VGTribune

I don’t work in retail, but I do frequent to stores often during the holiday seasons. As a result, I have developed to hate Christmas Music with a fiery passion that makes me wish for a nuclear holocaust upon department stores across America. Needless to say, when I heard about a 8-bit tribute album to Christmas Music, I was less than thrilled to check it out. But after I listened to it, I can honestly report that it sounds so far removed from traditional Christmas Music that I wouldn’t know it was based off the same crap I’ve grown to hate if you didn’t tell me. It’s worth the download, and hey, might even make decorating the tree a bit more tolerable.

Download here

 Jeff Vrabel is doing it wrong.

One would expect that any list of greatest video game songs would have the usual standards: Nobu, Kondo, old NES Capcom games, etc. And why not? The music has proven to hold up really well outside of their own source material. However, Jeff Vrabel is a mavrick of sorts, and decided to completley toss aside all actual game music, and filled his list up with nothing but licen sed tracks from Rock Band, Tony Hawk, GTA, etc. Kinda defeats the purposeof the whole list, doesn’t it?

[source]

One of our MMO playing stints involved a couple moths of Final Fantasy XI, and God how we loved it. We moved on to World of Warcraft and occasionally had thoughts about going back to playing Final Fantasy XI as if it were our ex lover for that kind of nostalgic pleasure. You know what this is about Elizabeth! Come back, Come Back!! Come baaaaaaack! *Cries* Will this new content be enough to drag you back to your old lover Final Fantasy XI playing days, like it might us? Or, did you never go for that 2 timin’ gal Final Fantasy XI in the first place? Let us know in the comments!

PRESS RELEASE

FINAL FANTASY XI ANNOUNCEMENT OF THREE NEW EXPANSIONS

London (22nd November 2008) – Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announced their plans for three new expansion scenarios for FINAL FANTASY® XI.

Six years since its initial release, FINAL FANTASY XI currently has 500,000 active users playing in Europe, Japan, and North America.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ok honestly i don’t know what black friday is with being a brit so if you want to tell me please leave a comment.

But there are a hell of a lot of games being sold at cheap prices on that day.

Luckily, blackfriday.info has details of all the offers from GameStop!

And here’s the “current” list after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Major Nelson posted this on his site and I thought I’d share it.

——————————————————

The New Xbox Experience is in the process of being deployed to all Xbox LIVE members, but it will take a few hours for everyone to get the prompt to update to NXE….be patient! In the meantime I thought I would give my Top 10 list of things to do with NXE when you get it later today:

1) Create (or Customize) your Avatar – You can spend as much (or as little) time as you want in the Avatar Editor to personalize your little guy/girl

Bonus: When you are done with #1, be sure to take a Gamer Picture of your Avatar. In the Avatar editor, choose Gamer Picture. You can use the controls to move your avatar around, zoom in and out or even change the background color (press Y)

2) Explore the all new dashboard. (hint: use the trigger and bumpers to quickly scroll up and down or left and right)

3) PAR-TAY! Check out Xbox LIVE Parties and chat with up to seven of your friends. Go to the Friends channel…choose a friend who is online and press Y to get the party started. You can also hit the Xbox 360 Guide button > Party >Start a Party. Once you do that, send off invites to your party (since one does not make a very good party…does it?)

4) Themes. While any themes you work will NXE, check out some of the new themes via My Xbox and select your profile (second slot) and then change theme. Xbox 360, Spectrum, Day and Night are new themes that available as part of your NXE upgrade…check them out.

5) Marketplace on Xbox.com. This new feature lets you search, browse, and purchase games and videos while you are away from your console. You can also perform account management functions like changing your billing information, viewing your purchase history, and downloading items you already own.

6) Netflix – Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you have Netflix? If you are in the US you can stream thousands of videos (some in HD) directly from Netflix to your Xbox 360. Not a member? Sign up for a free trial at Xbox.com/netflix

7) Install to / Play from Hard Drive. With the game in the tray, return to your dashboard. (pressing the guide button then Y works as always) then go to My Xbox. From here press Y, which will bring up a new menu which will allow, among other things the ability to install a game to your hard drive.
Hint: You can still use the Xbox 360 guide while installing a game to keep in touch with your friends or start a Party.

Bonus: Before you do #7, be sure to set up what happens when you turn on your Xbox 360.  My Xbox->System Settings>Console settings. Then choose Start up to to choose Disc, Xbox Dashboard or Windows Media Center. Once you are done there…check the option right below it: Autostart. This tell your Xbox 360 what to do when you insert a game. The choices are enable or disable. I have mine set to disable so I can easily use install to hard drive.
Delete Zero Gamerscore games. You can remove any games from your games played list that you have earned no achievements or gamerscore. Press the Xbox 360– guide button, navigate left to the games section and choose Achievements. From here choose the game with zero gamerscore you want to remove and press X (Delete Game History.)

9) Press the Xbox 360 button on your controller to see the all new Guide. The team has added more functionality than the old guide, while making it more responsive. It’s a quick way to check your messages, see who is online or start a party.

10) Take a look at Community Games in the Games Marketplace. For the first time in the history of console gaming, thousands of games developed by the creative community will be available to the public.

For those that have the new Xbox Experience, what are your favorite new feature(s)?

 

If you’ve been wondering how Animal Crossing: City Folk compares to the original Animal Crossing on the Game Cube in terms of graphics, the video above shows that although there is a difference, it definitely isn’t something to write home to mom about. Does this turn anyone off the game, or are you still in it for the feng shui and home decor?

It’s episode 6 folks! Yes episode 5 is the “Lost” Episode, but it will be up soon. We cover all sorts of things, so join us and listen up!

Download it here, find it here on iTunes, or listen to it by using the player on the bottom of the post.

Show notes:

Keflings: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/06/a-kingdom-for-keflings-first-xbox-avatar-game-on-nov-19-with-n/

DS Over Clocker: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/283718.html

Quantum of Solace Wii video: http://www.infendo.com/first-person-shooter/quantum-of-solace-looks-good-due-next-week/

Obama in Little Big Planet: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=33443

Sony’s Ultrasound errr, Ultrasonic Controller: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/04/sony-patents-ultrasonic-controller/

Blu-Ray and PS3 vending machine: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/03/uk-getting-ps3-game-blu-ray-movie-vending-machines/

Podcast: Play in new window
| Download

So, I had a ton of games to play and actually never got to write the reviews, now I forget the game specifics in which it would be hard to write a 1000 word + review.  Therefore I will now dedicate a paragraph to each:

Time Hollow-

This game is the latest Point-and-Click adventure to hit the Nintendo DS.  It was innovative, but it wasn’t the best game in its genre.  It had very nice cutscenes and good VO.  The music was meh and the game held your hand too much through it.  This is by no means a great Point and Click Adventure.  The writing is poor at points and the story, while having twists and turns, is a little bland.  Gameplay, as I mentioned early, basically holds your hand to take you through the game, which defeats the purpose of the game.  Penalty was not great enough when you did something wrong which made it far too easy.  If you are a fan of this genre and are looking for another game in this genre to play, after you’ve played the Ace Attorney series, Hotel Dusk, and Trace Memory, give this game a look.  As for my score, I give Time Hollow a 7.5/10.

Dragon Quest IV (Real Review coming later):

The opening dialogue was nice (I never got time to actually play this game).  More on this later.

Read the rest of this entry »