought of trying my hand at screenwriting again. (I was a film scribe back in, oh, 1871 or so.) But many studio exec types have told me that their dream is to have some big film director work with me to make a video game.

My response was, "Why on Earth would I want to do that?" The notion is as ridiculous as me calling up an established film director and saying, "Hey pal. I've never directed a film before, but how about I show up on set tomorrow and take you to school?" Do you really want two egos like me and some hotshot film director butting heads over health station recharge rates or jump heights? Honestly, I'd expect that 10 minutes into the first meeting they'd start to look like somebody who realizes they just mistakenly got on the wrong -- and very lengthy -- inter-continental flight.

Consider last E3, when James Cameron spoke at the Ubisoft event. Now, I love James Cameron. He's the man along with George Lucas who really created 90 percent of the methodologies for telling nerdy stories in big budget movies. I constantly name check him and reference his work in story meetings at Irrational. You put him and the Coen brothers in a room, and I'd have trouble deciding which one I'd want to make out with first.

But why was he pitching the Avatar game and not the guy who actually built the d**n thing? Look, if a BioShock movie gets made, I'm sure there might be some people who would be interested in what I have to say about it. But the focus would rightly be on the folks who made the frigging movie.

Why does the rest of the media world put the gaming baby in a corner? Because the game industry has an inferiority complex. We know that the movie, television, book, and even comic book guys look at us like we're some kind of junior varsity version of themselves. "Hey, video games! Aren't they cute? We should make one of them!"

And why do they think of us this way? Because we encourage them to. "The New York Times ran a page 37 story on GDC. Somebody call my parents!" "Roger Ebert said we're not art. Get me my smelling salts!"

Do games owe a debt to popular culture? Absolutely. I can say that I am the biggest media w***e who ever walked this green Earth. But popular culture today is gaming culture. The social networks and forms of interaction of the Internet didn't gestate at some university or film studio. The language of today's youth wasn't created by the Beatles or Public Enemy. The ways people connect to each other through extended networks weren't conceived by some genius at General Electric.

No. All of these things sprang from the nerd-o-scape. They grew up on Usenet and tech blogs. They sprung to life alongside headshots and tea-bagging. They evolved naturally through a group of lonely dorks looking for people who shared their nerdy interests.

We don't owe anything to anybody. The future of entertainment is being envisioned not just by the games industry, but by a confluence of developers and gamers who've interacted on BBSes and the Net since our hobby began. And we're just getting started. Wait until we have had the time to develop that film and television had. We'll either be ruling the world, or we'll be the Eberts, writing dismissive essays about the newest kind of media, which of course will be irrelevant and shallow. That is something that we must not do, because that kind of thinking is the first step on the path to irrelevance.

But today is not that day. Today is our time to realize the power of the medium we all love so much.

To paraphrase the elder Lebowski: The revolution is over, Mr. Ebert. The nerds won.