Prepare to be owned by a parakeet

Oh great, just when I had come to grips with the fact that I'm doomed to being murdered at Call Of Duty 4 by 8 year olds, Now i have to deal with THIS SHIT.



If someone teaches their pet chimp to beat me at UNO, I'm fuckin OUT.

Brother N

Rock Band 2. Heavy Metal indeed.

The new Rock Band 2 opening cinematic.

That's right. That's a spiked ball and chain attached to the microphone. Metal as fuck! Apart from that, its pretty similar to the last one, which is fine by me as the last one was awesome also.

I wonder if that will come out as a 3rd party add on................ if the game ever fucking gets here.

Mr Metal

PS: Shitty video, I know. Its the best I could do. I'll pop up a better one when its made available.

Nathan gets a PS3: Initial impressions

That's it! I caught every console pokemon of generation now.

The latest and last edition, the big-black-George Foreman grill-tanning bed PS3. Why now? Uhhhhh.....I don't really now. With the release of the new 80 gigger w/dual shock and the fact I just busted open my piggy bank (no, really) sent me over the edge. But my first few hours gave me that old familar twang of buyers remorse.

Buying no games really didn't help this. I had no Metal Gears to get all swept away with.

So I decide to set the thing up, download a bunch of demos and just get a feel for it. But of course it needs to update. No problem. It takes 45 slow minutes. Ok ok....no problem. Once I'm logged in, it's on to the Playstation Store to grab some of the PS3 goods I have missed.

A little while ago, I remember people being happy that the PS store had been redesigned. WHAT THE FUCK WAS IT LIKE BEFORE, because the one they have now is a fucking DOG to navigate. It's easy enough to move around in, but finding stuff is a real pain in the arse.

It segmented into really specific categories like 'platformers or 'racing games that include, but are not limited to, a red car'. When you find something you actually want you must do the following: Select the thing you want, then in a new page hit Download, then in a new list form hit download again, THEN ask the playstation if would be ok to dowload it in the background. ...WHY THE FUCK WOULDN'T I WANT TO DOWNLOAD IT IN THE BACKGROUND?? No, no, let me stare at the bar for a while! WOO! What an epic bar!! WEEE!! 3 percent! IT'S A PARTY!

Just when it seemed extemely grim....I saw a beakon in the form of an icon with a stupid button eyed grin...

LittleBigPlanet.

I literally said out loud "Oh yeah!....I can play LittleBig on this thing! Sweet!"

And all my anger was gone.

October 30 please.


-Brother N

LTTP: Facebook

Have you seen this thing?? It's amazing. You make a profile, and dudes, wait for it, THAT YOU KNOW, can talk to you and junk! It's like some kind of......'social network'...Wow, thats deep...Ima patent that.

ANYWAY, go here if you want to show some facebook support.


-Brother N-

How can you say no to a flying tank?

Both myself and Brother N have been pretty excited about this game, and with each news article and gameplay video it has failed to disappoint. This is a "day one" title so we will give our impressions as soon as it hits store shelves here in OZ, which is real soon.

Heres the latest offering, displaying the VERY fun looking CO-OP mode.

Flying Tank anyone?

Mr Metal

Fable II Pub Games: Broken or Devious?

So news broke a few days ago about Fable II pub games being incredibly easily cheated in order to accrue an obscene amount of gold for use in game.

Giant Bomb bought up an interesting point in their latest podcast about the possibility that it was a deliberate ploy from Lionhead; Pay $10 or preorder, Get free money.

I have another possibility.

What's a new feature being pimped for Fable II? Purity VS Corruption. See where I'm going with this?

Could it be that Lionhead left an easy exploit in their game to see who could be corrupted by the temptation of free money?

I am betting yes. Time will tell.

So will you be starting Fable II a penniless innocent or a rich dude with a big set of fucking horns?

Update: I guess not. It was a nice theory....

-Brother N-

Consequence and gaming: The fall of the reset button

This wonderful little post from Mister Xbox aka Larry Hyrb aka Major Nelson details his wife racking up a nice little debt for him to look forward to in the upcoming Fable 2. You see, money you earn in Fable II Pub Games tranfers to money you can spend in the upcoming game. As does debt. While this is funny and cute, it brings up some interesting issues to do with consequence in gaming.

Knowing that my own poor luck could lead to a more difficult gaming experience, I am actually quite hesitant to play Pub Games. I aint no gambler. So I am literally turned off a game, that by all intended purposes should be encouraging me to play.

Here are some other games that have used effective and innovative means of implying conseqence;

Animal Crossing
Man, this one was a BITCH. There was a lot of random in this game (ignoring the batshit insane babble the characters would spout) and if you got a shitty deal, you're stuck with it. If you dare to switch off the game without saving, you will be verbally pummeled for damn near 10 real world minutes by the infamous 'Mr Resetti" the next time you load the game.

Grand Theft Auto 4 *SPOILERS ABOUND!*

A good chunk into the story you are offered a choice to off either the douchie Playboy X or the sad sack Dwayne. If you choose Dwayne, you are in for a rude shock, as you are treated to a brutally cold execution, an AMAZINGLY infuriating phone call from Playboy X and you lose the chance to own a sweet safe house that will never again be offered to you.

Mass Effect
Spare/Wipe out a particular species and you may erase a whole string of missions . Not to mention the typical Bioware Good cop/bad cop/indifferent cop approach to extracting information from NPCs. You want the right answers? Then watch your mouth!

Those are the first few that spring to mind that are actually able to wrap your knuckles in an effective way. So what do you prefer?

Do real consequences alter the way you play?

Hit the comments with more examples.

-Brother N-

The Empire stikes.... San Francisco?

Stumbled across this in my feeds today. Watch and enjoy.


Kinda eerie to watch, right? But also 20 types of awesome.

Mr Metal

Batman: Arkham Asylum, Please be good (Or why I love The Chronicles of Riddick)

Have you seen this yet?

My goodness. You cant deny the fact that, from what little we have seen so far, Batman: Arkham Asylum is looking HOT! Check out that Joker! Very evil. Very awesome. (Although all Jokers now pale in comparison to Heath ledger's amazing interpretation. RIP.) Batman is also looking dark and gritty, as he should be. Did anyone notice the screen of a holding cell with the question marks scribbled on the walls? The Riddler to appear maybe?

It looks to be drawing some heavy visual influence from The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. A sign of gameplay to come also? Who knows. Its waaaaay to early to tell. If you haven't played it (shame on you if you have not) Riddick blended FPS, third person action and stealth elements into a VERY shiny package for the Xbox and PC. I'm serious when I say shiny. Bump mapped to the nines! I loved that game, it was one of my faves from the last generation. So I for one would not complain if we were given a next gen re-skinned Batman'd version.

SO why I am I getting myself ready for disappointment? Am I becoming the pessimist I always said I would never become? Or am I just shielding myself from heartbreak?

Eidos, please hold me and tell me everything is going to be alright...........

Mr Metal

A Mr Metal appears!

First off, let me give you a little taste of who I am/what I do/what I like/why I do. Just so you can see what it tastes like.

I'm a 28 year old male, living in country Victoria. In this relatively small town I am lucky enough to have a job in Music Retail/Teaching which I enjoy 98.6% of the time. That's right. I'm one of those annoying bastards you have heard of who is "working" in his dream job. I sing, play guitar, drums, bass and I record my own original material. (fuck, I'm a superstar! *thumbs down*)

What I'm trying to say without sounding too much like a wanker is that music is my life. All music. Playing, listening, whatever. I love it all and Ill do it till I cant no more.

Along with Music, like Brother N, I have a mad passion for Games. Like pretty much ALL games, as you will soon find out. I'm generally not very picky for some reason. Not sure why. I guess there's alot of stuff out there, I just wanna make sure I don't miss any of it. Obviously if a game is shit, I wont keep playing it but If I think something is shit, its probably UTTER TRASH! Like vomit out your eyes bad. *note to Brother N: A possible rank in our rating system?*

I don't have a preference on game genre, I keep it very broad. Just like music. If you really love it, you shouldn't shackell yourself to one style/genre. Like dudes who listen to JUST METAL, or play nothing but FPSs. that would drive me fucking batty! Not to mention that it would burn me out on that particular thing. Dont get me wrong, I love both Metal and FPSs, but I also love modern folk and puzzle games. You can get so much from stuff that you wouldn't normally look at/listen to. If your one of those guys, give it a go. Thank me later :)

Like any good nerd I also love cinema/dvd/tech/toys with a sprinkling of TV and comics. Most recently though (in the last 18 months) I have become a MAD Hi Def enthusiast. I even bought a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive..................... AT FULL PRICE! Mind you, this was about 6 months before the format war ending in favor of Blu Ray but I think that shows the kind of nerd I am. Hasty and not very smart. I also own a PS3 so I have my fingers in both Hi Def pies. Ewwww, sticky.

So Gaming. Why?

Oddly enough, gaming has always felt like a very social thing to me. "Mr Metal, gaming isn't a very socialble activity" I hear you say. Mainly because I'm sitting in the tree across from your house, spying on you as you read this.

I have always related playing games with hanging out with my favorite people. They seem to go hand in hand for me. From my earliest days of sharing turns on Super Mario Bros. on the NES with my sisters, to PC LAN events with mates, The Almightly Hammer game on Xbox Live, to most recently curling up on the couch with my lovely wife while I play Braid. And if I'm not playing with friends, I'm talking with my friends about my experiences of current/past games to expectations of future releases.

One of many reasons, but its the one reason that's resonated in me for as long as I can remember.

So there's a brief rundown of me. I look forward to sharing my news/views/general shit with you guys. Stay tuned :)

ALSO If you are on Xbox Live, look for my gamertag Mr Metal. Then stay tuned for a Halo 3 game invite.

I hope you like being hit with a gigantic hammer.........................

VIVA effing PIÑATA!

Ok so it's no secret, I love me some Viva Piñata. Many people think I'm taking the piss when I say that, but I am really, really not. Check the card. I'm about 20 game days off the 50 hour achievement.

So it fills me with man-glee to see that Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise is released in a matter of weeks. So what's new? CO OP! This fantastic addition sees me with the ability to guilt fools into helping me create a master race of Quackberries.

Case in point.

Let's take a look at some communiqué between myself and the soon to be contributor, Mr Metal.

In response to a shared article about Coop being announced for VP: TIP

Brother N: JOY!! Community garden everyone!
Mr Metal: Does this mean I HAVE to buy it now?
Brother N: STARES AT HIS COPY OF HA-FUCKING-LO 3. YES. Yes it pissing well does.
Mr Metal: Touche. Well played, Sir.

END SCENE

Good times.

-Brother N-

Braid = My head asplode.

Click to paper your walls

Well, this one sure snuck up on me. Of the two download only titles coming out this week(that I care about), I thought I was going to love Pixeljunk Eden. I played it, its neat and looks unique.
To be honest, from the small amount of Braid I'd seen, I wasn't that pumped. It looked a bit style over substance.

How wrong I was.

I'm not even going to go into the mechanics of the game, because I want everybody to go into it as cold as I did. The less you know the better. The one thing I will say is that I get a very 'Portal' feeling from it.

That makes me feel very good.


-Brother N-

BREAKING NEWS: FEMINISTS ANGRY AT SOMETHING

1up.com is reporting on several Feminist bloggers who are upset with the new PSN title, Fat Princess. What's amusing to me about this isn't the completely predictable angry response, it's that there is a variable cornucopia of far worse female stereotypes present in games.

Case in point, Princess flipping Peach. Dumber than 10 bags of extra dumb hammers and easier to catch than herpes in St Kilda. Someone enjoying pastries is insulting but this shit is ok?

On that point, why the hell aren't I pissed off at the Gears of War team for portraying guys as neckless testicles in armour? We aren't all brave and massive you know! Some of us are lame!

This quote is perfect: "I'm positively thrilled to see such unyielding dedication to creating a new generation of fat-hating, heteronormative assholes"

Yeah, this is what's creating fat hatred. Aren't they fighting and dying to PROTECT her? It's not like they are fattening her up, loading her into a trebuchet and hurling her at the opposing castle.

That will come later as DLC.

-Brother N-