-Something's happening, the conference has begun!
-It looks like an intro for The Beatles: Rock Band
-The video seems to be a run through the various stages of the Beatles' career
-It's an awesome video actually, especially towards the end as they ride a giant blue rhinoceros to the tune of "I am the Walrus"
-Here come the Harmonix execs
-Talking about how important The Beatles were
-The Beatles: Rock Band is being shown off by the Harmonix house band now, the instruments look authentic and there are three vocal parts
-The multiple vocal parts will allow up to six players at once, how much would high-end instruments and three microphones cost?
-The game will ship with 45 songs
-On screen the game looks like the Rock Band we all know, but with The Beatles characters and locations
-The game will also feature downloadable albums... seriously, I'm going to wind up spending a ton of money on this game
-The game will feature actual recorded conversations between the band members
-The song 'All you need is love' will be exclusive, (no mention as to whether that is timed or not) to Xbox 360 as a 1st day download
-Danny Harrison just showed op for a moment, now Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison
-Holy bejeezus, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are on stage now
-Ringo: "The game is good, the graphics are good and we were great"

-John Shappert is on now
-Shappert is talking about what people want these days
-"today is about showing, not telling"
-apparently we'll be seeing ten world premieres of games never before seen

-Here comes Tony Hawk to talk about Tony Hawk: Ride
-"The best way to experience skateboarding is the way it's meant to be, on a board"
-A video is being shown, no real new information, the board peripheral looks pretty solid though
-Tony Hawk leaves

-A Modern Warfare 2 trailer is playing, one we've seen already
-Bruckheimer and Bay films have nothing on this trailer
-The Infinity Ward guys are on stage now to show off some gameplay
-it's a snow/ice environment, probably the same as the one with the snowmobiles in the trailer
-the player is using ice picks to climb a frozen cliff wall
-The character almost falls and is saved by a teammate
-The visibility in this level is almost zero, the air is filled with snow
-The gameplay looks distinctly Infinity Ward
-There seems to be some sort of radar built onto the side of the weapon
-Enemies are coming after the player with snowmobiles, after dispatching the enemies, the player takes the snomobile
-An action-packed snomobile race with guns ensues and the game is shut off
-Shappert is back and announces that the first two Modern Warfare 2 map packs will be timed exclusives for Xbox 360
-Modern Warfare 2 will be out November 10, 2009

-The Squenix folks are here to talk about Final Fantasy XIII
-The translater is one of the best I've seen at any games conference
-Final Fantasy XIII is being shown off running on an Xbox 360, it looks as stunning
-time gauges have been added to the combat that will power up attacks
-They show off the 'Odin' summon and it looks pretty sweet
-Square Enix is targeting spring 2010 for the FFXII release

-Shappert is back talking about exclusives, says that everything from now on will be totally exclusive to Xbox 360

-Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games and Donald Mustard of Chair Entertainment are on now, Cliff is wearing a Bill Gates mugshot T-shirt
-They announced the next Epic Games Unreal Engine 3 game to be released: Shadow Complex
-Mustard says the goal of Shadow Complex is to take the gameplay style of Metroid and Castlevania and bring them to next gen with modern design sensibilities and next-gen graphics
-Mustard: Shadow Complex is all about exploration punctuated by moments of combat
-The game will star Jason Fleming, a guy who stumbles upon a secret military complex with just a flashlight
-Visually the game is like Bionic Commando: Rearmed, but with the lighting and texture quality of UE3
-The gameworld looks huge and it seems that there is emphasis on creative problem solving
-As the game progresses the character will go from being a regular guy to a "weapon of destruction" with advanced armor
-Over 120 collectible items and over 10 hours of gameplay
-Shadow Complex will come out this summer

-Shappert is back and talking about a game called "Joy Ride"
-It looks like a party/kart racing game with a bit of stunt driving set in a road-runner environment with Avatars at the wheel
-It will be free to download and play, with microtransaction upgrades for cars, racers, etc.

-It looks like a trailer for Crackdown 2 now, all CG so far
-It seems there is now an infection in the city, and the shadow of some sort of monster is shown at the end
-L4D 2 trailer!
-It looks like this time there will be melee weapons: axes, chainsaws, etc.
-It will be only on Xbox 360 and PC, available November 17th
-Splinter Cell Conviction trailer now, Fisher has short hair

-A couple French guys from Ubisoft are on stage now to show of SC: Conviction
-Melee combat and interrogation looks awesome, it looks like objectives will show up in-game*
-This Splinter Cell looks far more fluid than the past iterations
-Gadgets will make a comeback in Sam's inventory
-While the game is stealth-based, Sam looks like he will now be able to clear out rooms using his ninja-like abilities
-SC: Conviction will be out in Fall 09 exclusively on Xbox 360

-Shappert is back and talking about racing... that means Forza 3
-Yep, he says it's coming in October, video playing now
-That was a very short video, must be an introduction
-Yes, here comes a dude from Turn 10 Studios with a fancy Audi R8 on stage
-They're going to show off the game now
-The game looks jaw-droppingly good in motion and will run at 60fps
-Now the guy's talking about car customization
-Now we see a video with people talking about how much they love custom painting cars through Forza and sharing them on Xbox live...
-The car customization and video editing looks pretty darned amazing though
-Turn 10 guy leaves the stage

-Halo 3: ODST time
-Joe Staten from Bungie is out now and wastes no time getting into showing off ODST
-Looks like the game starts with the trooper landing in a one-man drop ship, (flashing back to Quake 2 now)
-The player will have a new supressed smg and visor, supressed smg is pretty loud
-It seems that this game will involve some mystery solving and playable flashbacks, certainly new to the Halo universe
-Staten briefly mentions a new game mode that will be included with Halo 3: ODST called 'firefight'
-Uh oh, there's another Halo project
-Looks like a teaser trailer to me...
-It's Halo: Reach, coming 2010, the trailer didn't really show much but my guess is that it's the rumored squad-based game

-It's Sam Lake, the face and writer of Max Payne! Also there's another guy from Remedy
-They're playing Alan Wake on the big screen
-Environmental effects look darn good
-Alan is running around in a forest town in the dark, the lighting is nice
-Something invisible is picking up objects and chucking them at Alan
-Weird humanoid monsters are coming after Alan Wake now and he's destroying them with his flashlight
-He starts a generator and a floodlight comes on, destroying all the enemies in the area, I guess they don't like light
-Alan just shot off a flare to clear out the area, the smoke and lighting are superb
-"To be continued," the trailer ends, Sam says Alan Wake will be out spring 2010 on Xbox 360 only

-Shappert is back talking about entertainment
-last.fm will be integrated into the Xbox dashboard for free for Xbox live gold members only (this year)
-Netflix will now allow users to access and change their queue from the Xbox
-The HD video library on Xbox Live will be upgraded from 720p to 1080p and now 18 countries will be able to access the video store, also the videos will (supposedly) begin instantly
-Xbox Live Parties will be able to view video now
-Facebook will be integrated into Xbox live as well
-Felicia Day just showed up to show off Facebook... the nerds in the audience all just melted
-It looks like Facebook has been changed to fit the look of the Xbox dashboard
-She's talking about something called "Facebook Connect" now... it seems that games that support it will be able to post images straight to Facebook
-She just mentioned that Twitter will also be integrated into the Xbox dashboard and they will both show up this Fall
-Felicia Day is very pale
-She's leaving now and Shappert is back
-He's reiterating the presentation, maybe it's almost over already
-Nope, he just introduced Don Mattrick

-Mattrick Says there is still an IP missing from Xbox
-Hideo Kojima just showed up, is it MGS4?
-He says it's called "Metal Gear Rising"
-Apparently it won't star Solid Snake
-Teaser time, "Metal Gear Solid Rising: Lightning Bolt Action" starring Raiden

-Mattrick is talking about the origins of Xbox and Xbox Live now
-Oh it's motion controller time
-He says the controller is a barrier for too many people; it's definitely going to be the camera
-A commercial video is being shown that shows off some sort of motion sensing controller, it looks pretty darn good but it's basically an ad so who knows how accurate the depiction is
-The video just showed an ability to scan in a skateboard deck and use it in a skateboard game
-A girl just walked in front of the camera and it recognized her face and logged her into her live account
-The girl is checking out dresses with a friend while video chatting now
-A family is playing 1 vs 100 using their hands as buzzers; they're playing against another family in another home
-a couple is navigating the dashboard to find a video using their hands, looks pretty slick

-Mattrick has returned and referred to the camera as "Project Natal"
-He says the only experience you need to play is life experience
-He says the sensor tracks 3D movement and recognizes voices
-Mattrick likes to clap at his own statements
-Natal will work with all existing and future Xbox 360s
-He just invited Steven Spielberg onto the stage, hot darn Microsoft has some star power this year
-Spielberg says they've been asking how videogames can be made as approachable as other mediums of entertainment; most people are too intimidated to pick up a controller
-He says the key was to make the technology invisible
-Spielberg says Natal is similar to the move from square movie screens to cinemascope, and then to Imax
-"What Microsoft is doing isn't about reinventing the wheel, it's about no wheel at all"
-Hopefully this means Boom Blox 360

-Spielberg leaves, the creative director of Project Natal is being trotted out now
-Dude's name is Kudo and he looks like he should be hanging out outside a high school trying out pickup lines, a real slick looking guy
-He's showing off How Natal can control the dashboard and control Avatar movements, it isn't working too well, the Avatar looks like it has bone-itis
-Now he's having a girl show off a game/tech demo called Ricochet, it's pretty impressive
-The player's representation on screen is moving exactly like the girl playing with almost no lag
-Kudo just mentioned referenced "preset waggle commands" like it was something dirty
-Ricochet looks like Arkanoid using your body as the paddle
-Time for another tech demo, it's called Paint Party
-Kudo has the creative director of Microsoft Game Studios working the tech demo
-He's using his movements to throw paint on a canvas and using voice commands to choose the colors, it looks pretty fancy
-He says "pose" and the camera begins showing the outlines of all the people in view of the camera
-Between two people, they manage to make a pretty convincing looking elephant, seems like they've practiced
-He says "cheese and the camera takes a shot and uses it as a stencil to place an elephant in the painting
-"Development kits are heading out to our partners today"
-Kudo leaves and Mattrick is back

-Mattrick swaps with Peter Molyneux who's giving us the business about what interactivity really means
-Molyneux says Lionhead has been working with Natal for a while
-Video Time
-in the video, a woman approaches a TV with a boy on a swing and says "hi Milo"
-The boy comes towards the screen and addresses the woman by name, apparently the camera recognizes her
-The kid, Milo, seems to be responding to what she says and her facial inflections and conversing with the woman
-This is done in enclosed environment, but it looks like the interactions are pretty fluid, it's a bit creepy actually
-The woman is drawing a fish on a piece of paper and holding it in front of the camera, which scanned it in, pretty impressive
-The video ends, Molyneux leaves after a few words

-Mattrick is back, clapping again
-He's wrapping things up now, the word 'watershed' has been thrown around quite a bit in this presentation
-Conference is over

I love Gears of War 2. I play at least once a week online for five hours or more with some friends and aside from Halo 3 I have more fun with Gears 2 that I have had with any other console multiplayer game. This only makes my attempts to play a public match using Gears of War 2 matchmaking more depressing. Gears 2 has been a mess of poor matchmaking and shoddy netcode since it was released in fall 2008, but some recent patches were intended to rectify the issues and slant the matchmaking system more towards the one used in Halo 3.

Earlier this week I attempted to play some public matches hoping the public matchmaking system wasn't the hellhole that it used to be. It placed me in a game with nine players whose minimum level was 47 out of 100. Since the majority of my online Gears of War 2 experience has been in private matches, my level is 3. Taking into account that the private matches don't factor into that score, I felt confident that I would be able to hold my own. Perhaps this would have been true if not for the lag. At one point the game ceased to respond to my input and when I gained control again I found that my death count had risen by three. Needless to say, (but I'll say it anyway), I was frustrated. After the game I checked out the gamercards of the other people in the match and not one of them is located in the same country as me. In fact, the majority of them are located in Mexico, (I'm in Canada).

An experience like that is unacceptable and can ruin a game. A matchmaking system has two purposes: to find other players of comparative skill and to find a game or other players that will yield a decent connection. If the system cannot achieve either of these goals, then creating and finding servers should simply be left in the hands of the players. Anyone, even blind monkey can find or set up a better server than the matchmaking system in Gears of War 2.

I was playing Fable II last night in the bedroom with my wife snoring lightly next to me. My wife's name is Talitha, by the way, which is not a very common name, (it may seem strange for me to reveal her name but that information will be important in a few sentences). On my way back to Bowerstone (the largest town in Fable II) after completing a quest, I was passing the gypsy town where I grew up and decided to stop in for old-time's sake. At the time I hadn't yet indulged in courting any of the wide variety of women Albion has to offer, so on a whim I locked on to the nearest gypsy of the fairer sex and hit her with an irresistably seductive pose. She responded favorably, yet I was dumbfounded. I had just macked on Talitha the Gypsy.

Destiny, coincidence or practical joke? I don't know, but there's only enough room for one Talitha in my life so I put the controller down, gave my wife a hug and fell asleep.

The NXE, (New Xbox Experience), has been out for a month but it already feels old and worn in, (in a good way). As difficult as it is to gauge the success of what amounts to mandatory interface update, there appear to be more positive that negative reactions. I personally prefer the NXE, it runs faster on my Xbox 360 and despite the fact that he looks a bit generic I like my little avatar. It's just too bad that the avatars represent an opportunity that Rare and Microsoft did not take advantage of: integration of avatars into their new games.

Rare was working on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise concurrently with the avatars for the NXE, so I can't help but wonder why they wouldn't have integrated the avatars. From a marketing perspective it couldn't have hurt to advertise that Banjo Kazooie and Viva Pinata 2 support avatars. Sales of Uno and A Kingdom for Keflings were higher than expected and a portion of those sales can be attributed to folks who wanted to see their avatars in-game. Having the avatars supported in these games would also have helped promote the NXE and the Xbox 360; Microsoft needed to show gamers why avatars matter and including them in two big-name games right out of the gate would have helped.

From a consumer's perspective, (mine specifically), it would be a blast to be able to tend my garden in Viva Pinata 2 as my avatar. Since Rare designed the avatars, they are an aesthetic match to Viva Pinata and wouldn't look out of place wandering around in-game. To take it a step further, the folks on the Xbox Live friends list could inhabit the game as shopkeepers or garden workers. In Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts it would obviously not work to be able to play as your avatar through the single player story, but they could still be worked into the game as inspirational statues in the town or as a citizen and in multiplayer there is no reason why players couldn't exist as their avatar.

Microsoft forced me to choose or create an avatar when I booted up the NXE, and now I hope they do something interesting with it. It's just a shame they didn't use Rare's games to that end.

After waiting far too long for Gears of War 2 to be mailed to my home, (props to Future Shop for waiting a full week before starting the shipping process and to the Canadian postal service for not working on Saturdays), I've finally played through the single player campaign. Aside from having an absolute blast, there's something I began to notice around halfway in: Gears of War 2 reminds me a lot of the God of War games.

In terms of level structure the games are quite similar, (especially once you go underground). Gears of War 2 and God of War both create breathtakingly epic environments, but put you on an ultra-linear, almost claustrophobic path through them. Both games utilize super-simple puzzles or minigames from time to time to break up the standard action gameplay. Both games involve rooms full of enemies where the exit will not open or appear until all enemies have been defeated. The civilizations represented in both Gears of War and God of War have a ridiculous fixation with switches and pressure plates.

(SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH) In Gears of War 2 the bosses also seem to draw directly from the God of War school of design. Seriously, taking down Skorge boils down to not aiming, not shooting, not moving, but just PRESS 'B' RAPIDLY. The bosses in the original Gears of War resembled classic FPS bosses, the sort you might see in Doom or Quake where you unload boatloads of ammo until you find a weak point, then unload more boatloads of ammo into the weak point while not dying, (think of RAAM or the corpser). In all honesty, while fighting the Leviathan, (though it was undeniably fun and one of the more graphically stunning enemies to date), I may as well have whipped out my blades of chaos and started yelling "ATHENA!!!!!."

Microsoft's keynote at the Tokyo Game Show has just ended, and with it came several announcements, including at least two major ones:

• Tekken 6 will be released on the Xbox 360. This will be the first time that a Tekken game has arrived on a non-Sony platform (not counting arcade). Release is set for fall 2009.


• The speculation is over regarding Bungie's next Halo project. Halo 3: Recon has been confirmed as a Halo 3 campaign expansion, (a "standalone-expansion" according to xbox.com), where the player plays as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper and will also include new multiplayer maps. Release is set for fall 2009. Check out the new trailer at Bungie's website here.

Other highlights of the Microsoft keynote:

• Last Remnant will premier exclusively on Xbox 360 on Nov 20, 2008.


• Star Ocean: The Last Hope will arrive on Xbox 360 February 19, 2009 in Japan and March 3, 2009 in North America.


• Ninety Nine Nights 2 was announced exclusively for Xbox 360.


• Space Invaders: Extreme, Arkanoid: Live, King of Fighters Ultimate 98, Metal Slug 7 and R-Type all were announced for Xbox Live.


• The "New Xbox Live Experience," (NXE) will launch November 19 2008 globally, (that's the new blades system and avatars, etc.)


• The Flood have been announced as a playable race in Halo Wars, which is set for an "early 2009" release.

When I first played Resident Evil, (the original) I understood why it was termed a "survival/horror" game. I stayed up late many nights with my room illuminated only by the flickering glow of the TV playing that game. I remember not playing with a specific goal in mind other than desperately trying to keep my intrepid characters Chris Redfield and Jill 'master of lockpicking' Valentine from suffering one form of horrific death or another. I also remember being generally scared shitless.

Since Resident Evil, I've played a lot of good, (and bad), survival horror games, but none that motivated me to move forward in the game and play to the best of my ability simply because I was scared to death of dying. Earlier today I watched a video of a boss battle from the upcoming "Dead Space" not only did it turn my stomach but it gave me a sort of gaming version of acid flashbacks where I remembered, very distinctly, why I ran for dear life from zombie-dobermans so many years ago. In watching the boss dispatch the intrepid space engineer, I'm viscerally reminded that maybe I'm not quite as inured to violence as I had thought and that empathy, even for a fictional video game character, can be a hell of a motivation.

Check out the video at GameCinemaHD
CAUTION: this video contains a minor boss battle and some people may consider it as a spoiler, though it doesn't contain any plot points. Also it is extremely violent.

During his most recent gaze into the crystal ball, famed Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has discerned that Xbox 360 sales may rise 20% over last Fall holiday season. In an interview with Gamasutra he states, "with a little help from correct marketing, Xbox 360 sales stand to lift 20 percent in the Fall-Holiday season over the same period last year."

So what information is this latest oracular vision based on?


The $199.99 price of the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU and the continuing supply-constraints of the Wii. As Pachter says:

Meanwhile, Sony corporate communications department employee Julie Han replies:

So how will the so-called "console wars" play out this holiday season? The only way to find out for those of us without crystal balls (not a pun) is the tried and true "wait and see" method.

There has been rampant speculation following the release of the following screenshot taken by the guys at Addict Gaming during PAX.


Not much is known regarding what this Halo 3 "Mythic" screen means, although since then, more screenshots have been taken from PAX of new map-pack related achievements and the the website theorizes on what this "Mythic" thing might be. An expansion to the campaign, perhaps?

While I certainly wouldn't mind more Halo sooner or later, what I really want is a patch or update that lets Halo 3 render at a higher resolution, or some sort of severe antialiasing support. While the textures are sharp and the artistic design is fantastic, if you play on a big TV there are some unpleasant jaggies that make my eyes sad.

1. Limb dismemberment. Even Jedi Knight 2 had it, (and was rated Teen, no less!), so there's no reason why this shouldn't have some good old fashioned severable limbs... and heads and torsos. Seriously, Star Wars has a rich history of dismemberment, (Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul, Jango Fett). Even if the developer or publisher doesn't want to include blood, a lightsaber shouldn't leave people whole.

2. Bodies and Objects that don't disappear within 3 seconds. When I lay waste to an army of stormtroopers, I just don't feel like the badass that I should unless I can wade through the corpses and bits of destroyed tie fighters once I'm the last man standing. Of course there are technical limitations, but having a freshly fallen enemy fade away instantly is jarring when paired with the physical realism that Lucasarts is trying to accomplish with their game engine.

3. Boss battles that don't involve quick time events. I shouldn't have to explain this one. Whatever. Having the climax of the demo take away direct control of the character is a pretty weak decision. Who knew that the weakness of an AT-ST is pressing X, Y, B, Y, A, A in that order. I felt like I was playing a hacking mini-game rather than unleashing my unholy Sith fury on a mechanized engine of destruction.

QTE's worked in Shenmue, (at least I thought so), because they were worked into the overal cinematic nature of the game design. Essentially every game since that has used them did so in a manner that is totally incongruous to the game design and if there is something that really pisses me off it's shoehorning an element into a game when it doesn't belong.


Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is set for a September 16 release on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP.

I've been keeping tabs on Mirror's Edge for some time now with great anticipation. Perhaps it will be as fantastic as it looks, (I hope), or perhaps not. There is on thing that has been nagging me
and I've finally figured it out. As a red-blooded American, (born in Germany and currently living in Canada, but still AMERICAN DANGIT), I've come to the conclusion that Mirror's Edge is subliminally promoting the good 'ol U.S. of A.

Just check out these images and tell me that you don't want to bust out singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

It's the red, white and blue, baby!









Then again, maybe it's supposed to be French... or Russian..... nah.

*Mirror's Edge is set for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2008.

Within the past week, THQ and Volition released a new trailer for their upcoming game: Saint's Row 2. If you haven't seen it, take a look.



Reactions to this trailer have run the gamut, with many being pleased or amused by it, and just as many finding it in bad taste and saying things like "how f***ing dare they," "too over the top," and "unusually pompous."

Honestly, I'm in the group of folks who are pleased. I can't say that I don't enjoy Grand Theft Auto IV, it's an extremely solid game with boatloads of replay value that is helping to push games forward cinematically. Unfortunately it just takes itself too bloody seriously and that seriousness not only raises the standards to a level it can't quite hold on to, but it also causes the game to lose the over-the-top, lighthearted while gritty sense of humor that we've come to expect from Rockstar's big moneymaking franchise. The sense of go anywhere and do anything that was the hallmark of the three dimensional GTA games is also stripped down and GTA IV often left me feeling like options had been taken away rather than added.

With Saint's Row 2, it seems that Volition has made the true spiritual successor to GTA: San Andreas. Based on this new trailer it looks like I will be bombarded with options, and not just gimmick mini-games. I really could care less about going to a cabaret, bowling or playing darts, Shenmue already did mini-games like that and it wasn't fun then either, (though Shenmue on the whole was fantastic). I would rather car surf, or rob a liquor store as a cop, or hell, even just fly a freaking plane, I flew one in the last GTA, in fact I had a variety of planes to choose from. What the hell happened?

No matter how many arguments I hear about Saint's Row ripping off Grand Theft Auto or how this advertisement just appeals to the lowest common denominator, I will have to disagree. It illustrates how Saint's Row 2 will actually give you options, it will give you choice. That's something that even critically acclaimed artistic masterpieces like Bioshock and Mass Effect are trying to figure out. Games like GTA 3 and Saint's Row already have it figured out and Saint's Row 2 looks to expand upon it; don't give me a simple black and white decision to make, give me a whole city where I can do what I want and achieve my goals how I want, that is choice. Spraying sewage on civilians with a stolen septic truck if that's what I choose to do is choice, and that advertisement is sheer genius, (with just a bit of low-brow stupidity mixed in).

The darndest thing happened just a few minutes ago. After arriving home from a 14 hour workday, I turned on my Xbox 360 and popped in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, looking forward to an hour or so of unwinding before heading to bed with a book. Apparently an update had been released so I let the game download the update and restart which took all of 45 seconds and when the game reached the menu screen I was greeted with a surprise.

"Achievement Unlocked: Private First Class"

Now, unless my Xbox has taken to playing with itself when I'm not around, (I always knew it was a dirty machine), there's really no logical explanation for receiving an achievement upon loading the menu screen. What's far more bizarre is the fact that I am far, FAR past the rank of Private. In fact, on my achievement list for R6: Vegas, the date listed for the Officer achievement is 4/14/2008 and date for the Private First Class achievement is 4/23/2008, (screenshot coming tomorrow). In case you don't understand that paradox let me explain; in order to reach Officer status, you must pass through the rank of Private first. Essentially what I have done is equivalent to being thirty years old and at my next birthday instead of turning thirty-one, I turn five.

Has anyone else had issues similar to this?

I downloaded the Iron Man demo yesterday on Xbox Live and was looking forward to smiting evil with the righteous metallic fury of The Golden Avenger. I would love to tell you if it were any good, but unfortunately, I can't! It seems I'm going to be screwed out of yet another anticipated game due to a lack of control options.

Arguably, the control setup I use for first and third person shooters is a bit outlandish. I play with the analog sticks reversed, (which is known as southpaw), but the L and R triggers are not switched, (the R trigger still fires the gun). Then, just to add to the chaos I invert the Y-axis.



The question that I am inevitably asked is why would I use such a control scheme, especially if I am not even left-handed? It comes from being an early adopter of the FPS genre on consoles. I used to play the Turok series on the N64 and Quake 3 on the Dreamcast and you may not recall, but in those games the analog stick on the left side of the controller controlled the look function and the face buttons on the right side of the controller controlled movement. The right trigger was always employed as the gun trigger. Even when I played Goldeneye I customized my controls to play like Turok, (If Goldeneye could get customizable controls right, modern games have no excuse) and I whipped all my friends mercilessly with my super-advanced PC style controls where I could look up and down and move side to side while they were stuck in the Stone Age moving and turning all with just the joystick.

If you ever played the Turok series on the Nintendo 64, this should be very familiar to you.









And if you ever played Half-Life, Quake 3 or Unreal tournament on the Dreamcast...












Some games make an attempt to offer customizable controls but just can't manage to do it competently. I had to pass up GRAW 2 and Turning Point, (not losing sleep over that one), because even though I had read that southpaw was supported, when I loaded the games I found that the option to reverse the analog sticks was not indepentant of the option to reverse the L and R trigger. When I tried switching the analog sticks, I was forced to fire my weapon using the L-trigger. It would have only taken that one last tiny step and the game would have become playable for me.

Other games don't offer ANY customizability; I returned EDF 2017 out of sheer frustration and never bothered purchasing or renting Army of Two or Blacksite: Area 51. I only forced my way through Bioshock and Mass effect with backwards controls because the games were so amazing, (and required a bit less twitchy precision gameplay than the average shooter), that they were worth the aggravation and confusion.

While not including customizable controls is the fault of the game developers, I also take issue with most game reviewers. Part of the job of a game reviewer is to include positive and negative aspects of a game in their reviews. Still, rarely do I ever see mention in any major game publication or website of control options or lack thereof. In a game like Army of two, which does not support any real way of changing up the control scheme, it will, (and has), alienated many gamers and for that reason it should be mentioned in any legitimate, respectable review.

I know that not many people use the particular control style that I use, but there are a lot of people who would like to change the controls from the game developer's personal preference and it takes very little time and effort to implement customizable controls. Fully customizable controls need to become the standard in all shooter and action games and game reviewers need to start including control schemes or customizability in reviews.