The Random Robo Profile

Blancspot: The Art of News uses music and imagery to spread information

2011-01-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

There are tons of apps for iOS devices that try to change the way users receive news. Blancspot: The Art of News tailors to the crowed who enjoys imagery and ambiance.

Upon opening the app users are introduced to the numerous styles that Blancspot creates with its hip music that changes with the topics. Sports, top headlines and the other sections each have their own tunes that fit. The songs can also be bought over iTunes.

Images scroll along the screen with the music. The images are coupled with short headlines at the bottom. Clicking on the image or headline will take you straight to the article.

Blancspot also allows users to share articles with their Facebook and Twitter friends and through E-mail. It also allows users to add other Blancspot users to their friend lists.

Blancspot is a unique app that adds a different way news is shared through iOS devices. It is available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices.

Have iPod, will update!

2011-01-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

This post is written with my iPod Touch. I will have to use it a lot to post because I have less opportunities to use my laptop now that my home does not have Wi-Fi.

Just wanted to put something else up besides the one post I wrote earlier. At least I have Starbucks.

2011-01-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

It is the beginning of 2011 and the start of new years resolutions. My uncle just quit smoking. My aunt is on a diet. I am starting my freelance career. We all have something we want to throw in the trash. A bad habit.

According to Adam Dachis' article on Lifehacker, "How to Break Bad Habits," my uncle's smoking is not a habit, but a substance abuse problem and is different from a regular habit such as biting nails.

"Bad habits are little things that you can fix with a few tricks. Obsessive behavior and substance addiction requires a bit more work, so make sure you concentrate on those issues separately and don't try to break them as easily as you might be able to with a simple habit," says Dachis.

Dachis gives some suggestions on how to identify when you have a bad habit and how to overcome it.

Do you have a new years resolution that involves kicking a bad habit? Check out the article on Lifehacker.

Turn Your iPod Touch, iPhone or Mac Into An Alarm Clock With Apps

2011-01-03T17:29:00.000-08:00

Photo provided by Cuba Gallery on Flickr

Now that I have an iPod Touch, I use it for a lot of daily tasks. That includes waking up and falling asleep. I use the native alarm app included with the iPod Touch, but it just does not cut it for me. The Unofficial Apple Blog highlighted a few applications that serve to turn your iOS device and Mac into an alarm clock.

Check out the list of apps at the link above.

No Experience? No Problem!

2011-01-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

I have no actual work experience. I have yet to be in the workforce and that scares me. Every time I get a job application I think what will this employer think of me without any past work experience. Will he even think of giving me an interview? Lifehacker's Adam Dachis gives a couple of tips for those of us who are missing that experience.

"Past jobs have always helped inform my choices at future jobs, and none of the experience was ever useless. If you have experience in something, that may be all you need," says Dachis.

He suggests getting the experience you want or need by just getting out into the world and getting it. He says if web designing is what you want to do, make a few mock Web sites. Want to be a writer? Whip up some posts on a blog. There tons of blogging services like Blogger or Tumblr to start.

If you are like me and have no work experience, just do what you love and eventually you'll get all the experience you need to get your dream job.

Study Proves Wearing Glasses During Interviews Can Help

2011-01-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

It is common knowledge that being well prepared and dressed for an interview will help you get the position you want. Grab a your nicest pair of pants, button-up and glasses. Yes, I said glasses.

According to a new study, a third of adults believe that people who sport bifocals appear more professional. 43 percent believe they seem more intelligent.

The next time you land an interview wear a pair of glasses, real or fake, to better your chances.

I got an iPod Touch!

2011-01-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

Photo provided by onlygizmos.com

2010 was one of the worst years of my life. College sucked. My love life sucked. A lot of things sucked. But, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I got the one item I desired. An iPod Touch.

I bought the latest model, the one with the camera. It is the 8 GB model. I wanted the 32 GB model, but I could not afford it at the time. I could have just saved long enough to buy it, but I did not feel like waiting any longer. I needed the new companion like bread needs butter.

I have most of what I wanted this Christmas. I did not expect much. I believed I would just spend it with my family, get drunk and have a jolly good time with the faces I grew up with. I was right.

Have a happy new year everybody!

I'm about to get into a Paranormal State

2010-12-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

Ryan Buell on the cover of his book, "Paranormal State."

My friend gave me my birthday and Christmas gift today. A copy of "Paranormal State," written by Ryan Buell and Stefan Petrucha. I fucking love the show!

Ryan is a guy I admire. He does what needs to be done and puts everyone before himself to help the clients featured on the A&E-hosted show of the same name. He also has strong beliefs in his personal views, which he does not hide.

I am only in the first few pages of the forward, but it sounds interesting from the start. It leads with Michelle Belanger, auther of "The Ghost Hunter's Survival Guide," meeting Ryan for the first time at UNIV-CON, a paranormal convention.

Hopefully, I will finish this book by the end of the month and I've a better impression, but I'm excited and I have only just begun.

Escapism Through Video Games and Why We Want To Lose Ourselves In Them

2010-12-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of daniellewilmer on Flickr

Ever had the urge to escape your life? To leave what you know behind and enter someone else’s reality? Maybe you lost your job, perhaps your significant other left you, or you have a class that takes you to a new reality. You need that moment where you can just forget the world around you ever existed and enter someplace fantasy and different. Video games give us that means of transportation from reality to a place we can control, if for only a couple of hours.

Video games are a form of modern day entertainment. Without them, we lose something very vital to everybody’s existence: a gateway outside of ourselves. We lose a sense of immersion that keeps us going to work or class every day. Video games allow gamers to see into new insights on current topics by playing through the stories of totally different people; people that we will never become, but admire none the less. Video games allow gamers to experience new and exciting things that they would not dare to do themselves because there is an underlying fear that we have everything to lose by doing so. Games allow us to not be ourselves. To leave everything we worry about behind for bursts of hours or minutes.

Mass Effect, a role-playing action video game from developers Bioware, was a title that gave us the opportunity to not only be ourselves, but to amplify the people we want to be. Gamers take the role as Commander Shepard. Commander Shepard becomes a part of us. Shepard can be a man or woman, black or white. He is what we create. He is either an extension of us or the polar opposite. Playing Shepard gives us the journey of a life time as we become a hero and a seasoned individual. Gamers can choose to be evil, good, or neutral. Shepard lets us take on the persona of someone we always wanted to be deep inside. A person without a purpose; a person who does what he wants and aims to do what is right or wrong. The Mass Effect series ties together not only that benefit of being someone else for a change, it also gives us perspective on our actions we have, both in game and in reality. When playing Mass Effect, Shepard takes on assignments for people who he does not need to help, but he can choose to. These missions give not only experience points and credits, but the option to make decisions. These decisions signify your character and who you are. Shepard can kill a criminal or introduce him to the law enforcement and talk him out of his evil ways. There is free reign for what choices you can make and what experiences the player has. The viewpoints Shepard can experience are based on who you are or not as a person. You can see how criminals, government, and law enforcement work in a fictional situation. Shepard can have in-depth conversations with characters in the game that feel real and spooky. They give feedback people in the real world would give and they have beliefs and situations that you actually care about and can affect. The consequences of Mass Effect pour into Mass Effect 2 and that is where it really dawns on you that you have become this person and you have made decisions that count. If you spare the life of a crime boss and talk her into stopping the gang violence, she will become a social worker and help others get on new feet like she did.

The Sims is not as action packed as the Mass Effect series, but it still has the same qualities that allow gamers to steal themselves out of the normal and into a new life with new focuses and responsibilities. The Sims allows gamers to create a complex character from the start. You can change every aspect of your character’s life from their facial features to their career. You control what they do and when they do it. Gamers can escape the world where there is little to no control and invite themselves into a reality that they have all the power. They can have all the things they want come their way with the push of a button and without consequence. The thing that makes people come back to The Sims is that the molding players can do in the game can be addicting and fun. The Sims gives so much control and an environment that can be anything you dream, whether it is close to yours or not.

“Video games are real and reality, sometimes, is like a video game,” says Kurt Reymers, associate professor of humanities and social science at Morrisville State College. He uses video games as a way to interact with his students in an intuitive way in his Cyber Culture class. He understands the benefits people gain from playing video games and releasing themselves into them. “I think today, people see the virtual worlds as more as an idealized version of reality where you can be who you want and do what you want,” says Reymers. He believes that is what America wants: the freedom to do anything. He states the urge for freedom has slipped into all parts of society whether it is from a book, in a movie, or a video game. “People can meet out their ideal behavior; their ideal life,” said Reymers. He glorifies the idea that a lot of us want to “be the hero.” To him, the structure of video games is a part of what drives gamers to continue playing until they climb a social ladder, one step at a time, until they beat the game and come back to themselves and have a sense of success. Control is another big factor that makes gamers seek video games. “We seek to have control over that which we can and in many cases, the obstacles that are presented as a result of one’s social status, economic situation, troubles of life that people experience and don’t have control over can be soothed with that escape,” says Reymers. He compares video games to drugs. Both give the user an escape from their reality and brought into a “drug consciousness.” He says both also change the user’s perspective and awareness of reality. The users become unaware of the things around them. They are escaping into their own minds and stimulated by the flavors presented on the television screen or in the drugs. He notes that people can get so addicted to the virtual world that they don’t keep themselves healthy and in rare cases, have died from not keeping themselves away from the escape. He says that there is a form of ecstasy when playing in a virtual world that makes gamers so immersed in the world they are playing in. “You are embodying yourself into that avatar on the screen…you can, in some cases, fool yourself into being that avatar,” says Reymers. He brings up the idea that we play games in order to “play with identity.” We play to challenge our political and social views. He states some people can have some confusion when identifying themselves from their characters. He says we sometimes take on the role we play rather than going back to who we really are. Reymers recalls a story he read about a woman who got into a car crash and lost both of her legs. She took interest in a video game that allowed her to portray herself as who she was or who she is now. She chose to have no legs in the game and be herself. She ended up having an online romantic relationship with someone who accepted her for her. He told me he believes that video games can be therapeutic and another reason why people retreat into virtual worlds in order to get over their real world. Reymers states that video games are more appealing to some people rather than television or books and other forms of entertainment because of the social and story aspect, for single-player titles, that is integrated into video games. He believes that America tends to find and integrate new ways of adding to the social side of gaming and how we meet people in multiplayer video games. Reymers believes that everyone has a “core self” inside of every one of us that we cannot run away from or change. It is a part of every character we create to mimic ourselves. “I like the idea of a core identity referring more to the identity that we develop through that process and growing up, even though that’s not necessarily natural. In the past, there was the idea we have an n essential nature,” says Reymers. He goes on to referring to religion and how that “essential self” is the identity given to us by God, but disclaims that the belief has disintegrated over the years and now evolved to what we stated earlier about the “core self.” He says we can lose the core self. “You can lose that and one great way to lose that is not spend much time with yourself,” said Reymers. He says that going too in depth with the virtual world can lead to you losing yourself, even if the only reason you wanted to play was to escape; you become more of a prisoner to who you want to be and lose who you are as a person.

Reymers gave some good points about escapism and why we run towards video games when we want to get away from our daily tasks. Mass Effect and The Sims provide great examples of games that provide a sense of immersion that developers want and a way to escape and gain control for gamers. We all want a way to shed a new light on our lives. We are not special, but we want to be and a video game is the key we’re looking for to unlock who we really want to be.

Social Networking Gets Educational With Edmodo

2010-12-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

My university uses Blackboard to keep the students and teachers connected. It does a pretty good job for what it does, but it does not invite communication between teachers and students. Edmodo seems to change that by mixing in social networking with education.

Edmodo allows students to interact with each other as they would with their friends and family on Facebook and Twitter. You just create a free account and the magic happens. Teachers can create groups where students can message them and get class materials.

It also works the other way around. Teachers can find useful items to enhance their classes and also interact with other teachers on the network.

To sign up is free, all you need is a group code from your teacher and you will be on your way to a new form of education.

Tools I Use: Screenshot Apps

2010-11-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

For all the blogging and posting I do online, I often need a photo that I can't take with a camera. I may need a picture of some software running on my computer for a tutorial or for a blog post like this. Here is a list of the ones I use when I need a screenshot.

Awesome Screenshot

Ever needed not only a screenshot, but an annotated screenshot? Awesome Screenshot lets you not only take screenshots of a selected portion of your Web page, the visible part of it, or even the whole page, but allows you to write and draw on it. Say you want to point out something within the image, just create a pointer or a shape to highlight something of interest. You can event place text.

Download Awesome Screenshot is currently available as a browser extension for Google Chrome and Safari. Firefox should receive a version in the near future.

LightShot

Need something that gets the job done? LightShot does the trick and fairly well. You just select the portion of the screen you want as a screenshot and that's it. You have the option to upload it online, save it or edit it. If you choose to edit it, LightShot takes you to its custom online photo editor so you can make your edits and be on your way.

LightShot is available as a Firefox add-on, Chrome extension, Internet Explorer add-on, and desktop application and you can download it here.

Screenpresso

A favorite app of mine because it works so well at what it does. You can create shortcuts for on the fly screenshots. Don't want to install it? You can use Screenpresso right the minute it finishes downloading, no install required. The need to save shots onto your hard drive is nonexistant with Screenpresso; it has its own memory bank to story your screenshot history. Email, edit, and share your screenshots with your friends, family, and co-workers.

Download Screenpresso and give it a try.

Robo Review: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

2010-10-25T19:03:00.000-07:00

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a unique title in the Castlevania series. It is different because it has all the things that made Castlevania titles the classics they are today, but does not entirely play itself out as a part of the series.

The game includes old elements, like numerous weapons that can hack your enemies and integrate with the world around you, intriguing puzzles that are rewarding, and deep characters that could hold a place in your library of interesting people. Also, I forgot to mention there are ferocious demons waiting for you in every damn section waiting to rip heroes apart.

The story in this game is actually told in a very fluid way and the voice acting is pretty good to say the least. Patrick Stewart lends his vocals to the story as the narrator and friend of Gabriel, the hero of the story. Really, who wouldn’t want to spend three minutes listening to the gripping tales between every level told by the enchanting Patrick Stewart? Nobody. The classic battle of light vs. darkness is slurred as things are not always as they seem. The game also focuses towards the tragic take on love as Gabriel looks for the killer of his beloved wife and childhood sweet-heart, Marie. While also completing the dangerous task of killing all three of the retched Lords of Shadow before they decay the world even more than they’ve already done. For the technical people, like myself, who want to keep track of how many levels they are going through, there are ten chapters with sub-chapters within each. The game is two disks long and it has to be said, this game takes time and patience to master, even on the easiest difficulty.

The combat is reminiscent of God of War and Shadow of the Colossus, but unlike the story, the game play outside of hacking and slashing foes, has a pace I could not keep up with. As with most of the Castlevania games, Gabriele starts off with a special whip contained within a large crucifix. It can be upgraded to suit a new fighting style or help advance within the story. Combos can be bought and upgraded by points earned either from completing different puzzles or finishing a chapter and sub-chapter. Just hitting the close and range attack buttons are not going to get you anywhere though; combining the shadow and light magic earned early within the game add to the formula and the fun. With the light magic, Gabriele can attack foes and gain health back at the same time. Where as the shadow magic increases attack damage and has its own unique combos. Other tools for beating demons and other mystical creatures to death can be found throughout the game, after or before defeating a special boss at the end of each level.

A majority of the game relies on quick button presses, which I frown upon seeing it as a lazy part of the development. But there are other bosses who are quite unique, they are known as the Titans. These titans and other large creatures add some change to the dynamics of bosses in this game, because you need to find a way onto them and hitting their weakest points without falling off. It adds a sense of vertigo and space when fighting them, because of their enormous size and power. Gabriele can also mount beasts he defeats within the game. They can be used as weapons or used to platform to places Gabriele cannot normally reach.

The platforming, puzzle-solving and adventuring aspect of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow are quite fun, but a bit linear and fast-paced. When roaming around the world hunting down mighty demons, Gabriele tends to move at a very fast pace. Stopping, actually felt like I was breaking the flow of the game, but at the same time it gave me a chance to look at the beautiful scenery and find all the collectibles.

The collectibles range from health and magic upgrades to scrolls held by dead soldiers. These scrolls, give some small side story as to who these deceased warriors were and why their bodies lie lifeless in the world. They also give hints as to other collectibles and are something fun to read, even if they are not as well written as witty poetry. The puzzles are quite clever, but nothing gamers haven’t already seen before. They can be as simple as a fetch quest, to the more complex ones like reflecting a stream of magical light to the several mirrors in order for it to hit the right target and get Gabriele on his way. The scrolls held by dead soldiers can also hold hints towards these puzzles, but at the cost of losing experience earned from completing the puzzles on your own.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadows sets itself apart from the rest of the Castlevania series by giving gamers fresh characters with a good, well-told story and exciting, finger-twitching combat. The puzzles are well thought out, the adventuring is fun, and the scenery is beautiful if you stop to take a gander. LoS is an engaging experience and one truly worth investing in. If not for the moments, then do it for Patrick Stewart.

Robo Review: Halo Reach

2010-09-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Halo: Reach is, by far, the best Halo experience to have been released on the Xbox platform. Halo reach is a top nominee for game of the year with seriously beefed up graphics, great first person game play, and a story which has some serious emotional weight to it.

Bungie created a whole universe with Halo: Halo Reach adds to the story with a view of what went down before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. It tells the tale of Noble Team and their struggle to save humanity from the gloom of the Covenant, an evil race of aliens bent on wiping humans from the face of the galaxy. It’s not a spoiler to say that this game is a prequel. And most people who read the Halo novels know that Noble Team does not succeed in their mission and Reach is lost forever. Still, it is a quality story and something that should be examined. How Noble Team, the last few of the super-soldiers known as Spartans, lost the fight to the covenant and how the infamous Master Chief’s tale began.

The campaign is as you’d expect from a Halo game. On easy, you’ll be blasting the hell out of Covenant scum for 10 missions. On legendary, you’d be wishing you never held that controller you almost slammed on the floor. The difficulty doesn’t let down for anything, and on harder difficulties, the enemies seem almost psychic as to your whereabouts.

The difficulty may be the same, but some of the new features may be exactly what Halo fans have been wanting. There are now assassinations. Instead of a regular one hit assassinations to the back of the head, if the player holds the melee button long enough behind an opponent, an assassination that takes about a few seconds happens. You can’t move during the motion, but it one cool way to catch enemies off-guard. This feature is available to Spartans and the Covenant during multiplayer.

There also small tweaks to the game like switching different bullet types on certain weapons like the brand new Saber, which is a very different flying vehicle we haven’t seen in a Halo game yet, but it’s only available for one short level, which is really saddening seeing as it is one of the most fun levels in the game. All the levels in the game are places where you’d want to be, not like Halo 3 or Halo 2 where some levels just went on for way too long.

The biggest change to Halo: Reach is that you are not Master Chief. Instead, you play as Noble 6, the newest recruit to the Noble Team. He can be customized to the players liking, from armor variations, color, emblems and even gender. Master Chief was a one-liner spitting, bad-ass soldier of few words. Noble 6 is a Spartan trained to kill, but also trained to follow orders and get the job done.

Halo multiplayer has also stayed the same, with a few new modes and tweaks. The new invasion mode has Spartans vs. Elites in a battle for protect and destroy. Forge mode, the map creation tool integrated into Halo 3 has been beefed up to allow new maps to be created for custom multiplayer mayhem. Co-Op has stayed in for the campaign and a future update will allow for more options in that area including online Co-Op.

Firefight mode from Halo: ODST has been added to the mix and has become exactly what it should have been. It has many more levels to play on and enough customization to leave players shooting unlimited rounds from a rocket launcher for hours or playing for an unlimited amount of time seeing who can kill the most covenant.

Halo: Reach may be one of the last Halo games Bungie will make, and even if that may be as sad as the knowledge that the story ends on a rough note, it is still one of the most enjoyable experience Bungie has ever pushed out.

2010-09-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

My collection of Pokémon cards.

My Nintendo DS Lite is Dead

2010-09-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

I found out today my Nintendo DS Lite is busted. What is a man to do?

I don't know how it happened. I took it out of my bag two days ago so I could play Dragon Quest IX. When I tried to turn it on nothing happened. I was worried and distressed. This DS belonged to my brother. He had upgraded to the Nintendo DSI XL, so I kindly took the "piece of junk" off his hands. I had a DS before, but there was no game really interesting enough to keep me foucsed, so I got rid of it. Now, with Dragon Quest IX, I was having more fun on it then ever.

I tried to charge it, but my charger didn't work on it. The light would flicker for less than a second and then darkness. I attempted to use my roommate's charger, and that failed too. Maybe it's the battery. I could reapir it. I've been meaning to do that for sometime now. Maybe it's best I just leave it alone and invest in a new DS. The 3DS looks pretty cool from what I've seen. Just hope it doesn't hurt my eyes with its 3D-ness without 3D glasses.

R.I.P my Nintendo DS Lite.

Zombies, Zombies and More Zombies!

2010-09-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: IGN

I purchased Dead Rising 2: Case Zero before class on Friday. I love killing zombies after a day of hard work.

I had played quite a few hours of Dead Rising when the Xbox first released. I enjoyed it more for the achievements and the game play, but It never got me hooked like Resident Evil had on the Playstation. I liked the fact that I could literally grab anything from the giant mall you were contained in and use it as a weapon. I could grab a register, blender, YOUR MOMMA...okay, not your momma. That would be pretty funny though, wouldn't it?

As I was saying, anything in the world could be used for your advantage. Case Zero continues with that and adds one more feature that had be jumping in my seat. Combinations!

The player can grab certain items and combine them to create weapons of mass awesomeness. The first creation of zombie-killing glory was a baseball bat with nails. Once you create your weapon you obtain a card which reveals of picture of the weapon and its uses. There are two different kinds of cards which deal different effect depending on the card given. I then created a bucket with drills attached to it. That was the highlight of my Zombie-beating session.

The 3 hour game starts with the new main character, Chuck, driving into the small town of Still Creak with his ill daughter. She had been bitten previously before the game and the whole game is centered with you and your daughter attempting to leave the zombie-ridden wasteland. The world has been taken over by the undead and Zombrex is the new drug everyone is clambering for or its lights out for the infected.

The game is worth the five dollar price tag on Xbox Live. All the levels gained in Case Zero can be exported into a save from Dead Rising 2 which will be released on September 28.

This title is worth a look at, or should I say, this is a game worth sinking your teeth into!

Maybe? No? Okay....ZOMBIES!

Brainstorming Is A Bitch

2010-09-04T23:34:00.000-07:00

I just came out the shower. Whenever I'm in the shower I tend to think about my work. Why I do that is anybodies guess.

I was thinking what I should be doing with the social media section for my on-campus news paper, The CHIMES. I have to admit that I was pretty stumped for the past few days trying to come up with something to do with Facebook and Twitter. I had been thinking that there wasn't a lot to do with Twitter and Facebook. You post what you are doing, or eating, or...ew...and what not, then you post a picture of something extremely random and you're done. But then I remembered, there are apps! Twitter has a slew of sites available to turn it into something different than what it was designed for. Facebook has thousands of applications which can change the tides of my thoughts.

I want to give my staffers some kind of work. I don't want them just posting things and that being it. I want them to do some research and find ways to prove my old thoughts wrong. Maybe I'll get them to find apps every week, like an App of the Week or something where they look for new applications to improve students productivity or usefulness of Facebook and Twitter and write small 250 word articles explaining them.

I want to make things better and more fun for them and myself.

I'm Selling My Xbox Today

2010-08-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

You would do anything for the person you love, right? I sure would and I have. I posted my Modern Warfare 2 Special Edition Xbox 360 on Ebay just a few minutes ago.

Why would I sell one of the few things I cherish most in this world? I also cherish my girlfriend and when she isn't happy, I'm not pleased. Early last week I found out she couldn't make it to her second year of college because she can't afford a bus ticket. She already had a bus ticket from school but it is defective and she can't use it nor can she get a refund. Those bastards who sold her to ticket should just quit life, like now. I've decided that I love her way more than I love my Xbox 360, maybe, and will pay for her way to college.

The only set back to this is that I lose one of the few forms of entertainment I have here at Morrisville and I won't be able to write any reviews because I don't have a system to play on.

I have my damaged Nintendo DS Lite from my brother, but that isn't much. I do have Dragon Quest IX, so maybe I am set for the time being. I sure will miss my beloved console. Maybe I will buy one of the newer models with the extra cash I get if I sell the 360. Good luck with that.

UPDATE: She got the money for the bus from her friend and her sister. I'm still selling my Xbox because I want an upgrade, damn it.

What If A Zelda Game Was On The Xbox 360?

2010-08-10T05:40:00.000-07:00

Life Size Link as seen on DeviantArt by Yuki-Myst

Can anybody else picture it? The current incarnation of Link, in HD, battling a nasty version of Ganondorf on a mount. It could be so epic.

Why does Nintendo have to have one of my favorite characters in video game history all to itself? Share, with me at least. I wouldn’t mind taking a super-secret copy of The Legend of Zelda 360.

No Sleep For the Fearless Wanderer

2010-07-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

I could not fall asleep last night.

What did I do? Try and get some much needed rest? Hell no! I stayed up all night and played Fallout 3 in its entirety. I finished the last mission, Take It Back!, and purified the wasteland.

Even though I saved a whole population and gave them a chance at regular life, I have way more to do. I tried to finish it as fast as possible so I can get to the other video games in my back log. I might go back to it one day but for now I think I will fall back from Fallout 3.

Crackdown 2 Failed My Heart

2010-07-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

Video game blog Joystiq's Justin McElroy brought up a point on the Joystiq podcast about Crackdown 2 that saddened me. He said that Crackdown 2 is a lose/lose situation. On one side, the game is a failure and will most likely not have a successor. On the other hand if the game was to sell a good amount of copies the game would have a half-assed sequel just like it in the works. No one would be happy.

It hurts me when games that could be such great hits come out and turn out to be complete trash. I have such high hopes and they are burned to the ground by developers who don't put enough effort into their work or just have a vision that looks stylish and clean only in their heads but once it hits the shelves it turns out to be an utter disappointment.

Picture provided by IGN

Frustration in Video Games

2010-07-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Shooting the giant moth over my head was like arguing with my mother. I wasn’t getting anywhere as I continued and I was looking at the sky every few minutes as though I was rolling my eyes. The fight was finished with me on the floor and the moth savoring its victory in the sky; that’s about the only difference between arguments with my dear mommy.

On the moth topic, not parent/child disagreements, it made me extremely frustrated because I attempted the engagement five times before I gave up, turned off my Xbox 360 and gave Borderlands the pretty side of my middle finger.

There are many times, not just in Borderlands, that I got so hot-headed I had to shut down my system, put the title back in my stack of video games which I desperately need to finish, and just sit in my chair and think of what I’m doing wrong. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the one doing something wrong or is it the game with a specific flaw that drives me to failure. Who knows? I sure as hell don’t.

I recently finished Assassins Creed II. That game is one of those games that I point the blame of all my failures and hick-ups on the controls. I knew what I wanted to do, but the game wanted me to do something else as if it had a mind of its own and it just wanted to screw me for kicks and giggles. One example was when I was about to assassinate a naughty templar who killed my family. I was going in for the kill and I pressed the correct buttons to commence with the assassination, but instead Ezio jumped into a singing jerk and stabbed him right in the forehead. My target got away and all I was left with was shame and anger. Maybe it was my fault or it could have been the game; I stick with the later.

What did I do to get rid of stress? I used break things. It is a foolish temper I held, but it was there and it got out sometimes. I bought a special edition Halo 3 wireless headset along with the legendary edition of Halo 3, a purchase I regret. I smashed the headset against my cousin’s bedroom wall when I was having a bad day and lost numerous multiplayer matches in Gears of War. I was one pissed-off fellow. I did get past all the brutality that video games brought out of me.

How did I lose these feverish rages that I succumbed to after getting my ass kicked? I learned that it wasn’t worth it to get angry over a game. The key is to just keep trying, no matter what. Give it a few attempts and if you just have no luck, turn the game off and hit the sack or do something else. Then, come back to it and try again. I guarantee it works.

What Am I Playing?

2010-07-08T11:35:00.001-07:00

Off-Topic: I Bought A New Book!

2010-07-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

What Am I Playing?

2010-07-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

Assassins Creed II

As I Finished Bioshock 2...SPOILERS

2010-07-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

I looked at the screen in despair as the character I had played for hours had died as he made it to the surface, the destination which would be his grave and his paradise.

The Big Daddy (Delta) players take control of what was a character of few words, but was portrayed through his actions. There were many times where he had to defend himself. He had to fight off the deadly ADAM-addicted splicers that roamed Rapture with a number of bigger baddies like the Big Sisters and other Big Daddies. He had to resist the temptations of the anger and hatred that Rapture spilled through the veins of almost all its residents.

The choices gamers make as Delta affect the ending dramatically. I won't spoil that for you, but I will say that as being the big daddy, I selected the choices I felt and knew were right.

After I saw the results of my deeds I was heart-broken to find out that the place I sought freedom was the place I would die, and so soon at that. But I saw what was done and made amends with the idea that Big Daddy is always watching his little sister, even if he can not walk with the breeze which he craved for his family.

Delta, rest in peace with the times. It was a great moment we shared in Bioshock 2.

Beauty and The Chief

2010-06-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend with my Legendary edition Halo 3 helmet.

What Do You Drink While You Game?

2010-06-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

When I game, I usually have a cup of hot coffee, light and sweet, by my side.

Coffee just gets my juices flowing when I am playing a game. It helps me get through parts that get me frustrated or I don't want to get through it.

Before starting Bioshock 2 I was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. I was playing on hard difficulty and I can say that the bosses are so damn annoying after having their thug buddies come in and mess with me while the heavy-built boss is slamming into you, killing and throwing me into despair. Coffee lets me take a break, have a sip of sweet dreams going down my throat and having a moment to think on the situation at hand.

Coffee also has many effects on the human body that help me game. It grants smarts, at least in my case. I think faster, react more timely and do things i wouldn't do faster if i wasn't drinking coffee.

Coffee helps me be more productive when I am gaming. Some say I am addicted to the stuff and to them I say "WOOO!!!! YEEAAAHHH!!!!" and slowly walk away.

What Am I Playing?

2010-06-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

Bioshock 2

Will I Buy Kinect? Maybe, Just Drop The Price

2010-06-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

I understand what the Kinect, Microsoft's new peripheral for the Xbox 360, can do. It allows users to play video games and control their consoles with their bodies. That is the one thing that has me excited about Kinect. I can control Netflix by moving my arms around; that is awesome. I not only get to watch Mythbusters, but I get a mini-workout as well. Okay, maybe it is not much of a workout but I am trying to give it the benefit of the doubt...

Kinect will run for $150. That is just way too much for me. I am jobless, living with my mother for the time being and jobless. Did I mention I don't have a job to support such an expensive hobby like video gaming? I think I did. Maybe if it was $75 or $85, THEN and only then will I be interested in such a fine piece of technology as the Wii without the Wiimote, I mean Kinect is.

Featured Site of The Week: Goozex

2010-06-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

I am a person who recycles. Well, recycles video games.

I found out about a great video game/movie trading site called Goozex a few weeks ago and it's helped my gaming habits get back into shape.

Goozex works on a points system that lets gamers buy used and some new titles with points they've earned from trading old or used games and movies. 100 points equates to $5, 200 points for $10 until 1000 points which is $50.

It is a pretty cool site because you can buy games which would be almost $50 at one place, but be an equivilent of $15 on Goozex.

I've gotten games like Assassins Creed 2, Fable 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum and a few more titles for very cheap prices.

Featured Site of the Week: Good News: Shut Up!

2010-06-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

There are many video game web sites out in the internet. They try to bring you news, reviews and other things you want. Some do it unsuccessfully. Do you know why? Because they just suck!

Not really, they just do not have that character which makes other sites what they are. Good News: Shut Up! is one of those sites which character. Created by Arien Russell and James Henry, it brings news and reviews to gamers with feeling.

They also have a podcast that runs every Wednesday where they share their voices and opinions outside of the site amongst themselves and with special guests.

They bring their humorous talents together with other gamers in order to let their voices be heard. If anything, they are gamers like you and me.

Check them out at goodnewsshutup.com

Hulu On The Xbox 360 Could Make My Day If It Happens

2010-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

There have been numerous rumors going around the internet that Hulu will be coming to the Xbox 360.

I think this is a great thing for users who enjoy watching television shows and movies streamed to their consoles. But, I do not think it is so great that users have to pay a fee for older content while the newer will be free. That is what most of the rumors state will commence when the service might hit Xbox Live.

Is it really fair that Xbox Live users have to pay another subscription fee for old content? Why can't we just have our early episodes of House or Lost free of charge? Can we not have it like it is on the Hulu site?

The fate of the video streaming service might be revealed in this years E3, which is not so far away.

Why Replay?

2010-04-18T16:37:00.001-07:00

As kids, many of us played one video game more than once, five or more times over. It was because we were just kids who could not afford to buy new games. We just stuck to one game and replayed it so much we remembered almost every line and moment in the game.

Those gamers, now older and with jobs, have options to buy new games or replay the ones they already own. They also have an option on what to do with those old games. The deciding factor of whether we give the game away or sell it is whether that game has replay value. There are many different ways to enjoy a game after completing the story or mode.

Play the game on harder difficulties. Difficulties were made to challenge seasoned players. There are usually three difficulties: easy, medium, and hard. Sometimes, there is a really hard, which is for the top players who want to not only beat the challenges developers make, but to challenge themselves as gamers. The Halo series is a great example of a game that ups the difficulties enough that players can become masters of the game.

Halo also shows us another great way to add replay value to a game: multiplayer. It can be online with random people or on a couch with your significant other. Gamers have a need to play with other people because it is a great feeling to share moments with others. Just to emphasize, not all multiplayer modes are good, but games like Halo and Left 4 Dead let gamers play and work together as a team to accomplish great things that would seem mundane if played alone.

One way to unlock difficulties is by completing the game. Completing a game does not always mean finishing a story, but obtaining every item, collectible, weapon, power, or jewel in the game’s world. There may be multiple story lines to complete; one is always not enough to see a whole story from every point of view.

To get those multiple point of views, gamers can play through the game again as another character. If a game has multiple characters, that usually means there are multiple stories to play through and new experiences to gain from playing those stories. This applies to RPGs and Fighting games. Street Fighter IV has numerous characters like Ryu and Ken that each has their own fighting styles and stories to learn and master. Dragon Age: Origins also has several stories to go through with numerous characters to choose from.

Customization is another aspect that will save a game from getting sold or forgotten. Allowing gamers to create their own levels and challenges for themselves add a ton of replay value to a game. Little Big Planet lets gamers develop levels for themselves and create a world of their own that they can share with their friends and experience the fun of creation with people all around the world or in their own home.

Pac Man and Donkey Kong gave gamers the gift of competition by obtaining high scores and beating out other people from the top list of players. It is now known as leader boards in online games, but it’s the same thing. Geometry Wars: Evolved and its sequel also added fun and excitement because it allowed gamers to see their friend’s scores in each game mode. Competition does not only add replay value, but desire for more challenges for developers to look upon when creating a sequel.

The next time you’re looking at that shiny new game, remember your games at home and wonder about all the things it did right that would make you want to play it again before chucking it out the window.

Featured Site of The Week: Cheap Ass Gamer

2010-04-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

I am a cheap gamer. If I can get a game for less than its regular retail price, I am getting it, hands down.

The best site for me to find great deals is Cheap Ass Gamer.

CAG was created by CheayD who resides on Tokyo, Japan. The site posts deals from all over the web. Users can post deals in the deals thread. The community is huge and there are people with voices here, not just video game-hunting zombies looking to score a good deal. The forums on CAG are a place for people to share deals and opinions with other users who care what they have to say.

CAG has a price tracker where users can create a wishlist and view what the prices of their games are from multiple retailers, used and new. There is even a user market where people can post games they can sell or trade with other users.

CAG has a podcast with hosts CheapyD, a fellow CAG members Wombat and Shipwreck which is described as "a humorous, yet adult discussion of video games and the topics that surround them, such as: industry news, previews and reviews, game deals and shopping, gaming in Japan, and much more."

If your looking for a cheap game or just a general discussion about anything video game, you can sure find something at Cheap Ass Gamer.

Picture Provided by Ski Hawk's page on Cheap Ass Gamer.

Science Fiction Novelist to Head Gears of War 3 Story

2010-04-15T17:23:00.000-07:00

Karen Traviss, writer of the first two Gears of War novels Aspho Fields and Jacinto's Remnant and numerous Star Wars fiction, will be the lead writer for Gears of War 3. She will also be writing two more Gears of War novels that are set between Gears 2 and 3.

Check out more on this at Kotaku.

Picture Provided by Traviss' Amazon page.

Gears of War 3 Announced

2010-04-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

The teaser trailer announced Monday on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon holds many hints into the future of the end of this Gears of War story.

The trailer starts off with a withered, aging Dom bashing through stones shaped like humans in a war-torn field. Dom falls to the ground and is about to get killed by a locust clad in new armor when suddenly the beast is blown away by a double-barreled shotgun held by our hero Marcus, also in new, conservative armor. Then the war starts.

Our heroes Dom, Marcus, Cole, Baird and a new heroine presumed to be Anya are being surrounded by numerous Locust when suddenly a new enemy appears. It has tentacles all over its body and snatches a locust from the fight and flings him far off. This new enemy could be a new species of lambent. or something new we haven't seen before. Another, possibly one or more, larger creatures spawn behind more tentacle monsters and all-out chaos ensues as not only these creatures attack Delta Squad and the Locust, but smaller crawling creatures attack the groups as well.

Get an overview of the trailer at IGN.

Off Topic: Starbucks Offering Free Coffee Today

2010-04-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Starbucks is giving away free cups of coffee if you bring your own cup. Bring your coffee mugs to Starbucks today before the offer ends.

Off Topic: I Want To Grow A Plant

2010-04-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get into new habits recently. I picked up skateboarding, which is loads of fun and it takes my mind of off life.

I now want to grow a plant. I've never done it and I've decided I want to give it a try. Lifehacker has posted a guide to growing plants which drove me further to completing my goal of having a plant on my boring windowsill.

Photo from Windowfarms.org

Off Topic: Moved Stuff Around...Again.

2010-04-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

I tend to not be happy with the setup of my room, especially when I look at the featured workspaces on Lifehacker. I decided to clean up my desk space a little bit since it is spring cleaning time on the site.

I moved a few things(everything) around like the printer, Modern Warfare 2 Edition Xbox 360, and sub-woofer closer to the laptop so I can make videos easier and hear a booming bass all at the same time. The laptop used to be under the desk which made it hard to scan covers and such so I moved it up and used a USB extension cord to connect it to my Lenovo T400. I moved the television up so I can start using it standing up to do some exercise while I'm doing work on the laptop.

Living in a dorm room really sucks because I don't get to have my own furniture, I can't hang things or damage the walls for that matter, and the furniture just plain sucks when your trying to be productive and neat.

I really have to say, dual screens are awesome. They have been known to improve productivity and I could endorse that because I have some media playing up top while I'm dong my work or I have a page of research instead while typing a post or story for my campus newspaper, The Chimes.

Here is a list of some photos of the wonderful job I did.

Gears of Love

2010-04-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to Wal-Mart with my roommates today and came home with Gears of War 1 & 2.

They were both on the sale. Gears of War 2: Game of The Year Edition was for $30 while Gears of War Platinum Hits Edition was in the discount bin for $20.

Gears of War was one of the first games I played for the Xbox 360. It made me fall in love. I enjoyed the cover system and how sleek it was. When I got the hang of it, I worked the multi-player for hours on end. I met many friends by playing this game and I even bonded with family because of it.

The sequel was just as big a success if not better. It brought new modes, a new user-interface, and more memories with my friends.

I am a cheap ass gamer who tries to find the best deals possible in order to better enjoy my experience by knowing I have paid so little for something so huge, like my purchase of Dragon Age: Origins for $20 last week.

Why Grind?

2010-04-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

Role playing games have gone a long way. The natural setup for an RPG video game today is a large, expanding, and intriguing world where you are a hero or the villain that determines the fate of the civilians and yourself. One cliché that spans most RPGs is the constant stat-grind. Why do it? Isn’t it getting old to exp-grind for hours and hours before fighting that major boss or does it make the games that embrace it more immersive?

Japanese RPGs are usually the culprits who still employ stat-grinding into their gameplay. Games like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger are titles that gamers need to stat-grind in order to progress. These are two classic titles, one of which survived with the times and have changed its formula a bit. Recent titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, both massive hits from developers Bioware, have changed the RPG recipe and minimized the stat-grinding ingredient.

The Final Fantasy series started out with stat-grinding. Anything you did, you had to stat-grind five levels to do it. It was simple yet extremely complex with all the commands you gained throughout the game which included magic spells and item-use. If players even attempted to play the game by burning straight through, they would fail miserably. Games like that are made in order for you to fight monster after monster in order to become stronger and persevere to the end where you brought temporary peace to the world. Final Fantasy XIII stream lined the series for audiences they didn’t have before, being the non-hardcore players who just want to get by, but not that much. They still have players needing to stat-grind in order to proceed. The game was a great adventure to partake, but the fighting got tiring and boring after fighting so many enemies.

Final Fantasy XIII points out one of the major flaws that stat-grinding has being players would soon lose interest in all the fighting because after hundreds of fights in order to progress, the combat system doesn’t seem so fresh anymore. The battle system was very streamlined and very action oriented, which was a departure from what Square Enix produced before, but the battles just seemed to be annoying after 30 hours of fighting in order to defeat the boss which wouldn’t die because you were too low-leveled. When players feel that the meat of your game is becoming too much for them to handle that they want to stop playing, that’s a bad sign, to say the least. This is not true for everybody though. Some people are hardcore RPG gamers who don’t mind spending the extra hour fighting random monsters in order to progress. It just seems like stat-grinding can be such a tedious task for some that it is a waste to make players who want to treed through a title quickly spend their time fighting weak enemies who barely give any benefit to beating them.

Mass Effect did not get rid of stat-grinding but hid it in small side stories that kept its identity as a role playing game with a mixture of action and succeeded immensely. The first Mass Effect was not as action-packed as most action games get, but it was still full of excitement and kept it partially fresh with almost dead simple 3^rd person action shooting. Players could plow through enemies and become a powerful bad-ass. Mass Effect 2 just added to the action as it made moments where gamers really care about their characters and gameplay that grabbed from classic role-playing games while making its own. The action-packed sequel let gamers once again burn through the title or experience all that Bioware created in the huge universe. The way that they secretly planted stat-grinding was by giving it a coat of story and immersion that gave players enjoyment while not soiling the combat.

Dragon Age: Origins was another Bioware hit that did the same as Mass Effect where it has a Diablo-like feel that gave gamers loot which made them powerful enough that even if he or she was at a low level, they can still progress. Stat-grinding was still available as it allowed gamers to wield more powerful weapons and armor, but it did not hinder your advancement as much as games that surround their gameplay time with grinding for hours in order to overpower a ridiculously difficult boss.

Stat-grinding can be extremely tedious, annoying, and hindering to a story that is supposed to be epic. It can also be the reason why some games prosper the way that they do and gain the followers that they have. Stat-grinding is for the hardcore who will invest hours of time in order to see the ending that developers want them to see. It is kind of a way that we as people gain fulfillment out of a video game. We spend so much time invested into our characters that when we become the powerful being who saved the world from an evil, we feel a sense of pride that builds from this achievement which only stat-grinding can accomplish.

Sorry!

2010-04-04T02:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting any content recently and I would like to apologize.

I've been working pretty hard with my school work so I've abandoned the robo for a few days, but I am back and I will start posting again on Monday!

A Damn Funny List of Sexual Terms I Would of Never Thought Were Sexual

2010-03-26T03:49:00.000-07:00

Destructoid's Andrew Kauz has come up with a really funny list of terms and names from a variety of video games that are completely sexual if you think really hard, and some not at all.

Some of these terms include Sturdy Bone, Sticky White Stuff and Tactical Insertion. I know...and that's just a taste of the list.

Check out the full article here.

Amazon selling Xbox 360 Elite with Lego Batman, Pure and $50 Amazon Gift Card

2010-03-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

Amazon has a great deal for anybody shopping for a brand spanking new Xbox 360.

A $50 Amazon Gift card is received with any purchase of an Xbox 360 Winter Edition which includes Lego Batman and Pure, two great multiplayer games for the family and friends to sit on the couch or room and enjoy.

Check out the deal here.

Torchlight For $5 On Steam

2010-03-26T03:25:00.000-07:00

Torchlight, the loot-filled game that has some love on the web, is on sale on Steam for 75% off.

It is regularly $20, so this is a great deal for anybody who is into good games. Do yourself a favor and pick this title up while it's still cheap.

Zombie Street Fighter. Enough Said.

2010-03-26T03:04:00.000-07:00

Kotaku has posted some pictures of Street Fighter characters like Akuma and Ryu as zombies with a little bit of flare and creepiness if I do say so myself. They have a Resident Evil-vibe illuminating off of their broken flesh.

If these were available as skins in Super Street Fighter IV; I’d scrounge the money up for a fresh copy.

Screenshot from Kotaku.

A Robo Overview: Co-Op Gaming

2010-03-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

Co-op gaming is a staple in some of the best video games out today. Such titles like Resident Evil 5, the Gears of War and Halo series, and Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 have allowed gamers to enjoy the co-op experience. There are a number of elements that go into a good co-op game that keeps the players wanting more.

Gears of War is one of those games that made co-op great because it was exciting and easy to control for most gamers. The cover system, which was fresh at the time, allowed flanking and tactical exploitation like a game had never done before. The easy drop in and drop out of the online and offline modes allowed players to interact with their friends, family and people all over the world in ways that the older generations could not do. Even though the story wasn’t something too memorable, it gave co-op gamers a reason to blow crap up and enjoy it together.

Good co-op games mesh together memorable experiences with entertaining gameplay in order to give gamers the time of their lives. Gears of War 2 and Halo: ODST have their own variation of a “Horde Mode” which puts gamers in the middle of a level and pits them against waves of enemies. The goal of Horde Mode is to survive, and team work is the only way that gamers can progress to the last level. The fun about this kind of gameplay is that it allows gamers to play together and work as a team in order to progress past the waves of enemies that are trying to eliminate you. The upcoming Splinter Cell: Conviction will employ a similar mode called Last Stand which pits spies against 20 waves of enemies, which can lead to hours of fun for any person a fan of the mode and spies.

Besides an excellent cover system and demolishing enemies to bits in harmony, a cooperative experience should be easy to enter and leave, then come back for another enjoyable sitting. The interface for games such as Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 allowed gamers to enter a person’s lobby, play a level or two and then leave. Army of Two also had that fault, the lobby interface was annoying. The way gamers play together has to not annoy the players to the point where they do not want to play anymore, break the game in half and curse out the developers and it also has to feel seamless and smooth as they connect online or offline.

A good co-op game does not need to great story that is coherent and interesting, but it sure helps. When two players can make a comment, good or bad, about a game, it should be something that makes them bond and think in ways they’ve never thought before. It is one of the ways that helps people bond together to better enjoy the experience they are having together. Gears of War 2’s story is not a gold standard, but it is sort of easy to follow, or at least explain. Halo’s four player co-op allowed players to watch as Master Chief and his alien allies destroyed another ancient artifact that could destroy the world. It gave gamers something to talk about.

One thing which should be in every game, but especially in co-op games, are random events that create excitement. When someone destroys a giant enemies with four rockets at the same time is something that gamers can talk about together and freak out about. These extraordinary events are something that a developer cannot create, but the players create themselves with a little bit of luck.

Some developers have tried to build their whole video game around co-op, like Gears of War and Army of Two, and have succeeded and failed in some ways. Army of Two succeeded in showing gamers that they can work together to get the job done by allowing the characters to interact with the world together. It also added elements like aggro and back-to-back shooting to add tactical advantages that co-op players can use. The controls made it a little more difficult to convey that.

Sites like Ars Technica and Co-Optimus allows gamers to interact in order to setup co-op games. Co-Optimus has some great features like allowing gamers to find games they have and match themselves with other people who are looking for people to play with. Have Crackdown and want to fight crime with another Crackdown player? Co-Optimus has people who will play with you. It is a community that wants to share and expand across the computer partners in single player games.

Sharing an experience with somebody is just a great feeling whether it is sitting on the same couch or a different couch across town. Co-op gaming allows relationships to be created and to expand. It feeds the gamers need to share with others in ways they normally can’t in real life.

Here is the message: Play together people!

New Section: Random Classics

2010-03-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

I had an idea for a new section. I will play old games that have sequels coming out soon. The next game will be Crackdown.

Gamefly and Amazon Deals Make My Cheap Ass Happy

2010-03-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Cheap Ass Gamer (CAG) has posted two really good deals on the site.

Amazon is having a buy 2 get 1 deal on all Xbox 360 platinum hits. You can grab up some hit titles like Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Gears of War 2 and more for a great price.

Gamefly has used games on discount prices. You can ;pick up Batman: Arkham Asylum, Halo: ODST, Red Faction: Guerrilla for under $20.

Hey, You Got My Social Networking In My Video Game!

2010-03-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Social networking is a huge thing on the internet. It seems like people have grown obsessed with letting other people know what they are doing every second of every day. Social networking has worked its way into many different platforms in the world, and video games are no exception.

Gamers game for different reasons: to waste time, to be entertained, and to have something to share with someone else whether it be an experience or a score. Social networking is a great medium to share those scores and experiences with other people. Sites like Facebook and Twitter allow gamers to share their latest high scores and tell people what they are doing.

The last Xbox 360 spring update added Facebook and Twitter functionality to the dashboard. It allows gamers to contact these social networking sites and tell their friends and family what games they are playing, what achievements they are getting and how good they are at a game.

Sony has its place in the social networking game as well. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has Twitter integrated in it. Gamers have the option to allow the game to auto-tweet their milestones within the game. There has been some controversy about the game tweeting when gamers complete a mission. That has since been removed in an update.

There is one problem that the Uncharted issue addresses with social networking and gaming: spoilers. Gamers who follow other gamers can have their experience spoiled when they see that their friends are tweeting about a major plot point. That may not be an issue for some gamers and that is fine, but for some that could be a major issue. It can cause people to lose followers or be blocked or hidden because they are minimizing a person's excitement for a game because they are telling him or her the story without realizing it. Some people really want an experience to be as fresh as possible.

Gamers like to share what they do. The experience of a game is something that should be shared with others. Social networking sites are the bridge that gamers can use as another way to share fun times, every small character at a time.

Would you play Bioshock if it had grotesque mutants?

2010-03-18T02:54:00.000-07:00

Joystiq has a post with a photo of one of the mutants that was cut from the original Bioshock.

The ugly creature looks like a mix between a human and a roach or fly; it is really gross. It has a semblance of a Dead Space creature with the classic movie, The Fly.

Bioshock is filled with goons who are mutated in their own right, but not as bad as this bad boy here. The splicers of Bioshock showed pain in their structure along with the insanity that the fall of Rapture introduced into their lives. It was beautiful, painful and awesome to fight these drug-abusing humans while knowing who they were.

Would gamers want to know Bioshock’s world if these ugly beasts stalked the dark corridors of Rapture?

Anybody Want to Take The Metro?

2010-03-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Announcement: Metro 2033, the post apocalyptic first person shooter based in a subway in a future Moscow, will be the upcoming Robo-Review.

Transformers: War for Cybertron sounds AWESOME

2010-03-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

Arthur Gies' description of the new Transformers game makes me excited for a product I had absolutely no interest in.

Transformers: War on Cybertron takes place before the first generation on a Cybertron that fans have not seen. It tells the stories behind relations of popular decepticons and autobots and reveals why the Transformers came to earth.

The gameplay sounds action packed and worthwhile. Little touches like having the Transformers blend with the environment they interact with is a nice touch that High Moon studios added.

Check out the Gies' full feature over on Team Xbox and listen to him talk about it on Rebel FM.

Robo-Review: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

Square Enix has released their thirteenth installment in the main series of Final Fantasy. Beautiful environments, characters with depth and a combat system that flows like water make up the essence of Final Fantasy XIII and it is a great game, if you don’t mind being pushed from place to place.

Final Fantasy XIII follows the formula that Square has set for its Final Fantasy video games. You have scenery that expands from rain forests filled with dangerous creatures around every corner to a city under siege by a forceful government. Take control of intriguing characters that get tangled together by one cause and thrown into an epic adventure where they have to save the world or lose all they love.

Combat has been changed in order to create a rhythm with fast thinking. The mixture between turn-based actions with real time fighting is what makes Final Fantasy XIII’s combat fresh. Players can either create a smooth fight by actually thinking about their decisions or use the auto-battle command which lets the AI choose what to do depending on the situation at hand. The AI does a good job at choosing what attacks or skills to use at any given moment, and you can basically play the game like that and just mash the action button every fight. The choice is up to the player.

One of thing that is not up to the player is where he or she wants to go. The game is extremely linear. You go from beautiful dungeon to beautiful dungeon, beating monster after monster till the big boss arrives at the end. Some environments do have certain aspects about them that make them unique like the rain forest where you are able to control the weather and what monsters appear. Most Final Fantasy games allowed the gamer to travel to different worlds and do whatever they wanted, whether it is to look at the beautiful cities or one of the dangerous dungeons to get something you missed before. It just doesn’t let you have all the freedom you had in games in the series such as Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy VII.

While you’re running through these dungeons, you advance your skills and attributes with the new upgrade system called crystogenesis. Using the crystarium, you upgrade a character’s class using points won through battle. For example, commandos can be upgraded to learn more up close attacks and medics can learn more powerful healing abilities. Every character has a particular class that he or she is good at, but it is good to switch up the classes in order to save your party from certain death.

Paradigms are the latest addition along with the crystarium. Paradigms allow players to set what classes the party can be. A paradigm group that is offensive would have a physical attacking commando with two magic wielding ravengers or group that enhances each other would have a commando, a medic and a synergist who temporarily enhances the group’s abilities and attributes. While in battle, players can switch between each paradigm simultaneously. It can turn the fate of the battle around dramatically if you learn how to use them wisely.

Final Fantasy XIII is a big footstep in the trail of Square Enix’s masterful stories. Characters that make you feel for them when they are in despair and drive you to run through the straight forward dungeons is a great experience for any JRPG fan to enjoy.

Robo-Review: The Adventures of P.B. Winterbottom

2010-03-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

The Adventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a one trick pony that menaces you with grueling puzzles and pie.

The goal of the game is to feed P.B. Winterbottoms lust for delicious pies that are scattered throughout the world. PB Winterbottom must solve puzzle after puzzle using clones in order to get his plump, greedy self some pies.

The puzzles start off easy at first, but grow harder and more diabolical as they come. they start from simply platforming to the desired pie to creating as many as six clones in order to progress. The gameplay is fun, but the fact that all you can do is create clones that copy your actions seems a little dissatisfying. There is potential to equip Winterbottom with enough power to feed the hungry man, but not make it look like a clone of such titles as the classic Prince of Persia or Braid.

The adventures of PB Winter bottom is wonderful game that was created by a creative group of college students and worth a playthrough.

Amazon deals for Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

Amazon has two deals that will really tickle the fancy of some anxious Final Fantasy fans.

Anyone who pre-orders Final Fantasy XIII will get a $10 credit on any future purchase and a PDF containing pages from the official strategy guide.

Good Morning, Final Fantasy!

2010-03-08T05:42:00.000-08:00

Good morning readers!

Announcement: This week will be Final Fantasy week due to the release of the latest title in the giant series this Tuesday.

Expect a review of Final Fantasy XIII by Monday.

Halo Reach Trailer Makes Master Chief it's Bitch

2010-03-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Two Spartans Fist Fight in Halo Reach Multiplayer Teaser.

Anyone who purchased Halo: ODST new have received access to the Halo Reach miltiplayer beta.

The beta looks amazing and is a twist to past Halo games and many new elements have been added to the mix.

Some of the big surprises in the trailer are hand-to-hand combat, barrel rolling, surprise attacks, and jet packs. All these elements add a new bit of strategy to the first person shooter.

Batman enters 3D

2010-03-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

Square Enix has announced that they will be releasing a Game of The Year edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum with new content and 3-D capabilities.

The game will be packed with six new challenge maps and "TriOviz 3D" support.

Released with the content is a pair of 3D glasses to enhance your experience as the Dark Knight.

For all the achievement whores out there, no need to fret because there is a whole new set of achievements to obtain.

Batman: Arkham Asylum GoTY edition has been set for a March release in Europe. No release date for North America has been confirmed.

Update: Batman Arkham Asylum GoTY will not be released in North America as confirmed by Joystiq. It will, however, be released in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Mass Effect Action Figures Preview

2010-03-04T04:59:00.000-08:00

Four action figures from the Mass Effect 2 universe including

the default Commander Shepard

Tali

Thane

Grunt

Photos provided by Kotaku.

Why do you play games?

2010-02-25T10:30:00.000-08:00

I was looking at a feature article on Kotaku about the reason gamers game every day of their lives and it got me thinking about why I play video games and I would also like to have you readers think about why you play your Fallouts and your Call of Duties.

Family is a big part of why I play video games today. I’ve been playing games ever since I was a little boy. My cousin introduced me to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis and it was a match made in video game heaven. I played Super Mario World and Sonic and I couldn't stop after those two experiences. .

Video games take me out of my reality and place me into someone else’s life with someone else’s take on other subjects that I would of either wise never thought about or never of had a clear opinion about. I enjoy my life greatly, but I would like to get the other side of a story and video games are the platform that supports that desire. Video games have gone from being time wasters (which they still are in most cases) to interactive stories. Mass Effect is a great example of a game that is an experience told through mostly conversation I can control.

I also play games because they help pass the time by between classes. Plain and simple.

Final Fantasy 1 & 2 release on iPhone and iPod Touch

2010-02-25T09:23:00.000-08:00

The first two titles in the Final Fantasy saga have been released on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

It has all of the extras that were released with the Gameboy advance versions which include The Soul f Chaos pack and The Labyrinth of Time as well as the five extra dungeons, the Soul of Rebirth and Arcane Labyrinth pack in Final Fantasy II

This is great release right before Final Fantasy XIII's release. It makes me think about more RPG games on the iPod Touch like this one.

When I owned an iPod Touch, I spent most of my time with it listening to music and more importantly, playing games. I hadn't seen any sign of a grand RPG likes Final Fantasy 1 & 2. I saw not one turn based RPG and it made me sad.

I could never picture an RPG with the grandness of Square Enix's famous title. Luckily today, I can.

Final Fantasy VII remake? How about…no.

2010-02-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

Fan-created Logo of an imagined Final Fantasy VII sequel

I am an avid fan of the Final Fantasy series. I am one of many who enjoyed Final Fantasy VII a lot. I love that there is still hope for a new entry in the continuation of the Final Fantasy VII story.

This video on Kotaku made by a fellow fan is not only funny, but makes me sad I will probably never see Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent in a party ever again unless I pull out my old copy of FF VII which I have lying around….somewhere.

Robo-Review: Chime

2010-02-22T14:42:00.000-08:00

Give a Little bit of Music

Music games are a dime a dozen and there is not very much variety in them anymore. In most, you play with a guitar, set of drums, or a mic. Some of the best music games are the ones that change the flow of how music games are played and have you enjoying it while at the same time testing your mind.

Chime is a music/puzzle game developed by Zoe Mode that takes elements from Sony’s popular Lumines and the legendary Tetris to create a wonderful time-waster that challenges gamers for such a small price.

Chime is a “musical puzzle game” that works depending on the flexibility of the players mind. Quick reflexes also help create a 9, 6, or 3 minute session of music making. You can even play in free mode which grants you an unlimited amount of time of play songs from artists such as Phillip Glass, Moby, and Paul Hartnoll.

The objective of Chime is to cover a grid with as many “quads” as possible. Quads are created with Tetris-like pieces and can be a square or any sized rectangle that can fit on the grid. The grids are shaped depending on the song the player chooses. A line crosses the screen from left to right as you build quads. This line will activate the quads and play tunes as it passes them. For every quad you make, a music note is played along with the background theme song. This is what makes the game most enjoyable as you pay because you are creating soothing or exciting music that you start to tap your toes to.

The developers have decided to do something very selfless by giving no less than 60% of the purchase price of Chime to charity and pricing the game at a mere five dollars. Chime is an exceptional little game packed with enough content to last gamers quite a long time and it is worth spending the money on a title that is giving back to the community.

Check out the YouTube page to view a clip from Chime.

Personas in Video Games That Strike the Heart

2010-02-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Mass Effect 2 is a great action RPG with memorable characters. They have so much personality for people that do not exist yet they grab us and don’t let go. Jack and Thane are only two examples of personalities that grasp you with their depth and attitude. They made me think about how characters in video games have become so complex and in some cases give us the desire to hang with them rather than our real friends.

Tetris and Pong didn’t really give us characters, but icons. The two paddles and small cube they pass around or the L-shaped piece that you needed to create that last square could be considered characters without a personality, but they still were able to grab gamers into their simple worlds for years to come.

Video games like Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Uncharted have given us characters that are powerful and live such dramatic lives that can’t help but give us a reason to continue to the end of their stories. They are people who we care about and we want to know what will happen to them. They make us hurt for them when they are hurt. They give us strength when they gain power and make gamers feel like the bad asses that they are.

Some video games create powerful characters by giving gamers the power to use their imagination in order to create the hero of their stories. The Halo series reaching from Halo to Halo 3 have provided a character without a personality but still give the vibe of a hero in the making. Bungie created a character that players can imagine themselves as because there is no exact personality to give, so the gamer must inject him or herself into the suit of Master Chief and become the last Spartan.

Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard is a character that belongs to the gamer. He is your commander Shepard. The gamer sets what skills Shepard has to where he came from. All those little aspects of the game enhance it dramatically and also advance your plot lines with other characters you meet throughout your journey. Shepard is also one of the few characters in video games where he has a voice you can control with the sleek and powerful speech wheel that Bioware has placed in the Mass Effect series.

Video games have become more than just a pass time; they are interactive stories. They are pieces of art that tell an imaginative tale told by the actions of interesting characters that draw gamers into a world that they will never want to leave.

Mass Effect Comics Expand a Great Story Even Further

2010-02-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

Mass Effect: Redemption expands the story of Liara T’soni and her search for Commander Shepard after the attack on the Normandy that starts Mass Effect 2.

They are pretty good reads, without the voices of the series the comic just doesn’t have the same feeling that grabs you and pulls you into the story as the video games do.

The first and second issue of the four part series has been released as of now.

Mass Effect 2 Review: Just Like Old Times

2010-02-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

Mass Effect was one of the best western Role Playing Games on the Xbox 360 when it came out in (year it came out). Then Bioware released the PC version and fixed a number of issues. Mass Effect 2 is a revamped experience. Everything that was wrong with Mass Effect has been tweaked and Bioware has created an adventure in the inner most depths of space, and it all starts with a bang.

Mass Effect 2 is the third-person action role playing game that Bioware was trying to achieve with Mass Effect. Bioware has tweaked the controls to fit that of a standard third-person shooter. They are more responsive and quick. Taking cover, switching from a pistol to grenade launcher, killing a group of enemies, and vaulting to more cover is almost seamless and natural. You will be finally taking a more commander-like role as Shepard as you command your party to certain positions for them to take the enemies out. Action has become more bloody and brutal as you lead your squad into bigger battles and more diverse enemies. The Drell, Batarians, and Collectors are just a few of the new races that will join the roster of species in the Mass Effect universe and pile of enemies Shepard will be facing.

The team Shepard scrounges up in Mass Effect 2 has not only gotten smarter, but has more depth. They are ruthless, immensely powerful, and you will need to gain their trust throughout the game in order to finish your mission. Shepard will also run into a few old friends and learn the fate of old ones.

The way players explore the galaxy has been changed as well. Instead of just selecting a world and hoping there is something there to land on, players will ride their ship across the universe, exploring and harvesting resources in order to upgrade the Normandy and Weapons. Gaining these resources involves scanning a planet and sending out probes to find points of interest for you, no more landing and exploring on the Mako.

The inventory system has been totally wiped clean. You don’t pick up different variations of the same weapons. Instead, there is a small amount of weapons available in the game, but they will be upgradable with a number of different kinds of tweaks and fixes to make them more deadly than the last.

The conversations have not changed, but advanced. They kept the speech wheel that made Mass Effect such a success and added an interruption feature that allows the conversations to end a little more quickly and add depth to an event.

Mass Effect 2 is a great sequel because it not only tells a story players can dive into, but because it realizes and fixes all the issues the last installment. The combat is a great improvement on what it had been, the characters are just as great or even greater than the past ones and there is enough innovation, but still more room to grow in the third title in the growing franchise.

Cat Licker gets a Manga of her Own

2010-02-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

Shoko Nakagawa is a TV and video game star, a cat licker, a blogger, a model, not afraid to wear ridiculous costumes, and now a manga character.

“Shoko Nakagawa’s Story” is Nakagawa’s first manga staring the likeness of her. It centers on emotional aspects of her life like the death of her father at a young age and Grade-school bullying. It will be issued by Kodansha, a Japanese publisher.

Farewell, Support for Original Xbox Live Support and Halo 2 multiplayer

2010-02-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

Microsoft will be cutting all original Xbox multiplayer support. Halo 2, the top Live game still being played from the era of the first Xbox, will be having one last day of play for Halo 2 players.

Bungie says they will be holding "One final farewell and one final opportunity for all of you to kick our asses at Halo 2."

Can You See The Story?

2010-02-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

Video games have become more than just a time waster, they are stories. They are interactive stories created by developers with a vision.

I was playing Mass Effect 2 last night for a review and my friends who were watching were making comments that made me think about what video games have become throughout the years. One of my friends was commenting on all the conversations that went on through the game. She believed it was boring and there was no game at all. She then fell asleep after three hours of playing.

The video game industry has morphed into a band of authors creating priceless pieces of fiction that are meant to draw the players into a visual ride that create a unique moment for each individual gamer.

She made me think about how video games have become more like a novel from an author rather than a video game from a developer and how the line between the two have become thin. Video games have become more than a good time for 30 minutes or a waste of time. They have become a visual experience that draws gamers in with characters that have depth and vivid settings that take you out of your chair and into a creative world.

War; War Never Changes

2010-02-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

IGN has posted a new teaser trailer for Fallout: New Vegas. It is honestly one of the coolest trailers I've seen in a long time.

Natal Wants to Destroy Me

2010-02-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

A developer prototype of Microsoft's Project Natal has been spotted at a The Seattle Times blog post .

It is a fairly creepy early bit of tech with its evil red eye. The Gorillapod stand just makes it look like it's going to come alive at any second and use its sensors to destroy us all once it hits home.

Hopefully, when it does get to the homes of Xbox 360 users, it won't look so prototype-ish and evil.

Lost Effect 2

2010-02-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

This is my brand spanking new Mass Effect 2 that I got from New Egg. Sadly, I can't play it until I get the right components for my Xbox 360 to connect it to my PC monitor. So sad.

Hey, Vanquish, don’t I know you?

2010-01-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

Vanquish, the latest title to come from Platinum Games, the developers of such titles as Mad World, Infinite Space, and the recently released Bayonetta, has had its first trailer posted on GameTrailers.com.

The trailer starts off with a beautiful field panning off into the distance when a Master Chief-like character rises and looks beyond to a destroyed city.

Vanquish will be released on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, but no release date has been verified.

NinjaBee announces A Kingdom for Keflings sequel

2010-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

A World of Keflings is the equal to the Xbox Live arcade title, A Kingdom for Keflings which allowed players to build “the kingdom of your dreams” using their own avatars.

A World of Keflings will release later this year.

If you haven't played the first entry, you can pick it up on the Xbox Live marketplace for 800 Microsoft points.

YouTube hosts Q & A with President Obama during State of The Union address.

2010-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

The anticipated State of The Union address will be a momentous occasion for the first quarter of the year. YouTube will allow people to ask questions in a live thread on the Citizentube page.

People can not only ask questions to Obama, but also comment and leave their opinions.

After the address, people will still be able to leave questions and the top questions will be addressed by Obama in an exclusive interview with YouTube.

Steve Jobs Announces the iPad

2010-01-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

The apple tablet is here, and it is called the iPad. Here is a link to the video of jobs announcing it and you can check out Gizmodo for a whopping amount of coverage on it.

Is Master Chief special anymore?

2010-01-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

With the future release of Halo: Reach and other releases like Halo Wars, is Master Chief that special of a Spartan with the new crowed coming in this year?

Master Chief is still a bad-ass, there is no denying that. He is quiet, sharp, and cunning with his process of alien killing, but is he being over shadowed by the new Spartans on the block?

The new Spartans in Halo: Reach seem to have personality and relationships with each other, where as Master Chief had an A.I. and an Alien buddy. When I say new, I mean the newly introduced Spartans, seeing as these Spartans die way before Master Chief destroys the Halo rings.

Is Master Chief losing his coolness to the New Spartans, or is he still and always going to be the bad-ass we know and love?

Darksiders Review: Unleash Your Darkside

2010-01-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

Darksiders brings in the aspects of legendary video games such as The Legend of Zelda series’ challenging puzzles and God of War’s bloody, rampaging action and packs them together to create a adventure based on revenge, redemption, and the end of man.

Darksiders takes place during the aftermath of the Apocolypse, which has come earlier than expected and War, one of the four biblical horsemen, has been framed as the one responsible for it. As War cuts through the armies of Heaven and Hell, he uncovers the mystery behind who framed him and why it is he who was framed. The plot is good, but you won’t be thinking about it much as your thinking more about how you’re going to get past that next door.

The gameplay is frantic, bloody, and fluid. You man your behemoth of a sword, Chaoseater, equipped with a number of augments and items to cut down angels and demons with a number of combos you buy from your personal demon-merchant. War can tie the combos together with the evade button to create a flow of slick strikes and cast the final blow, which will always be the B button. Being War made me feel like a total bad-ass, but the gameplay will get tedious after realizing that every enemy can be killed with a few strikes and the B button, even the bosses. Defeating enemies as War gives you the great feeling of empowerment, but does little to change up the way you handle enemies.

When you’re not smashing a sword through a demons skull after tearing its arms off, you’re platforming. The addition of such items as wings made of dark matter and a Crossblade add some ease to the jumping from platform to platform and then clinging on some demonic residue on walls to a higher level. These portions of the game can last for a while and take you out of the fight that has been advertised very heavily.

The puzzles in Darksiders are challenging as they come these days. They can range from pushing a block off a ledge to create a new entrance to War throwing heat-sensitive bombs onto crystallized barriers, then lighting them up with a torch and Crossblade combo. The aspect of “a puzzle within a puzzle” is played heavily in Darksiders. You can come across a seemingly simple puzzle, but in reality, there are three other puzzles you have to complete before attempting to start the first task. The puzzles can become very challenging, but using wit and a little bit of random thinking, you can finish them in less than 30 minutes.

The feeling of power is one of the best things a game can give a player, and Darksiders accomplishes that with great success. It is not a game you’d play for the story, but the action and puzzle combination is fantastic. The feeling of accomplishment after cutting down a horde of enemies and demolishing the upcoming room of puzzles is a great reason alone to buy Darksiders.

McDonalds Rolling Out Free, Nationwide Wi-Fi

2010-01-15T05:35:00.000-08:00

McDonalds has made their Wi-Fi, previously $2.95 per 2 hours, free of charge at 11,500 out of their 14,000 U.S. locations.

Nerf Guns Modded to Perfection

2010-01-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

My friends and I are big fans of Nerf guns, but we are not as big of fans as these modders. They’ve turned these toys into sick weapons of mass awesomeness.

Check out the top 12 mods done to Nerf guns on Oobject.

A Bag of Cocaine Found in Space Shuttle Hanger Causes Suspicion.

2010-01-14T22:54:00.000-08:00

The small amount of cocaine was found outside a bathroom in NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday.

Inspections and drug tests have been held on all employees who have access to the restricted facility since Wednesday. There have been no cases of workers acting strange as of yet.

More on the investigation can be found here

My Work Station

2010-01-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

This is Dude, my curious cat, on top of my plain setup.

I am currently using a Lenovo T400 Thinkpad provided from my university.

I am not sure if you can tell, but there is an Xbox 360 controller and an assortment of video games behind Dude. I was gifted an Xbox 360 this Christmas from my uncle. I last one Red Ring'd a few months before I left for college.

I just obtained the desk so I haven't made the adjustments I want to make to it yet like a home to fit wires through and a side shelf to the side of the desk for a little extra space.

North Face releases sleek iPod Jackets

2009-12-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

These Stylish, iPod compatible jackets are full proof to make your snowboarding or any daily winter commute an entertaining moment. The jackets, Hustle for men and Femphonic for women, are fully wired to plug in to any iPod and even have a remote located in the sleeve for switching your tunes with ease.

You can pick one of these up at Backcountry for $348.95.

Freakish, Microwaved Xbox 360 makes me squirm

2009-12-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

Artist Kenny Irwin has experience microwaving video game consoles. His latest work is this Xbox 360 Elite; microwaved and placed with numerous, grotesque looking eye balls.

He is selling it for $31,002 and is donating half the proceeds to the Council on American-Islamic Relations of California.

Here is a link to the auction for the chard console on Ebay.

Want to know how to do that? Look at this.

2009-12-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

Lifehacker has a great post on their best How-To features of 2009.

Some of these features include how to work with Windows 7, how to clean a slow mac, and how to build a great media set up.

Click here for the link to the post.

A Silent Hill play? I'd watch.

2009-12-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

I have never payed any title in the Silent Hill series, but I sure plan to. Maybe when I get a new Playstation 2 later....way later.
I would also love to see the Swedish stage play of Silent Hill.

A cover of it over on Kotaku shows a young man standing in front of what appears to be the infamous Cone Head, a reoccurring enemy in the series.

Pretty good read

2009-12-08T17:55:00.000-08:00

I had picked up a comic the other day because of the title. It was Gears of War.

I had played and finished the two main titles for the Xbox 360, but I hadn't reached forward towards the other media that had been released for the franchise. I just finished reading this copy, it is the 10 comic in the series.

It is a fairly good read, nothing too interesting but it has the gritty, war ridden feel that Gears of War conveys. It is a good read and any Gears fan should definitly pick these up.

The fine art of dual monitors

2009-12-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been finding a number of applications that allow me to make myself a more productive student with the use of my two monitors. I use a Lenovo T400 laptop and a random 26" tv I purchased at Wal-Mart before I left for school.

I bought a cord early in the year that allowed me to connect the two. I hadn't known of the potential of the two items together until now. I downloaded such applications as Edgeless, John's Background Switcher, Virtuawin, and Displayfusion in order to enhance my two screens and my work load. I learned that with all these apps in hand, my work was actually getting done.

I am still working on my set up. The picture above is from a week ago and I have changed a few things to make it more comfortable and neat, but the wire problem I have under the desk is something that will take me a while to figure out.

The baby breifcase that shouldn't be

2009-12-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted a case for your baby that does everything a parent does, other than give love and affection to a needy child? Well you are in luck, dear parent, as Pouyan Mokhtarani has designed a special carriage that is something like a Saw-like death-trap but designed specifically for the child's safety and less work for the parent.

It has an LED screen so the baby sees you and you see them along with a communicator system to transfer all the googly woogly babble most babies love to hear. The "pod" has several doors to keep your baby confined, comfortable and safe. It even has its own ventilation system to bring in fresh air for the youngster. THERE IS A AUTO POOPER SCOOPER!!!!! This machine is amazing, and I don't even have a child.

You can find the layouts and a better description at yankodesign.com.

Waving in Google Wave

2009-12-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

I am currently still testing out my Google Wave account and I just wanted to 1.give a glimpse of a wave and 2.test out my newly downloaded screen capture application, Screenshot Captor.

Fog your computer screen with a little Steam

2009-11-30T23:01:00.000-08:00

Gamers find many different ways to play the video games they love. Some play on consoles like Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii in front of their wall-sized HD TV's while others play in front of a PC monitor with their keyboard and mouse in hand ready to raid another dungeon or kick some zombie hide.

The console gamers have their own platforms to play on, being the systems themselves, but what do PC gamers have? They have the famous and most used platform, Steam. Steam is an online video game platform that hosts video game downloads such as full games, demos, trailers, screenshots and a wide variety of information on the games it has available. Steam users create an online account, download the desktop program, and that is it, time to shop.

Speaking of shopping, buying a game on Steam is as simple as putting in a valid credit or debit card information, placing a game in your virtual "cart" and checking out. One can buy a game for them self or they have an alternate option to buy a game for someone as a gift and send it to them via email or through the Steam platform itself. Once the purchased game downloads, which can take from 20 to a couple of hours for a game to download depending on the size of the install, gamers can be on their way towards playing some fantastic games such as Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle Deluxe, Fallout 3, Borderlands, and Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Games run just as good or even better than they do if they were on an install disk. On a Lenovo Thinkpad model T400 laptop with 4 gigs of ram and 140 gig hard drive, games run fairly well. Certain games like Fallout 3 or Borderlands might need a better PC for them to run smoothly, but they worked very proficiently while smaller games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Peggle Deluxe ran extremely smooth with the occasional slow down, but those are few and far between.

There are other platforms such as Direct-2-Drive and Amazon, which is not really considered a platform but it still allows gamers to download online versions of a large variety of video games. Steam still tops them off however due to the great deals they release every weekend which can start from 10 percent off a game with bonus content to even 50 percent off a pack of video games. Black Friday gave gamers a glimpse at the best deals on Steam that included a pack of games that totaled almost $400 but it was cut by nearly 75 percent.

Some PC gamers don’t have the luxury of owning top notch rigs that allow them to play almost realistic games such as Fallout 3 or Crysis, but they do all have a steady and stable platform to play video games together as a growing and powerful community, and it is known as Steam.

Announcement: no more Nintendo DS reviews

2009-11-29T22:38:00.000-08:00

Why are there no more Nintendo DS reviews?

I sold my Nintendo DS Lite and all the games I had for it in order to take my girlfriend out on a date before I left for my university. I will still be making my PC video game reviews and maybe I might review some of the great applications I find online on the blog and in the student campus newspaper.

We shall see what happens in the future times but for now, The Random Robo Profile is back in action with the loss of a great friend. R.I.P Nintendo DS Lite. We will miss you.

Apple: Bias against competition creates competition

2009-11-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

Apple is one of the leading providers in multimedia. They’ve created some of the sleekest and most powerful laptops and desktops. They’ve developed such gadgetry as Apple TV and the numerous versions of iPods.

The iPod Touch and iPhone has allowed developers to create applications that change the way we view reality and live our daily lives. Developers can create almost anything on the little devices such as social networking apps like Facebook, MySpace, Bump, and Twitterrific or video games like Peggle, Madden 10, Drop 7, and Karmastar. It allows users to manage their lives in the palm of their hands.

Recently, Apple has been denying some apps. It has been questioned by most gadget enthusiasts, and it appears that Apple may be biased towards competition.
Google voice, one of the many apps Google has created, allows users to make phones calls through a generated number. Google tried to release a version of the app onto the iPhone, but was shot down by Apple, who decides what applications go onto their iTunes App Store. Every app has to go through Apple’s screening process before being approved or denied. Apple not only denied the application, but pulled other already approved apps like it. This disapproval of the app could lean heavily on the fact that the app would have been competition against the main functionality of the iPhone.

Apple also rejected a dictionary application, Ninjawords, for not meeting the required rating settings, which required the app to have a 17+ rating. Apple has some fault in this because they were not clear about the rules and regulations about their censorship and rating policies.

Apple has denied applications which do not coincide with their own application functionality or accidentally went past their policies, even when it is partially their fault. Apple will, however, release a number of fart-emulating applications and apps with almost naked women in them, such as “Attack of the Zombie Bikini Babes from Outer Space” or “Asian Boobs”.

As Apple denies other companies’ apps from their devices, the companies are either looking at other spaces to place their virtual products or even making their own platforms. Research In Motion has their Blackberry App World for Blackberry users. Palm is working on their own app pool for developers to swim through. Windows is also producing an app store of their own inside Windows Mobile. They are even attempting to capture iPhone users by gaining popular iPhone apps onto their own platform.

Apple will still stay around the top and it probably won’t lose a massive amount of customers. Apple has, however, not only given incentive for current users to switch to another platform to find their app needs, it also put itself on the same playing field as other top media companies like Microsoft, Palm, and RIM.
Varity has become a bigger name in the app industry and everybody is working to give you, the customer, just about anything.

The Key is within your Heart: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Review

2009-11-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

How would you feel if you found out you’re secretly a mirror image of a person with a mind full of memories that are not yours? Roxas, one of the main characters in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, has to live with that reality every minute of his eventful life.

This new installment in the Kingdom Hearts timeline has you playing as Roxas, a copy of Sora, the main character within all of the Kingdom Hearts games before 385/2 Days, who is trying to find out about himself while unraveling the intent of Organization XIII and the search for Kingdom Hearts, which are the key to the Organization’s plan.

Game play is just like the Playstation 2 versions of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. The controls are pretty solid: you move with the directional pad while attacking with A, jumping with Y, and navigating the menus with X. You control the camera with the R and L buttons. Touch screen integration is almost non-existent. There is nothing new to the game play, but for fans that enjoyed the style of controls in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, you will be pretty content with these.

There are some new features in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, such as the new panel system. Before, the player would have to go into different menus to equip abilities, magic, and equipment. Now, players use panels for everything. These panels have slots where you put items and abilities you earn through missions. These slots are filled with abilities like fire, blizzard or thunder or roll, dodge and block. Items such as potions and elixers can be added. The successfulness of the mission depends on how well you’ve fitted your panels and with what skills you’ve given yourself.

The missions are the meat of the game. You continue the story through missions which the Organization gives you as days go by. There are a variety of ways to play these missions, like search and destroy or sneak around town to grab intel before the civilians spot you. The game play in this title is enough to keep a hard core fan satisfied while keeping new comers a little confused.

The graphics are pretty decent for a DS title. They are, at times, muddy in appearance, but overall moderate. The cut scenes themselves look like they came out of the PS2 titles and they also include voiceover which was something of a surprise.

The bond that drives the story is between Roxas, Axel, and Xion. The whole timeline between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 has been pretty unclear so far, but now its revealed what occurs to the fourteenth member of Organization XIII and Roxas, along with his relationship with Axel.

A person’s heart is what makes them a person, without it they are nobody. Kingdom Hearts 385/2 Days is a game about nobodies who are looking for a heart, while some are looking for a purpose. Kingdom Hearts fans who are looking for a deeper look at what really happened inside of Organization XIII and also want to see what happened between Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories will find a great experience in 358/2 Days.

2 web browers recieve secruity updates today.

2009-10-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

The web browsers Opera and Firefox both recieved updates earlier today.
The updates boost secruity and fix a couple of performance issues.

Opera moved to version 10.1 while Firefox upgraded to 3.5.4.

Sega is lighting up!

2009-10-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

These Sega Saturn and Sega Genesis themed lighters are available only through pre-order from Zippo till November 6. They are worth 10500 yen, which is $114 USD.

Star Wars wedding cake makes my stomach feel wrong.

2009-10-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

This post on Gizmodo really made me want to send some bodily fluids their way, but I made it through all the pictures of this Star Wars themed wedding cake.

Will Apple approve Mozilla's secret iPhone app?

2009-10-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Mozilla is releasing a new, secret iPhone application in a few weeks.

Om Malik of gigaom.com interviewed John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, at the Play conference, a discussion organized by the students of Haas School of Business at the university of Berkeley. Lilly told Malik about a new app that Mozilla is working on for the iPhone. “Mozilla will release an app to the iPhone App Store in the next few weeks," Lilly said, “It’ll surprise people.”

He also talked with Mozilla's Vice President of Mobile Jay Sullivan who, along with Lilly, hinted at the app being Weave, a project Mozilla started a few years ago that was created for users who want to store their history and bookmarks in Mozilla's servers.

Apple has a reputation for denying any apps that compete with its own. Weave would be stepping on the toes of MobileMe, another "cloud" system that Apple uses to share media through their hardware.

The Random Robo Profile

Blancspot: The Art of News uses music and imagery to spread information

Have iPod, will update!

Turn Your iPod Touch, iPhone or Mac Into An Alarm Clock With Apps

No Experience? No Problem!

Study Proves Wearing Glasses During Interviews Can Help

I got an iPod Touch!

I'm about to get into a Paranormal State

Escapism Through Video Games and Why We Want To Lose Ourselves In Them

Social Networking Gets Educational With Edmodo

Tools I Use: Screenshot Apps

Robo Review: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Robo Review: Halo Reach

My Nintendo DS Lite is Dead

Zombies, Zombies and More Zombies!

Brainstorming Is A Bitch

I'm Selling My Xbox Today

What If A Zelda Game Was On The Xbox 360?

No Sleep For the Fearless Wanderer

Crackdown 2 Failed My Heart

Frustration in Video Games

What Am I Playing?

Off-Topic: I Bought A New Book!

What Am I Playing?

As I Finished Bioshock 2...*SPOILERS*

Beauty and The Chief

What Do You Drink While You Game?

What Am I Playing?

Will I Buy Kinect? Maybe, Just Drop The Price

Featured Site of The Week: Goozex

Featured Site of the Week: Good News: Shut Up!

Hulu On The Xbox 360 Could Make My Day If It Happens

Why Replay?

Featured Site of The Week: Cheap Ass Gamer

Science Fiction Novelist to Head Gears of War 3 Story

Gears of War 3 Announced

Off Topic: Starbucks Offering Free Coffee Today

Off Topic: I Want To Grow A Plant

Off Topic: Moved Stuff Around...Again.

Gears of Love

Why Grind?

Sorry!

A Damn Funny List of Sexual Terms I Would of Never Thought Were Sexual

Amazon selling Xbox 360 Elite with Lego Batman, Pure and $50 Amazon Gift Card

Torchlight For $5 On Steam

Zombie Street Fighter. Enough Said.

A Robo Overview: Co-Op Gaming

New Section: Random Classics

Gamefly and Amazon Deals Make My Cheap Ass Happy

Hey, You Got My Social Networking In My Video Game!

Would you play Bioshock if it had grotesque mutants?

Anybody Want to Take The Metro?

Transformers: War for Cybertron sounds AWESOME

Robo-Review: Final Fantasy XIII

Robo-Review: The Adventures of P.B. Winterbottom

Amazon deals for Final Fantasy XIII

Good Morning, Final Fantasy!

Halo Reach Trailer Makes Master Chief it's Bitch

Batman enters 3D

Mass Effect Action Figures Preview

Why do you play games?

Final Fantasy 1 & 2 release on iPhone and iPod Touch

Final Fantasy VII remake? How about…no.

Robo-Review: Chime

Personas in Video Games That Strike the Heart

Mass Effect Comics Expand a Great Story Even Further

Mass Effect 2 Review: Just Like Old Times

Cat Licker gets a Manga of her Own

Farewell, Support for Original Xbox Live Support and Halo 2 multiplayer

Can You See The Story?

War; War Never Changes

Natal Wants to Destroy Me

Lost Effect 2

Hey, Vanquish, don’t I know you?

NinjaBee announces A Kingdom for Keflings sequel

YouTube hosts Q & A with President Obama during State of The Union address.

Steve Jobs Announces the iPad

Is Master Chief special anymore?

Darksiders Review: Unleash Your Darkside

McDonalds Rolling Out Free, Nationwide Wi-Fi

As I Finished Bioshock 2...SPOILERS