Ken Levine thinks you’re a pussy. Well…sort of. He thinks your games are too easy, and as a result, he’s giving Bioshock Infinite a much harder, much more unforgiving mode when it releases later this year.

1999 mode, named after a time when Levine says games were much more challenging and is designed to offer challenges to the players that the average campaign wouldn’t.

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.”

So just how hard is 1999 mode? Players will have to take a more demanding look at things like in game choices, health and weaponry. Players will also not be able to respawn if they do not have sufficient resources to do so.

“I’m an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me,” Levine said. “So we went straight to the horse’s mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better.”

THQ has announced that Bioshock Infinite will release sometime in the fiscal 2013, which kicks off this April.

Phew. What a year for games 2011 was? We saw blockbusters, major disappointments and even a few surprises. We got our PSN’s shut off and a new Xbox Live Dashboard — which may or may not be the best/worst thing ever.  Here’s what we, at Blast Games think was the best of a packed year. Agree? Disagree? let us know! Oh, and just a note, we decided to keep things fair, we would limit the platform specific awards to games that were actually exclusive to that platform — unless of course a game was incredibly better for one platform than the others.

Game of the Year

Nominees: The Elderscrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Winner: Portal 2

In a year of amazing games, Portal 2 stood out from the rest. It made us laugh, amazed us, and even brought a tear to our eyes. Valve’s followup to it’s critically acclaimed and cult favorite original puzzler was not only better than the original —  it eclipsed it. The writing? Superb. The voice acting? Unparalleled. Oh, and the gameplay? Portal 2 straddles the line between accessible and infuriatingly difficult.

Perhaps what makes Portal 2 so great can best be summed up by Matthew Root’s review, saying “Portal 2 is, simply put, an amazing game. The new gameplay mechanics make for even more incredible puzzle solving; the sense of scale is astounding; and the twisted, dark sense of humor remains hilarious.Buy it without hesitation, play it, and then share it with friends who don’t play games so they can see what they’re missing out on.”

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

Nominees: Gears of War 3, Forza: Motorsport 4, Once Upon a Monster, Bastion

Winner: Gears of War 3

With Gears of War 3, Epic Games has taken the formula set by the first two games and tweaked it ever so much to create the perfect finale for their long running series. Everything you love is here, the chainsaw lancers, the grubs, the brumaks, but there’s also so much more.  The characters are deeper, the story is more engaging and the entire experience is deeply satisfying. Gears of War 3 is undoubtedly Microsoft’s biggest release of the year, and it’s also the best; one that if you own an Xbox – you simply have to experience.

Gears of War 3 is easily the best game in the franchise, and it makes its case for best Xbox 360 game period. It’s a deeply satisfying and at times touching game that takes the formula set forth by the previous iterations and tweaks it in just the right places to make an incredible gaming experience.

PS3 Game of the Year

Nominees: Infamous 2, Resistance 3, Killzone 3, Uncharted 3

Winner: Uncharted 3

I play most games in a predictable fashion. I sit down, play for a few hours and then I walk away. I do anything else. I let the game brew in my head. With Uncharted 3, I couldn’t do that, every time I tried to walk away, I was pulled back. I needed to know what happens next; and that my friends is the mark of a truly excellent game. Uncharted 3 is sure to wow you with its fantastic presentation, thrilling gameplay and all around complete package. This is a game that I can’t recommend enough, and your PS3 library is not complete without it.

Perhaps what makes the game so incredibly riveting to watch is just how well every part of the game works in unison. The story features absolutely brilliant pacing that rivals that of Hollywood movies, and the top notch voice acting combined with the stunning score and remarkable visuals makes for a great experience. With Uncharted 3, Naughty Dog has cemented their reputation as one of the best storytellers in not just the industry, but all of popular culture.  It’s seen in the relationship reveals, the stunning plot twists that make you rethink the entire strategy, and perhaps most importantly, the game’s feeling of resonance players are sure to have each time they step away.

Wii Game of the Year 

Nominees: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Fortune Street, Kirby

There weren’t a ton of AAA games for the Wii this year, but there was one that changed everything. One that represented what motion control can do and gave a long established franchise a brand new identity.

When Nintendo introduced the Wii, and motion control to the world, it made some hefty promises. Now, nearly six years later, with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, those promises have been delivered on.  This isn’t just the best Zelda game or the best Wii game, it’s also the first game that makes motion controls make sense. With its incredible production values, new gameplay ideas and most importantly heart, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is simply one of the best games I’ve ever played.

It’s only fitting then that after 25 years and a lot of gaming, I’ve finally got that same feeling back – and it’s another Zelda game.  With incredible production values, bold new mechanics and a wonderous sense of exploration; The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword feels an awful lot like falling in love with gaming again. Each time I booted it up, I found something new that I made it not only the best Wii title or the best motion controlled game but the best Zelda in franchise history – and that’s truly saying something.

When Nintendo introduced the Wii, and motion control to the world, it made some hefty promises. Now, nearly six years later, with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, those promises have been delivered on.  This isn’t just the best Zelda game or the best Wii game, it’s also the first game that makes motion controls make sense. With its incredible production values, new gameplay ideas and most importantly heart, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is simply one of the best games I’ve ever played.

Best Art Direction/Visuals

Nominees: Skyward Sword, Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Batman: Arkham City, Rayman Origins

Winner: Rayman Origins

In a day of computer generated graphics, pixels and rendering,Rayman Origins stands out for its hand drawn animation, charming visuals and fun and original score. It may sound cliche, but they simply just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Rayman drips with charm and color. Each of the game’s worlds features remarkable hand drawn animation that literally pops off the 2D canvas. The detail in the levels are absurdly well done, and shows a remarkably varied palate. In one level for instance, you’re gliding through waterspouts in lush jungles, then the next you’re in a fiery volcanic level – -and each of them looks remarkably stunning. The game’s score is also remarkably well done, as I would do certain things in the game just to hear some of the game’s sound effects. It harkens back to a time that’s long gone bye in gaming, and perhaps most importantly, it’s packed with content.

Best Sound

Nominees: Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Skyward Sword, Skyrim, Bastion

Winner: Batman: Arkham City

This could have been the toughest category of the year, but we just couldn’t get past how well done Arkham City’s score and voice acting really is. Sure, you can say that there’s a bit too much Nolan North, but every character, whether it be major, supporting, or just background is voiced so superbly. The work by Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill..and yes, even Nolan North stands out as not only believable, but unforgetable.

What sealed Arkham city’s win? The joker infused symphony that plays while you hunt down thugs in the Steel Mill.

Biggest Disappointment

Nominees: Duke Nukem Forever, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, X-men Destiny

Winner: Duke Nukem Forever

How could it not be?

Right from the get-go, Duke Nukem Forever looks ages behind most modern day shooters. Textures are messy and undetailed, there’s a ton of slowdown and screen tearing and the entire game just looks unpolished.Character models look robotic and outdated as well. Okay, I get it, Gearbox wanted to keep the spirit of the original game intact, they wanted it to look like it’s still from that era of gaming, but they better hope that the rest of the world, and not just the gaming public is in on the joke, and are willing to pay $60 for a game that looks like it’s decades old.

Of course, the appeal of Duke Nukem has always been it’s take no prisoners in your face adult humor. It’s here (the first  two minutes feature quicktime events of the game’s protagonist peeing and then ability to pick up poop and throw it), but unfortunately it too feels dated. Remember movies like Team America: World Police and the famous political scandals of the 90s? Because Duke Nukem and Gearbox sure do.

Most Anticipated Game

Nominees: Diablo III, Mass Effect 3, Bioshock Infinite

Winner: Bioshock Infinite

Looking back at 2011, one event sticks out, seeing the behind closed doors demo of Bioshock Infinite. I wrote the following words in my notebook regarding what I saw : “Amazing, outstanding, complelling…HOLY SHIT.”

Yes, Diablo III and Mass Effect 3 are going to be amazing, but every time we see more of the game, the wait until it comes out (no date has been announced, so it’s even worse) seems longer. With Bioshock Infinite, Ken Levine and Irrational Games are not only looking to redefine the series, but create their own revolution in the process.

We can’t wait to actually get out hands on it.

There’s a natural order to most things. Take buying stuff online. You place your order, your money and the product gets shipped to you. Except, that’s not what happened when one man ordered controllers from the makers of The Avenger controller, and his situation with what could be the worst Public Relations agent in not just all of gaming but the world has become internet legend over night. Dave shared the conversation below to a number of sites including Blast, and it’s amazing how far it goes and so fast.

Our story picks up with Dave questioning Paul Christoforo, a PR rep from Ocean Marketing whether the product he ordered would be available before the Christmas Holiday as promised, look for our comments in italics throughout the conversation.

From: Dave
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 16, 2011, at 1:34 PM

I ordered 2 of the upcoming PS3 controllers (invoice xxxxxxxxx—Nov 3, 2011). Any chance of getting an update of when these items will ship? I’m not really happy about being forced to pay upfront then have the advertised date of “Early December” be completely missed without any sort of update on availability. I really need one of them for a X-mas present as well. Anyways, looking forward to finally using one of these bad boys. Thanks and happy holidays.

-Dave

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 16, 2011 2:45 PM

Dec 17

- Paul Christoforo

From: Dave
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 19, 2011, at 11:02 AM

Thanks for the reply Paul.  Can you clarify whether my particular order already sent or if Dec 17 was the first day shipments went out?  I have not received any sort of shipping confirmation email or tracking information.

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 19, 2011 11:21 AM

They still haven’t shipped yet on the way here from china

Blast: We’d just like to point out that we deal with a ton of gaming PR Reps on a daily basis, and if they had the grammar and spelling of this guy — we’d probably just end the conversation.

From: Dave
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 20, 2011 4:29 PM

So then delivery to customer doors by December 24th is no longer likely correct?  Do you have an estimated date of when units will arrive in California? Thanks.

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 20, 2011 5:11 PM

They are in the USA now in customs so its wither before or after Christmas.

From: Dave
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011, at 9:47 AM

I noticed the updated info on the webpage, and I don’t understand why there is absolutely no benefit given to those like me who have already ordered, and paid their money.  You’ve had my money interest free for nearly two months, yet now ANY new order will get $10 off….meaning I should just cancel my order for 2 controllers, get my money back, then re-order.

My other questions is regarding item compatibility.  Ocean Marketing seems to be involved with the Xtendplay controller holder, so I was wondering if the Avenger N-Controller can be used in conjunction with the Xtendplay (for both Xbox and PS3)?  Thanks

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 26, 2011 10:14 AM

Yes it can be used with xtend play if you remove the stand and no one is allowed to cancel and re order if we catch anyone doing it we will simply just cancel your order all together and you can buy it retail somewhere else.

Things happen in manufacturing if your unhappy you have 7 days from the day your item ships for a refund. You placed a pre order just like any software title the gets a date moved due to the tweaks and bugs not being worked out and GameStop or any other place holds your cash and im sure you don’t complain to activision or epic games so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else. The benefit is a token of our appreaciation for everyone no one is special including you or any first time buyer . Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I’ll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself. Have a good day Dan.

Blast: And this is where things start to get ugly

From: Dave 

To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011 12:11 PM

Then cancel my order if you want to.  I’m making a legitimate complaint about your poor communication and you’re the one stooping to childish levels, a patronizing attitude, and threats.  Hell you can’t even get the spelling of my name right.

And Gamespot pre-orders…wow what a terrible comparison.  Retailers take a couple dollars IF THAT for you to guarantee your game availability on the release date, whatever that is. That’s the understanding and that’s what you get.  Plus, I don’t have to complain to Activision or Epic games about these issues because they’re usually not missing the street dates for their AAA titles.

Now let’s take YOUR situation:
1) You’ve promised a new product based off the design for an existing, working product
2) For the longest time, you’ve stated on your website (your failure to update regularly is another issue) the initial/special/limited batch of your new product by early December, obviously in time for the all-important holiday gift-giving season.  I and thousands of other customers GIVE YOU OUR MONEY, INTEREST FREE on the promises you made online.
3) I reach out to you, on Dec 16 (AFTER you have FAILED TO MEET YOUR ADVERTISED DEADLINE AND FAILED TO COMMUNICATE TO ANYONE WHAT THE SITUATION IS) obviously a little frustrated but more curious about when I and other customers can expect the product we paid for.
4) Your reply to me is a cryptic “Dec 17” with absolutely no explanation of what that means.  In the mean time you having been using funds from pre-paid customers to complete Research & Development, product redesigns, and manufacturing mis-steps.
5) You force me to follow-up with an email asking for clarification about what “Dec 17” means since the day has passed and I have yet to receive any new information about my order.  Now you instead of ANSWERING MY QUESTION OF WHAT THE NEW DELIVERY DATE IS, you tell me the goods have yet to leave China…  Why are you telling me this?  I’m not your employee I’m your goddamn customer!  TELL ME WHAT THAT MEANS IN TERMS OF MY TIME AND WHEN I CAN EXPECT MY PRODUCT I PAID FOR.
6) So great…I have to email you AGAIN trying to get a CLEAR answer from you whether a Dec 24th delivery date is possible and if not, what the new date is.  Rinse & repeat: You give me an update of the delivery process (wow, thanks…you haven’t told me anything I don’t know about the order of international shipping procedures) but instead say “…so its wither before or after Christmas.”  WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?  GIVE ME A DATE!?  One that you’re actually going to follow, because I already see “late Nov to early Dec”;  “Dec 17”; and now “CHRISTMAS” in my rear-view mirror.
7) So I guess what’s left for me to do but just wait?  Oh but what’s this, you’ve updated your website…Ok at least you’ve clarified the dates more, I can expect my controller my latest first week of January.  But now as a “token of our appreciation” to all your “loyal customers” (you mean like customers who put up cash for you hold an use?) you’re giving a $10 coupon.  Let me get this straight…so you held my money interest free for 2 months to help bring this product to market, and now some new customer can place an order and pay $10 less than what I paid?  You have financially penalized me in two ways for being a “LOYAL CUSTOMER.”

I’m SURE you’re getting tons of other inquiries and I’m sure you’re not enjoying the fact that your product is not out when you wanted it to be.  I and everyone else understands that “sh*t happens,” but if you want us to be understanding of that, then you need to keep us in the loop.  You’ve already set yourself up for failure by making explicit promises that aren’t even “likely” given that the design and manufacturing are still be refined.  Then you make sure you’re going to fail by actually taking all of our money, Not just a little bit….THE WHOLE F*CKIN BEEFALO.  Why wouldn’t we trust that you’re going to deliver our merchandise on time?  Besides…it’s based off an existing product so how hard can it be?  Well as your youtube video shows, making any consumer device is hard and requires many iterations and improvements.  But I’m not going to apologize for holding your feet to the fire.  You created these expectations by acting like the release was already a done deal and by hiding the fact that it was faaaar from it.

I want my two n-controllers.  I 1) PAID FOR THEM   2) WAITED   3) DEALT WITH YOUR UNHELPFUL ASS.  I also didn’t want to feel like my trust and loyalty as a customer was being abused and then actually punished in comparison to other customers.  But I guess we can’t have it all… so right now I’ll settle for getting my merchandise and hopefully never having to deal with you again.  I’ve spent enough time writing this email which I hope you gain some insight from.  If you actually do want to screw me over by not fulfilling my order, then I assure you be hearing more from me or people representing me.

You show a surprising lack of business polish for someone who’s quite established, AND an lack of awareness of your customer base: Hardcore gamers.  We’re a demanding, vocal customer but the flip side is we’re loyal and eager to spend.  It’s lucky for you that I really want this product because it seems really deliver on making the gaming experience more effective and enjoyable.  Hell, I want to combine the aventer-controller with the xtend play to make the ugliest, most comfortable, most awesome controller ever.  And I’ll still buy the xtend, so let that be a testament to your products, the rise above your poor representation.

-DAVE with a V

p.s. You look really douchy be having one youtube video complaining about the noise of traffic next to your home and then another video showing off your obnoxiously loud rice rocket (which is nice, I gotta hand it ya).

p.p.s. Welcome to the internet, bitch.  That’s how I roll.

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 26, 2011 2:19 PM

LOL Thanks for the Free PR I know the Editor N Chief of Kotaku , IGN , Engadget I’ll be meeting them at CES .The noise complaint was for people high up on the food chain in a corporate world of real estate you have no clue about.  Thanks for the Rice Rocket Compliment too love me some motorcycle . Send that over to Engadget you look like a complete moron swearing and sending your customer service complaints to a magazine as if they will post it or even pay attention do you think you’re the first or the last what are they going to do demand us to tell you were your shipment is or ask for a refund on your behalf … Really … Welcome to the Internet ? Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet, thanks for the welcome to message wurd up.  Grow up you look like a complete child bro. I Don’t have my controller so im gonna cry to the world … Really ?? Hey take that free time and do something more productive. All you had to do was check the like everyone else , people have inquired but you’re the douchiest of them all J

To all our pre-order customers looking for information on the status of their orders after a busy couple of months The PS3 Avengers are on their way from our Manufacturing plant overseas. We are aware that everyone is anticipating having their Avengers under their Christmas Tree and were doing our best to get these orders shipped out as fast as possible. We appreciate you as loyal customers and for supporting our company. Customers will start receiving their products this week before Christmas and After Christmas and into the New Year. As a token of our appreciation we are offering all our pre-order customers and new customers 10$ off your next order with us just enter Avenger1001 at Checkout. Thank you and Happy Holidays!

Oh and FYI When a street date gets pushed by a publisher on a video game you pre ordered do you cry to them too ?

You just got told bitch … welcome to the real internet check kotaku in 2 weeks when they are reviewing free PS3 Avengers we send them as well as G4 and all the other majors hell yeah , don’t forget to check Amazon, gamestop.com, play n trade , Myers , Frys and a ton of other local stores coming your way you think you speak for billions son your just a kid you speak for yourself no one cares what you think that’s why were growing and moving 20-50 thousand controllers a month. We do value our customers but sometimes we get children like you we just have to put you in the corner with your im stupid hat on. See you at CES , E3 , Pax East ….? Oh wait you have to ask mom and pa dukes your not an industry professional and you have no money on snap you just got told.

Blast: If you’re going to namedrop, make sure you know what you’re talking about. At this point Penny Arcade steps in and things get funny.

From: Mike Krahulik
To: Dave, Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011 at 8:45 PM

Holy shit this is unbelievable. Dave, if this guy has a booth at Pax east we will cancel it.

From: Dave
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 8:53 PM

Hey thanks Mike.  It’s truly a shame because I think this device is great for gamers with disabilities and problems.  I think of Child’s Play and if anyone’s gonna need greater accessibility when using complicated gamepads…it’s sick kids!  Shit man, I’m really gonna feel bad if I think that sick children may somewhere down the line have fewer avenger controllers because I got into a pissing match with a sad old man.  Please don’t cancel their booth on my account.  As much as I hate this asshole, I still WANT his product and think it should be out there.  GAH, I wish I was in a position to make a competing product to really stick it to guy.

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 8:54 PM

Hey Mikey,

We’re not renting a booth at pax east this year , bigger and better shows to be at we got nothing from the show . Oh so you know this guy has sold over 500 thousand dollars of product in Dec and is my main distribution arm landing us in GameStop , fry’s , Myers , Best buy , Activision , MLG , play N trade and a lot more . Were in 6 countries and you’re not going to take my money for a booth that’s a crock I can guarantee I’ll get a booth if I want one money buys a lot and connections go even further.  He’s a native Bostonian from Little Italy . Who are you again ?

Oh Teh Noes!

-Gabe

From: Mike Krahulik
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:08 PM

I am mike krahulik, Pax is my show. Feel free to google me=) I can promise you that you will never have space at any future Pax event.

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:33 PM

OK Mike whatever you say lol , are you sure hour not in Boston I spoke to the person who ran the show in Boston last year. If you let some little kid influence you over a pre order then we don’t want to be a your show ,Ill be on the floor anyway so come find me , I’m born and raised in Boston I know the people who run the city inside and out watch the way you talk to people you never know who they know it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone. Your acting like a douchbag not that it matters pax east pax west , e3 , CES , Gamer Con , SSXW ,Comic Con, Germany I’m all over the place. If we want to be there we will be there with industry badges or with a booth you think I can’t team up with turtle beach , Callibur or Koy Christmas , I can’t get Kevin Kelly to pull some strings or G4 , Paul Eibler Ex CEO of take 2 ,  Rich Larocco Konami , Cliff Blizinski Epic who were working with on a gears version , Activision who were working with on a MW3 and Spider man Bundle , The Convention Center Owners themselves , Mayor of Boston come on Bud you run a show that’s all you do and lease a center in Cities you have no pull in its all about who you know not what you do.  I’ll see space where ever I want , with who I want when I want and where I want so many ways around you and so many connections in this industry its silly. Anyway , I have no issue with you Sean Buckley Engadget, Scott Lowe IGN and the list goes on and on. Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be Careful

From: Mike Krahulik
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:40 PM

I do run Pax, but I also run a website called penny arcade. It’s kinda popular.

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:41 PM

Love penny Arcade !!

From: Mike Krahulik
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:42 PM

I’m glad you like it! You will be on it tomorrow:)

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:46 PM

Great !! Love PR

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:46 PM

Mike I’m not trying to fight with you I’m really not , you should give me the benefit of the doubt before judging over one person’s bitching . Did I feed into his emails a little bit too much yeah ok . But it’s one person dude for real. No disrespect intended for you , My name is good in this industry and I know a lot of people. I’ll be at CES are you going ?

From: Mike Krahulik
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:47 PM

Please remove me from this mailing list

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Mike Krahulik
Dec 26, 2011 at 9:57 PM

Your spamming me you’re not on a mailing list you idiot ! You sent me an email remember . Make sure you stir up a lot of controversy about us the more the better we needed some drama gets good blood flow going about the new product launch .  Your sites amateur at best my son could put together a better site than yours and you run PAX ?? Wow , Ill put my marketing team on a smear campaign of you and your site and your emails , I have about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos you have no clue who I am . Thanks again

Blast:  The PR rep has apparently lost his job, and good has triumphed over douchery. Let it be known kids, even in this day of video chat and other modern marvels, the golden rule still holds true: don’t be a dick.

We’ve been doing a lot of debate around Blast tower lately regarding exactly what should be game of the year, which has led me to going back and playing through some of my favorite games of this year over again. Game of the Year will be out within the next week, but these are some of my favorite moments from games in the last year. Fair warning though, there are major spoilers in this article, and if you haven’t played through some of this year’s biggest games, you may want to close your eyes and put your fingers in your ears right about now.

5. The hunt for the killer: L.A. Noire

I strongly believe that L.A. Noire is one of this year’s most under appreciated games. It dripped with charm, tried new things and dared to be different in a year of sequels, and the Quarter Moon Murders, the last case on the homicide desk has you going through a series of L.A. landmarks tracking clues left by a murderer who has been taking out victims for the entire game. You’re close to finding out just who the killer is, and it all results in a tense showdown in a church.

The most interesting part of the entire scene is that when you finally take him down, the Police Chief forces you to keep silent thanks to the killer’s political connections, and for the first time in the entire game, you doubt the motives of the people around you and kicking off one hell of a second act.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Levias boss fight

Everyone knows the Wii isn’t as technically powerful as the Xbox 360 or PS3, but this boss battle is well above much of anything we’ve seen on the Wii before.

Starting off with the game’s signature air mechanics, you swoop down and do damage to a gigantic beast of a boss. The whole thing is very dramatic and for a gamer like myself who loves extremely large enemies, it seemed pitch perfect — until it got better.

There battle then takes a sudden turn as you’re landing on the boss and having to take out a parasite in his back with the most impressive demonstration of the Wii motion pus to date, and perhaps the most impressive we’ll ever have.

3. Uncharted 3: Alone in the desert

The Uncharted series thrives on spectacle, it’s the gaming equivalent of an over the top, in your face action movie. Up until about the mid point in the game, you’ve already been blown out ancient buildings, throw out of a plane, and evens escaped a sinking cruise ship, but it’s hat comes next hat really sets the game’s tone.

After accidentally sending a cargo plane down in the middle of the desert, Nathan Drake is stranded. He’s lost, hot and for the first time in our adventures with him, has no idea what to do. What follows is an artistic and even touching series of moments that see’s a character who often seems super human suddenly becoming anything but. For the first time in the series, Drake seems scared, he’s searching for water, for guidance.

What really sets the scene apart though is the phenomenal production values. Uncharted 3 is built on dynamic framing mixed with camera angles and lightning that make you feel like you’re in the moment with these characters, and this scene is where it shines like no other. When Drake starts walking through the dessert, the camera pans out and you suddenly get a sense of not just how large the desert is, but how desperate the situation truly is.

2. Portal 2: The return of Glados

From start to finish, Portal 2 is filled with amazing technical achievements, performances and mechanics, but everything gets kicked into full gear with the return of one gaming’s most infamous villains.

Early on in Portal 2, you’re just getting the hang of a few new mechanics the game introduces. The tone is light and you’re meeting new characters like the wonderfully voiced Wheatley. Suddenly, without warning there tone shifts, and Wheatley begins to get nervous about going through “her” chamber.

As you exit an elevator, the power begins to turn back on, and all hell starts to break loose. That’s when she starts to reassemble herself, and Glados notices you — and Portal 2 begins proper.

It’s hard to imagine how a Portal sequel would work without Glados, as she’s so Voiced so pitch perfect, and gives so much life to a game built on mechanical characters.There are so many one liners that it would be hard to pinpoint one, but just remember that you’re a horrible person and Glados will be sure to remind you of that.

1. Gears of War 3: Brothers ’till the End

This one may see a bit biased, but no moment in 2011 made me feel or made me care more than Gears of War 3′s pivotal and emotional goodbye to one of its most established characters.

Towards the end of Gears of War 2, Dom finally finds his missing wife Maria, but she’s already been killed, which sets up one of the most important dynamics of Gears of War 3. Dom is a wreck and a loner, haunted by the memories of his wife and the life he used to have. When Delta Squad goes on to their biggest mission yet, they have no idea that they’ll be returning without one of their own.

One of the game’s biggest moments in when they find out that the imulsion has also turned humans into crazed monsters, and outside of a church, they’re face to face with lambent infected humans, and locust. Their backs are to the wall, and there’s more than they can handle.

Then it happens. Dom jumps into a vehicle near the battle and just stares out to the window, yells out to Maria and plows the vehicle into a gas supply, causing a major explosion and that ends up killing the enemies and himself.

It’s a gutsy move, and also an incredibly moving one. Over the chaos, Gary Jules’ Cover of Mad World, the same song from the trailer from the first game plays, and you’re suddenly thinking about all of the time you’ve played as Delta Squad and you instantly care. What makes the moment though is seeing Marcus Fenix, knows for being a badass try desperately to save him, but realize he can’t. It makes the rest of Gears 3 a personal and very emotional quest for vengeance.

Jason Priestley as Clive, attempting to befriend Shawn and Juliet for criminal purposes on tomorrow's "Psych"

Anyone who was alive during the 90s will likely remember Jason Priestley by a different name, Brandon Walsh from “Beverly Hills 90210.” Despite the continued adoration of the fans he gained almost two decades ago, Jason is adamant about moving on. When asked about any possible “90210″ references during a call-in interview he insisted, “That project is so quickly disappearing in the rear-view mirror of my life, I tend not to — I tend to reference that as infrequently as possible.”

So what is the old teen heartthrob up to now? Well, tomorrow night on USA Network, Priestly will portray a conman named Clive whom Shawn and Juliet will have to apprehend when Clive and his lady partner-in crime  (played by Jennifer Finnigan) raid the couple’s hotel room while they’re on their vacation.

Priestley spoke a lot about what a blast it was to shoot “Neil Simon’s Lovers Retreat.”

“It’s funny when you get to be an actor of my age and having been around this business for so long, you know, when I walk on sets like when I walked on the set of Psych, I knew pretty much everybody on the set. It was strange,” he said.

This sense of fun and rapport shows through the episode as the chemistry shines between Priestley and Psych star, James Roday.

I told Priestley that he certainly held his own in the humor department, especially in during the “cake sharing scene,” he and Roday shared. I characterized the scene as a “quite the bromance.” His response? “Oh, you know, yes, we did. We had a little thing going on. You know, don’t judge us. Don’t judge us, man.”

Most Americans might think that this guest spot is Jason’s first TV appearance in a while, but since the end of a certain teen drama which will remain nameless, Priestley has been acting or directing constantly. In fact, on HBO Canada (his homeland) he plays the lead in the award-winning drama, “Call Me Fitz,” about a morally bankrupt car-salesman who has is forced to confront his conscience. “I’m hyper critical of everything I’ve ever worked on, but I’m very, very proud of the work we do on ‘Call Me Fitz.’ I think that’s a fantastic show.” Jason also wanted me to assure any one who is interested that you can find “Call Me Fitz” on iTunes and Netflix.

So what’s he working on now? “Well, you know, we just finished shooting our third season of Fitz and I just got back here to LA literally a week ago, so I just got back here. And it’s, you know, it’s the holidays now. And I’m going skiing on the weekend, so I’m, you know, I’ll figure it out when the holidays are over.” And Jason is the father of a 4 year-old and a 2 year-old, so you can’t blame a dad for wanting to take a break from his career to enjoy the tikes. And audiences can certainly enjoy the fruits of his labor tomorrow night when Jason portrays, Clive, half of a charming couple hellbent on conning innocent folks for all their worldly possessions. And even Shawn and Juliet aren’t immune!

So check out a charismatic and witty Jason Priestley on “Psych” at 10 p.m. on USA!

Last night, word broke that the legendary creator of Mario and Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto had told Wired that he would be stepping down from his current position and focusing on smaller projects.

“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto, 59 told Wired. “Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.”

Nintendo has repeatedly denied the reports that the man known as “Japan’s Walt Disney” would be stepping down, issuing a press release telling Reuters that “This is absolutely not true,” said a Nintendo spokesperson “There seems to have been a misunderstanding. He has said all along that he wants to train the younger generation. He has no intention of stepping down. Please do not be concerned.”

The writer of the original Wired report stands by the piece though, tweeting that “Shigeru Miyamoto’s comments in the Wired story speak for themselves. Wired and I stand by this report.”

Once in a while, with a batch of very sub-par games in a genre, one will shine brightly among the rest, proving that such a game genre should exist in the first place. WWE ’12 is that wrestling videogame who rescues the pack, showing the public a phenomenal title can come from such a niche.

On an apparent downward slide, the wrestling videogame industry was hurting. A cult following could only provide so much support when the franchise slowly spiraled out of control. It eventually went into a place where even the most hardcore fans wouldn’t follow (see Hulk Hogan’s Main Event… *shudder*). As of lately, it’s been hard for the wrestling industry in general. But with major changes in the industry (such as The Rock coming back! Who’s stoked?!), the whole aspect of wrestling seems to be on the upswing as it fights its way out of a very deep hole. And it’s swinging hard and fast.

A quick side note before diving deep into the vast universe of WWE ’12:  My apartment is full of diehard fans that were drooling at the sight of this game. Collectively, we’ve been playing these games together since we all met in freshman year of college. Nights have turned into mornings as we’ve created our own characters, move-sets, finishers, and story lines, challenging each other’s titles, interweaving character paths. This traditional has gone for four years and counting as our created superstars, such as Bo Wilson, the Canadian Olympian, or Bad Doktah V, the mad scientist with a hobby of creating evil monsters, have all gone through the test of time just like the real wrestlers through the decades. Just be wary of the judgments made in the review since the game was not only scrutinized by me, but also by the hardcore fan boys that I live with.

We tend to be a bit intense at times.

With that said, let’s explore WWE ’12.

The first thing you’ll notice when you pop the disk into your console is that developers took serious time and effort to make ’12 as smooth and realistic looking as possible. Superstar faces, for the most part, look like the real superstars, the voices are actually their voices, and their move sets and their entrances are exactly their real entrances. The graphics are impressive, clean and the presentation is out of this world. In games past, frame rates would get caught in the currents and freeze up, limbs would go wild into spasms during matches, and the presentation slowly decayed. No such thing exists in ’12. It took me hours of game play for me to experience my first glitch (which I expected much, much sooner considering how glitchy both Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 and 2011 were).

The superstar entrances are truly pristine. The fireworks and pyrotechnics are 99 percent accurate and the entrance videos are the real thing. The lighting is very cool and the fluidness of moves makes for a great show. Even when characters talk, their mouths are attempting to work with the words that are spoken. It’s nice to see so much time spent on even the tiniest details in a game so large.

The Rock returns and delivers a Rock Bottom to Cena.

Combat is usually where past wrestling games have been lacking. They’ve been a lot of show and no mechanics. My roommates had mixed feelings on how the game handled when in the ring (or outside of it).  Thinking since we had been playing the series of wrestling games for so long, we upped the ante and put the computer difficulty on “Legend.” This was a very poor choice, as developers have changed controls completely to make combinations and chains free-flowing. After creating my character, Flynn Withers, the crack-cowboy-hooligan, I decided to try him out against Chavo, who is a relatively low level. With him on set on “Legend,” Chavo decided to bring the pain and tossed my poor cowboy around like a rag doll, totally disregarding the fact that his level was 12 or so below mine. I swear he Gory Bombed me at least twice… If you’ve played previous wrestling games like Smackdown vs. Raw ’09, ’10 or ’11, you’re in for some abrupt changes in controls.

Countering and reversals, the most important thing in any wrestling game, is still one trigger, but a lot more difficult. One of the first things my friend yelled out as Mark Henry was beating him to a pulp was that the game was not user friendly to beginners. I would have to agree. If caught in the rampage of a chain or combination, it can be teeth-grittingly frustrating to try to reverse your way out of it. Not to mention, the signatures and finishers can be so quick to follow, at times, it seems impossible to block. It all takes time to get used to. Time and practice.

The grappling system is what took the biggest changes. Grappling is set to one button (“A” or “X” depending on your console) and then works with directional stick movement. When grabbing an opponent, you have seemingly endless options. You can hold the bumper and target a part of the body to deal a strike to, you can toss them, Irish whip them, you can signature/finish them if you have such an option cued up.  It was overwhelming at first and really confusing, considering we we’re all a bit too stubborn to check out tutorials. Taking the time to know your superstar’s move set is vital, and once you know the set it’s possible to string together some devastating combos.

Pinning has been changed as well, removing the desperate button mashing routine. Instead, there is a meter that can be compared to kicking a field goal in Madden. You’ll hold “A” and attempt to stop the meter in the blue area to kick out from a pin. Using the resiliency ability can give gamers the opportunity to temporarily enlarge their blue area for an easier kick out. The more your superstar is beaten up, the smaller the blue area is. It makes for some pretty quick matches at time and is insanely nerve racking.

Overall, the buttons have been swapped and changed around to the point where ’12 is a brand new addition to the genre. It can be difficult to get the hang of, but through the creation of a move set or playing any of the story options, it gets easier with time. A few of my friends would argue that it’s too complicated and would prefer it go back to 2010 set up. It really depends on the gamer’s preferences.

WWE ’12 has set a new bar with options for creation to the point where it’s almost too much. After pouring hours upon hours into creating a character, a move set and an entrance, I realized there was still the possibility to create a ring, a logo, and even a story with scenes and matches cued up. There are probably even more things to create that I haven’t even found yet due to the vastness of ‘12’s creation opportunities.

WWE '12's creation feature is easily the best of the series.

Although I’m still angry for one sole reason: The point system still exists…

The point system is at the bottom of the screen when creating a character. Players are allotted only a set amount of points to dress and accessorize their superstar. These points run out extremely fast when trying to dress your character appropriately, making it difficult to really make what you want. You may like a jacket that fits with your character’s persona, but it may cost so many points that he’ll go pants-less, much like our created superstar Batty the Banker (a very formal man with a very nice green velvet jacket and no pants we loves leg drops – very professional, we thought). Since our original creations on Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, it’s been absolutely impossible to recreate our masterpieces due to the point system… We all loathe it, and you most likely will too. It’s a terrible flaw to a wonderful concept.

On the other hand, the opportunities are endless with customization. It’s easy to gut sucked in. You may plan on putting an hour aside to work on your superstar, but you’ll glance at the clock when you’re finally finished to see that five hours have gone by. It’s fair to say, even though the point system limits creativity, it makes for evolution of characters if you’re recreating on the new platform.

There are quick options too, if you’re not looking to spend ages on any one thing in particular, which is a nice touch. There are pre-set move sets from old superstars, and you can even use some older superstar move sets that just aren’t labeled in the game specifically (just poke around online and they’ll show who corresponds to each number). Same with entrances: there is a quick edit option to just use someone else’s entrance. What’s great is you can still utilize personal mp3s for entrance music, so if you’ve already uploaded music for previous wrestling games onto your console, they should be good to go.

There’s absolutely no limit to what you can make (unless, of course, it’s actually dressing your character). It’s up to you to decide how deep you want to go into customizing your wrestling world. It’s having the option that makes it so fantastic.

Road to Wrestlemania is the attempted storylines for WWE ’12. And, honestly, they weren’t as bad as I assumed them to be. Usually, the purchase of a wrestling videogame was for the sole reason of multiplayer. This mode, however, is worth one play through.

The modes are broken into three paths. It’s the standard “bad,” “neutral,” and “hero” set up. With each path obviously labeled, the game does not allow you to make your own decisions. You’ll be prompted to fight matches with certain superstars and your fate will already be decided. It probably could have been made better by giving players the option to make a choice, that way there would be some sort of replay value, but the story is already scripted and ready to roll. If you fail an objective, you’ll be forced to restart.

Even winning some matches will earn players a prompt to hit “Y” (or triangle depending on platform), which will cue a cut scene. Sometimes, after laying down the smacketh on an opponent, you’ll still lose because that’s the path of the story. This is understandable considering it’s a story, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

Of all of them, the hero path is the best (which always seems to be the case in videogames). Players will control a new wrestler with the name Jacob Cass who has just joined the WWE and is being mentored by Rey Mysterio. They’ll be prompted to either create Cass or choose someone to model Cass after.

Do not choose an already custom made superstar!

In case you couldn’t read that, I’ll put it in all caps.

DO NOT CHOOSE AN ALREADY CUSTOM MADE SUPERSTAR!

The game will make your superstar into Jacob Cass, changing the character’s build. The appearance should be fine, despite that, but if you’ve spent a long time tweaking the build of your superstar, you’ll find this immensely frustrating.

Getting past that flaw, you’ll fight against Kevin Nash and his WCW cronies as they attempt to destroy Monday Night Raw for good. It’s a story filled with betrayal and twists and, overall, it’s definitely worth the play through. There were a few dull moments of filler where you fight Vader and Animal in backstage brawls over and over again, which definitely gets old. But teaming up with some legendary superstars is pretty cool, not to mention homage is paid to old legends such as Eddie Guerrero. If you play any of the roads, it should be the “hero” path.

Universe mode is probably one of the coolest and in-depth options ’12 has to offer. You can play as any superstar, included custom ones, and work your way through a schedule of events. You’ll be matched up with and against random superstars as you fight your way to the top. You can play through every match on the calendar, but that would be outright ridiculous if you did. A simulation option is available for players to breeze through matches that don’t involve them or their allies. Again, this is a prime example of WWE ’12 giving players complete control of their game play.

Using my Flynn Withers, I inserted myself into lower matches, fighting against Otunga and Del Rio. After defeating them in the ring, cut scenes took place and one of them to a cheap shot to my crotch, causing a rivalry between them. Managers will get involved, allies will get involved, divas will get involved, there’s really no telling what will happen after each match. Tag partners will choose to not help, the Heavy Weight Champ will come in and wreck house, it all happens and without warning. I tried to make it as realistic as possible, so I worked my character into the upper ranks of Raw in order to fight my way into Smackdown. Winning matches and sustaining momentum will cause your character’s levels to rise slightly, while a defeat will crush momentum and downgrade you a little. You’ll fight Number One Contender matches to have a crack at specific belts and people can interrupt matches and alter who wins or loses. The best part is it is always changing. You’ll make shaky alliances that will flip-flop in the next match, or you’ll make the worst of rivals that will beat you down before the match even starts with a metal pipe (yes, that happened to me). Due to the unpredictable nature of the mode, it’s a lot of fun and keeps players coming back for more, even if it’s just to defend a title.

What’s nice is almost any mode in WWE ’12 can be turned into a multiplayer situation. The only exception was Road to Wrestlemania, which is primarily a single player story.

Multiplayer is much like it’s always been and probably the largest selling point for ’12. Again, developers really stress the idea of customization to gamers, and made every match option a possibility. You can have a 40-person Royal Rumble or you can fight your way to the top of a six-man ladder match (tried it, I suggest you don’t, it took over an hour).  Everything is there, from First Blood matches to Iron Man matches to Elimination Chambers.

The Back Stage Brawl matches, however, were a bit of a disappointment. There is only one stage with multiple areas, which was amazingly intriguing at first, but got old real fast. You can push someone through car windows, or smash their head with a door, but honestly, 2010 got it right. There were plenty of items to use and the item grapple option was wonderful. WWE ‘12’s brawls are far more lacking and get stale after exploring the whole area once with friend(s).

WWE ’12 does offer online play as well as online sharing that’s definitely worth checking out. People will create absolutely everything throughout the game that can be shared and downloaded by other gamers. They’re rated, and the higher the rating the more downloads you’ll probably get. Say you’ve spent considerable time on creating an arena and want to see what others think. Just upload the ring and see how it does, it’s all in good fun. It is very similar to Halo Reach’s option to create maps with an online download option. Uncovering the process was quite refreshing, showing that other people poured as much of their life into ’12 as I did.

As far as unlockables go, there’s a ton. There are old superstars to unlock, new arenas, new titles and new attires. The Road to Wrestlemania will unlock a lot of them, and so will fighting through the WWE Universe. There’s a lot to unlock, however, and it will take full exploration of the game to get everything out of it.

To put it simply – if you have the time for WWE ’12, it will reward you.

BLAST FACTOR: Among the broken remains of the wrestling videogame world, WWE ’12 shouts over Cena’s taunt of “You can’t see me!” and demands recognition. It’s smooth and looks incredible, is outrageously accurate in representation of the superstars, and has fluid combat controls. If you’re a fan of the older games, be prepared for different controls. The customization options are through the roof and unrivaled by any wrestling game thus far. Players have the ultimate control they’ve been looking for… except for that damn point system. WWE ’12 demands a lot of time be put into it and is a very simplistic equation of “work in = work out.” For those looking to really dive into the depths of a wrestling game, this is the game for you. With endless options, gamers can literally spend days creating and building their own worlds. It’s truly amazing what can be accomplished.

There is a lot there for fans to reminisce about, and tons of superstars are available for play (I’m especially glad Edge is still in the game despite his recent retirement). On the other hand, some of the game play can seem repetitive and may bore some gamers if not played with friends. The Road to Wrestlemania will briefly satisfy some, but for most it will grow stale quickly. Universe mode is a huge plus to the game and can keep the single player mode alive longer than a normal wrestling game would survive. Ultimately, ‘12 is definitely meant to be played with friends and is a multiplayer game at heart. This is a game for the fans, but maybe not for the casual player. Exploring WWE ’12 and committing time to it, however, can spark interest of the wrestling world in anyone and give gamers a new appreciation for a genre that seemed so close to a three count. Get that shoulder up, WWE ’12 is here.

Frank Cascio, Michael Jackson’s former personal assistant, wrote the new book “My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man,” which is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.

The book sheds light on the musician’s longstanding drug problem that escalated into his Propofol-induced death in June of 2009.

Michelle Duggar, known for the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting,” is expecting her twentieth child with her husband, Jim Bob.

The mother announced the pregnancy on TODAY Moms, expressing her surprise at having a child at age 45. She said “I was not thinking that God would give us another one, and we are just so grateful.”  The couple doesn’t use any form of contraception, saying they leave their family matters up to God.

Jim Bob declared his joy at the prospect of a twentieth child, saying “Michelle and I both feel like some of the most blessed parents in the world. Our children are so sweet… we are so grateful to God”.

The couple’s nineteen other children include Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, Jordyn-Grace, and Josie. The family won’t know the sex of their new addition until December.

According to the Times of India, scientists in London have developed a new flu vaccination which they claim to be “universal”. The new vaccine, Flu-v, supposedly offers lifelong protection against any and all strains of influenza. Professor John Oxford, scientific director of Retroscreen Virology, said “A universal vaccine could…reduce the need for people to have vaccines each year against seasonal flu”.

The new vaccination is said to recognize a constantly recurring element within the many strains of the virus, and is intended to defend the immune system against that element.

Plans are being made to conduct a larger clinical trial, and hopefully have the vaccine available for the public in three to five years.

A new rumor suggests that the successor to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console will be much smaller in size, all while sporting a cheaper price tag.

The rumor, first spotted by Industry Gamers is attributed to blogger MS Nerd, who reported correct early information on past Microsoft projects. MS Nerd also reports that the new console will run an a version of Windows 9.

“With a heady mix of rumors, tips and speculation, I am now stating that Xbox codename “loop” (the erstwhile XboxTV) will indeed debut a modified Win9 core,” claims the report. “It will use a Zune HD-like hardware platform-a “main” processor with multiple dedicated assistive cores for graphics, AI, physics, sound, networking, encryption and sensors. It will be custom designed by Microsoft and two partners based on the ARM architecture,” they added.”It will be cheaper than the 360, further enabling Kinect adoption. And it will be far smaller than the 360. It will also demonstrate how Windows Phone could possible implement Win9′s dev platform on the lower end.”

Rumors heavily suggest that the next Xbox will be unveiled at this year’s E3 and pushed out for a Holiday 2013 release.

I first started playing Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One late at night. Sitting in front of the big screen, the opening cinematic started — all the conditions were right for a superb Ratchet and Clank experience. Then something strange happened; I found myself not exploring the world, but lumbering around, almost falling asleep in my chair. The next morning I jumped back in to the game with a few others and had a completely different experience – this was more like the Ratchet and Clank I knew.

All 4 One is a rare change from Insomniac for one of their most well known franchises, both in terms of design and quality. It’s two different games, a bad – -almost terrible single player endeavor and a frantic and mostly fun multiplayer romp. Perhaps most dissapoitingly, with graphical hiccups and glitches, All 4 One doesn’t live up to the past pedigree of previous games with superb production values. That being said, there’s still some value in this off the wall title featuring some of gaming’s most underrated characters – especially if you’ve got the friends to fill in the ranks.

Things start off remarkably well in All 4 One. We open to Ratchet and Clank being interviewed and lamenting their adventurous lifestyle, talking about how they want to leave the heroics to a professional – Like newly elected President Captain Quark (or anyone else). Before long, Dr. Nefarious returns, but in the middle of his attempt at revenge, the four are face to face with a powerful new enemy and are transported to an alien planet, and most work together to get home. This leads to perhaps the game’s most endearing quality; there are plenty of heart-warming moments and in-jokes as the former enemies must find a way to work together. It’s hard not to crack a smile at some of the moments, especially when the voice work is done so incredibly well.

Much like previous Ratchet and Clank games, All 4 One attempts to blend a multitude of gaming mechanics and traditions to create one experience; unlike previous games, they aren’t widely successful here. The main draw of All 4 One as opposed to the previous games in the series is that here, you’ll be doing everything you normally do, from platforming to solving puzzles, but this time you’ll have up to three of your friends by your side. Right from the character select screen, I was instantly brought back to my days of bumming around in arcades playing classic coin-op coop’s like The Simpsons and X-Men. That vibe persists throughout the entire game, and the game proves to be a complete blast when it really starts to gain momentum. It becomes a fast and frantic smash and grab co-op beat ‘em up that is worth more than its fair share of beat-‘em-ups.

The downside too all of this is that some of what makes the Ratchet and Clank series so remarkable in the first place seems to have been compromised for this feeling. The previous games, especially the phenomenal  A Crack in Time weren’t exactly open world, but they did encourage exploration throughout its worlds, in that regard, All 4 One feels remarkably shoe-horned and linear. You and your motley bunch will follow very set paths as you smash through crates, and jump from platform to platform. I couldn’t help but think to myself; this is a Ratchet and Clank game, I should be able to see what’s behind that wall! It’s pretty disappointing, especially to long time fans of the series.

All 4 One also employs a pretty robust set of weapon upgrades you’ll obtain by playing through the game. Each character has their own set of weapons and each is fully upgradable by purchasing them at bolt machines scattered throughout All 4 One’s maps. It’s a lot of fun to go through and get these upgrades, but I constantly found myself pining for the system of old where you upgrade your weaponry would need to be used significantly before you could upgrade it. Sure the new way seems like a much more streamlined and easy to use, but the previous way almost demanded depth and experimentation with the game’s weaponry.

All 4 One is also missing the polish that Insomniac Games has made a staple of the Ratchet and Clank universe. There are occasional visual hiccups throughout the game, like mudded-out textures and boring color schemes (when compared to the bulk of the game), but by far the most frustrating presentation aspect is how crappy the camera system is. All 4 One employs a much more zoomed out camera to adapt to the new 4-player system, but it also locks at all the wrong times and frequently cuts off things like enemies and power-ups until everyone on the screen is ready to move on.

The Blast Factor: It’s a tough business being a console mascot; one wrong move and you’re doing starring roles on your former rival’s party games.  All 4 One may not be that wrong move (if anything, Secret Agent Clank takes that spot), but it’s still a step backward for the franchise. It can be frantic and fun when played with the right people, but just don’t let it be anyone’s introduction to the Ratchet and Clank franchise.

Editor’s note: Blast writer John Stephen Dwyer has been staying with Occupy Boston protesters since the beginning of the protest. He has been filing longer stories every few days with breaking news when it happens.

Main Street, Occupied Boston (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Two weeks ago, 300 people illegally seized a portion of the Rose Kennedy Greenway and set up tents. The mayor told the police not to stop them, and today the tent city still stands.

More than a campsite, it’s a well-managed shantytown complete with its own reflections of what you’d find in most communities — police, government, restaurant, hospital, school, theater, church and even a home goods store. Groups of grade school and middle school students take field trips here, and thousands of people of all descriptions visit daily. Many drop off donations of food or other supplies. Some stop to ask questions.

Many come just to tell at least one person “I think what you’re doing is great.”

This ragged community occasional fields groups of protestors to march around the city or, as they did earlier this week, engage in acts of civil disobedience such as blocking the bridge to Charlestown and stampeding through the interior of Faneuil Hall screaming for justice as both police and baffled tourists watched passively. This is Occupy Boston.

Part of something bigger

Occupy Boston is part of a movement that exploded in New York City on September 17 as a protest called “Occupy Wall Street.” It has since spread to dozens of cities across the U.S. CNN reports more than two dozen cities around the world, “stretching from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires, Dublin to Madrid,” will be joining the protest today, on what’s already being called “a global day of revolution.”

In a historical context, the Occupy Movement will be remembered as a response to worldwide economic problems that became obvious in December 2007 as well as a protest against a increasing disparity of wealth and a civil rights battle.

Like anything of its size, the movement includes people that don’t agree with each other about a lot of things. Some of its most devoted members are young radicals, whose ideas might shock the soccer moms and dads who stop their SUV’s on Atlantic Avenue to drop off food and blankets to the Occupy Boston community.

But one small sign perched on the curbstone at Occupied Boston says “it’s not radical to want love, equality and compassion for our fellow humans.” From the unbathed Maoist on day eight of an occupation, to the millions of apolitical people whose only affiliation with the movement is through social media, almost all people aligning themselves with the group seem to believe three very broad notions. First, they insist that hurting innocent people is bad. Second, they believe powerful corporations exert too much power on government and have hurt innocent people in numerous ways. Third, they think everyone should get involved in correcting that problem.

It does take some skilled organizers to strike the spark of protest and fan the fires in the desired, non-violent direction, but the Occupy Movement is still intensely grassroots. A handsomely-written and well-circulated text, “Open letter and warning from former tea partier to the OWS movement” is posted on the Occupy Wall Street website and describes how the Tea Party began as a diverse, well-intentioned populist movement before being hijacked by the Christan Right, the GOP and, ultimately corporations. It warns how the media will assist in a similar take over of this new movement and advises ways to navigate these issues.

Whatever its origin, the text reflects a general sentiment among the Greenway occupiers that donations from companies are suspicious, the media can’t be trusted, and both the Republican and Democratic parties can go to hell.

Close Quarters

There’s a pathway lined with metal barriers separating Occupy Boston from the paved area around the entrance to the Red Line. It’s been called “Music Row” and even “Tin Pan Alley” as it’s a popular place for people to gather, sit on the wide benches, and play musical instruments. Someone has set up a few tiki-like wood carvings here, and an immense statue of Ganhdi, made of relatively lightweight materials and property of the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, facing South Station.

“Main Street,” a path of wooded pallets bisecting the grassy area, starts here. It’s a precarious route, and the mud on either side gets to be several inches deep when it rains. It’s been muddy often these past few weeks, as the occupiers have endured days of light rain and several downpours. About 90 tents squat on either side of Main Street, 40 tents on the side bordered by Atlantic Avenue and 50 on the side where sparrows have been raiding a wilted sunflower garden.

A path runs past the sunflowers, connecting the welcome tent at one end of the park with the media tent at the other. This route was in place before the occupation, but only recently has someone erected a simple sign naming it “Sacco and Vanzetti Avenue.” As part of the effort to keep their community clean, volunteers have been combing though the gravel with rakes on a regular basis.

Occupy Boston is overcrowded and has been for at least a week. Tents are tightly packed, and there’s no room for more. Even finding a place to lie down in a sleeping bag is a challenge. There’s plenty of empty space around the park, but the Occupy Boston protest — while illegal because participants refused to seek permits — is an un-choreographed dance between the city and the protestors, as each tries not to overly piss off the other.

The paved area of the park (the end of it nearest South Station where at least two police officers are standing at all times) is therefore understood to be off limits. Nevertheless, Occupied Boston recently annexed a little sliver of it first occupied by ten tents that formed a sort of “student village” of protestors from local universities. At the opposite corner of the park, almost a dozen tents have spilled out along Atlantic Avenue along another strip of glass declared off limits by the mayor and the commissioner. While apparently no more or less interesting that any other part of the camp, this strip was named “Weird Street” over a week ago and the name has stuck. Weird Street has been an ongoing point of contention with the police from the start. The message conveyed to the police a week ago is that the protestors, as a community, can’t force the owners of those tents to remove them, and individuals in the community are likely to come to those people’s defense if it appears they are threatened.

According to patrolmen who spoke to Blast Magazine last weekend, police were planning on clearing Weird Street on Tuesday. Instead, they ended up turning their attention to a more significant expansion of the tent city that sprung up suddenly as police attention was diverted by hundreds of protestors blocking the bridge to Charlestown. As police demanded protestors leave the new site, Greg Housh, a 34-year old father serving in the center of many conversations between the occupiers and the city, explained “This place is full. We need to expand this site if we’re going to expand the movement. Other cities have expanded, we need to expand as well.”

During the six-hour standoff that followed, Occupy Boston received a visit from Nancy Brennan, Executive Director of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. Addressing the crowd with the call-and-response of the “people’s mic,” Brennan reminded protestors that the Conservancy had asked them not to expand onto a new portion of the park because of special concerns regarding a new irrigation system put into place and works on loan by various artists. But she ended her comments saying “…another thing that the Greenway stands for…is freedom of speech…and I ask, for as long as you are on this land, would you please help us take care of it?” Her smile beamed as the crowd chanted “Nancy! Nancy! Nancy!” in appreciation.

Despite these words of support from the director of the Greenway, hundreds of police marched into the area around 1 a.m. Tuesday. More than 160 people locked arms in a tight circle around their tent city annex and chanted slogans such as “the whole world is watching” and “this is a peaceful demonstration.” Starting about 20 minutes later, the police made 141 arrests and tore down all tents pitched in the new area. In the aftermath, protestors generally expressed the position that the police were just doing their jobs, but they could have done so less roughly. Many report cell phones, cameras, medication and the flags held by a veterans group were thrown away.

One woman, around 60 years old, said “the sight of the American flag being thrown in the trash will haunt me forever…if something like that happened to the Tea Party three years ago FOX News would still be showing footage of it.”

In the wake of the 141 arrests, Occupy Boston made international headlines and Weird Street was left untouched.

Missing the message

Most people passing through Occupied Boston are there because they support what they believe the protest stands for. Many can’t help expressing their solidarity to any stranger who will listen. There are also some, including many who meander in from the surrounding skyscrapers around lunchtime each day, who come just to gawk at the people and their signs. A few visitors — especially business school graduates in neckties — come to tell occupiers how they should be better getting their message across. The community isn’t very receptive to people broadcasting on this frequency as they insist there are multiple interrelated messages that shouldn’t be oversimplified for the benefit of the half-interested. More than one occupier said “either you get this or you don’t.”

Around 11 p.m. last Friday, a very well-groomed young woman with blonde hair stood near the Gandhi statue in a tense argument with several other people. No matter how broadly or how narrowly the small crowd tried to explain the purpose of their efforts, she continued to insist “I just don’t get it…I read the things online, like that thing from New York or whatever, and it doesn’t even make sense!” In sheer volume, hers was the loudest voice in the conversation as she claimed a genuine desire to understand. But it was clear that no useful communication was going back and forth between her and the others.

During the day, when traffic is heavy, beeps of support from cars passing on Atlantic Avenue get as frequent as three or four per minute. At night, this tapers off to a few honks an hour. There’s also the occasional jeer such as the “get a job, you fucking bums” yelled from a truck around 3 p.m. or the “cocksucking douchebag faggots” shouted from a car full of young men just after 2:30 a.m. last Saturday.

Occupy Boston, like many other occupation groups, has not released anything resembling a manifesto or list of demands. Participants don’t seem to care if this frustrates the mainstream media or confuses many of the people whose rights they say they’re fighting for. They’re acutely alert to anything that might serve as a wedge within the movement, and see decisions arrived at too hastily as the perfect example of this. As such, when it comes to defining their message, prioritizing their concerns and (eventually) proposing solutions, occupiers seem determined to proceed carefully even if it takes them a long time. Although individual protestors might be impatient, or frustrated about the lack of this or that, the overall spirit of the movement seems to be a that of patient resolve. “How long? As long as it takes!” is becoming one of the group’s many informal mottoes.

(Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

A few hundred people in Boston — 200 to 600 depending on the time of day and the weather — are illegally occupying Dewey Square Park, the portion of the Rose Kennedy Greenway directly in front of South Station. They’ve built a colorful community of about 60 tents in the shadow of the Federal Reserve Building, the skyscraper owned by Bank of America, and other symbols of financial power. During the day, they line Atlantic Ave with signs denouncing corporate greed. At night, they train each other in useful skills or gather for assembly, a sort of egalitarian legislature in which anyone can have a say and everyone gets a vote. They call what they are doing “Occupy Boston.”

It’s a diverse group with long lists of complaints about the way society is run, especially in regards to corporations and the power they yield. While members tend to be well left of center politically, most insist that what they are doing isn’t about Left or Right, Democrat or Republican. Noting the game-changing wealth the richest 1% of families have under their control, many like to call themselves “the other 99%” and insist that anyone within that same wide percentile is who they are fighting for.

Even in countries where no declared war is being fought, 2011 hasn’t been a peaceful year. The Arab Spring toppled regimes. In summer, parts of London burned. And in New York City, exactly three years after the especially sharp economic plummet of September 2008, thousands of people physically took themselves and their anger to the doors of Wall Street itself.

Who are the people “occupying” Boston and what do they want? What connection – if any – does this peaceful gathering on the Rose Kennedy Greenway have to do with the overthrow of leaders like Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi? This is a story of Boston’s newest and smallest “neighborhood,” a small patch of dirt and grass some are calling “Occupied Boston,” and the story starts in Canada.

Origins of Occupation

(Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Adbusters, an anti-corporate activist group registered in British Columbia way back in 1989, has been clamoring for social change ever since. But it wasn’t until this year, in the wake of the Arab Spring, that the idea for Occupy Wall Street started to really come together. On July 4, 2011, they registered the domain name “occupywallst.org.” Nine days later, a group of hackers devoted to civil disobedience via the Internet and calling themselves Anonymous, asked its members to join the demonstrations soon to follow. After two more months of planning, Occupy Wall Street exploded into a protest of more than 1,000 people on Monday, September 17, in New York City.

On day eight of this extended protest, many of those involved headed uptown, forcing the closure of several streets. At least 80 arrests were made that day, some of them roughly, and video of a New York City police officer chemical macing a group of young women intensified world attention on the event. On day 13, in front of South Station during Friday rush hour, Boston became among the first of many cities to field its own version of that same protest.

Occupying Boston

(Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Compared to their compatriots in NYC, the men and women of Occupy Boston received a warm welcome from the city. Word came down from Mayor Menino that tents pitched outside South Station would be allowed despite lack of permits. Before hitting the streets, some Boston cops received reminders about what holds are less painful for the person being restrained. Whatever else Boston’s powers-that-be might think of the protestors and their complaints, it’s clear they wished to avoid a replay of the public relations fiasco caused by the violent arrests in NYC just two days earlier.

Folks gathered at the State House and then marched towards the Financial District. The Rude Mechanical Orchestra, a NYC marching band scheduled to be in town anyway for the HONK! Festival taking place in Cambridge and Somerville that weekend, was a conspicuous presence at the moment of Occupy Boston’s actual birth. Dressed in trademark black and green, bedecked with sequins and playing exuberantly sloppy Dixieland, they made what was happening seem more like a holiday parade that the wild-eyed images we received of Arab Spring protestors. It helped set the tenor for what was to follow.

The cops, apparently in a non-confrontational mood, seemed amused by the marching band and a few folks in costumes. As people flocked into Dewey Square Park, police and protestors exchanged nonthreatening looks and polite words. “Hello…hiya…hello…howyadoing?” Even “welcome.” According to one police officer, a 30-plus-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who spoke on condition of anonymity, “What they’re doing here? It doesn’t bother us…(but) a few people barged into the bank and were trying to get arrested. So we helped ‘em out.” At least two dozen people, largely middle aged folks who had lost their homes, were gently taken into custody.

Emerging from their workplaces, waves of people stopped to gawk at the spectacle or tap their toes to the sound of horns and drums before catching the next train home. Widely circulated estimates that this first night drew about 1,000 people don’t seem to take into account the number of individuals and groups coming and going during these first hours. Two thousand plus seems more accurate.

It almost didn’t happen. Local organizers were targeting the following Friday, October 7, to hit the streets. But planning went surprising well and consensus was reached on numerous issues earlier than expected. The Occupy Boston movement was able to mobilize on September 30 instead, the same day that local groups were showing up on Beacon Hill – each with its own specific grievances regarding housing, labor or other issues. Most left with the sunset, but a few hundred people now firmly identifying themselves with the “Occupy Movement” encamped for the first night of the protest. Even torrential downpours during the night couldn’t dampen their impression that Occupy Boston had gotten off to a very auspicious start.

Teyvan Lowe

Teyvan Lowe (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

People came and went from the event throughout the weekend. By Monday, day four of the Boston protest, it looked like those in the camp were enjoying a decent level of comfort. Good planning meant that such essentials as the medical tent were in place from the start. People of various descriptions had dropped off carloads of food through the weekend, meaning a surplus had begun to be stockpiled. What had been a patch of turf was now a bustling shantytown of colorful tents in the gray shadow of America’s financial colossi. Some of its inhabitants – especially those with no roof over their heads before joining the protest – were already calling it “home.”

Teyvan Lowe, 18, was one of them. During the evening rush hour, as people held up various messages for the benefit of motorists, Lowe stood alongside them playing his guitar, dressed like a sort of bandito in a mask and stocking cap. Pulling down the bandana that covered the bottom of his face, he said “This is basically where I live. The streets.” He explained that trouble with his family and the lack of a job had given him no other choice. Lowe, who had arrived at the protest on Friday, said “I’m here mostly on behalf of the homeless population. As a community of homeless people, no one is going to take us seriously. It’s hard enough to find a job if you haven’t showered in three weeks and have dirty clothes.”

Arania Webb

Arania Webb, 47, of Wakefield, wasn’t much better off. “I was in investment bank law. I was in the legal profession for twenty-five years. I was good at what I did. I was laid off in 2008…when our clients went under, so did we.” Since then, she’s done everything she can to survive, “temp work, housecleaning, dog-walking, you name it. People who mock the unemployed by saying ‘get off your ass and get a job?’ There are no jobs. I have zero income. I used all my savings. I had to liquidate my 401K…now I am sleeping on the floor of my friend’s home office.”

Seeing a chance to again put her professional skills to good use, Webb joined Occupy Boston’s legal team six days earlier. “Where else could I be?” she asked. She then referred to those outside the top 1% saying, “if you were in any way touched by the market crash, you are the 99 percent…if you are one illness or hospital stay away from bankruptcy, you are the 99%…this is a nationwide movement turning into a worldwide movement.”

Some at Occupy Boston found it difficult to articulate their topmost demands, while others said that capitalism itself must be forced out of existence. Webb fell into neither category, and her demands were surprisingly simple and modest: single-payer health care, FDR-esque work programs, and “some kind of campaign finance reform.” When asked how long she’d tough it outdoors, Webb said “We will stay here as long as necessary. We will stay here through the snows. We’ve started to acquire warm weather gear already. We will be here as long as it takes.”

It may not be the iPhone 5 millions were anticipating, but Apple took the stage today in Cupertino, CA to announce the next evolution of its iPhone line, the iPhone 4S.  The new handset will be available for AT&T, Verizon and for the first time ever — Sprint on October 14.

The new 4S looks nearly identical to its predecessors, but according to Apple contains a new A5 processor that’s  is up to seven times faster at rendering graphics and twice as fast at processing data. It also features a new virtual assistant named “Siri” who will respond to voice commands and be able to translate speech in to text. Siri will also talk back to respond to questions. To display this, Apple’s Scott Forstall, a senior vice president for iPhone software asked Siri to find a Greek restaurant in Palo Alto. Siri pulled up the listing from Yelp and said ”I have found 14 Greek restaurants; five of them are in Palo Alto. I have listed them according to ranking.”  During the demo she did not say “I’m sorry, I can’t do that Hal…”

“I’ve been in the AI field a long time. This blows me away,”  said Forstall. Among other upgrades, the 4S will also have extended battery life, an 8 mega-pixel camera and the ability to shoot high definition video.

“When you think about it, only Apple could make such amazing software, hardware and services and bring them together into such a powerful yet integrated experience,” Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook said at the press conference.

Apple also detailed iOS 5, which features cloud storage and will be available on October 12.

The apocalypse fascinates us. Tales of a grim future of desert wastelands, horrible mutations, and rampant violence have long proven to be a successful formula for movies, novels, and, especially, games. Id Software’s long-awaited Rage certainly seems to have been crafted with an exacting eye for wasteland standards. It’s a game that definitely succeeds on a technical level, but from a design and gameplay perspective might require players to lower their expectations.

Rage opens in a familiar manner. Just before a giant meteor strikes Earth, a select few are given a reprieve in the form of cryogenic status chambers in protective “Arks”. Fast forward a hundred years, and it’s clear this plan wasn’t bullet proof. The player awakes from cold storage to find themselves the only survivor of their ark, and is immediately thrust into a violent world of dusty landscapes, burned out structures, and well-armed buggies.

Comparisons between Rage and other wasteland games like Borderlands and Fallout 3 are inevitable. How Rage distinguishes itself however, is that it is undoubtedly an Id-made game. There are no role-playing elements here and no greater strategy beyond kill-or-be-killed.Anyone expecting another Fallout will be disappointed by the sheer shallowness of the gameplay.

Rage also lacks the deeper cooperative play experience of Borderlands and the sense of humor of either game. It seems to be a game that takes itself too seriously, even though players will be hard pressed to discern why. There’s no cliché left unturned and despite the initial appearance of an open world, even this is merely an illusion.

Players have no control over even the basics of character development. You can’t change the look, gender, or any physical aspect of the ark survivor, and the only real commodities in the game are money and race tickets. Both of these currencies are used to buy weapons, equipment, ammo, and vehicle parts.

Rage is divided between two distinct play styles. The standard first-person shooting elements will make veteran gamers feel right at home. The indoor levels have a distinct Doom feel to them, with tight corridors and much the same imagery and design techniques used in the developer’s past games. Even the horror elements are cribbed from so many other sci-fi horror games. Despite the apocalyptic mutant theme, the game throws in the whole growing biomass cliché that makes little sense in such an environment.
The driving portions will delight fans of arcade-style combat racing. The physics are over-the-top with an eye for fast action not realism. So, you can still steer in the air, for instance, and there’s a decided focus on making crazy jumps. There’s plenty of opportunity for extra points by destroying objects in mid-air and skillfully dispatching foes.

So long as you understand exactly what kind of game Rage is, however, there’s no denying that it’s fun to play. The whole game is just one errand run after another. Talking to the various non-combative denizens of the wasteland frequently leads to a new task (usually either a fetchin’ or killin’ mission), which you just go and do. It’s not deep, creative, or complex, but this formula provides plenty of action, which has always been Id’s design focus.

Enemies have decent AI and tactics, with excellent movement abilities. Bandits and mutants will use free-running skills to leap over things, run along walls, and be generally hard to hit—frequently too hard to hit, since the game’s auto-assist is suspect. There’s a wide array of bad things to shoot, including some impressively large boss creatures.  Bandits are divided into themed tribes. There are redneck cannibals, technologically-advanced soldiers, and British punk-rocker wannabes. Ultimately, their specific look and dialogue is irrelevant, since outside of the few “safe” towns, everyone is merely fodder for your guns.

Beyond bandits, there’s the so-called “authority” that make life in the wasteland a nightmare for anyone who crosses them. To go along with these tyrannical would-be rulers, there’s also the pre-requisite resistance for the player to join. The story is just there to service the shoot ‘em gameplay though, and it’s clear that the minimum amount of effort was put into the writing and non-shooting and driving mechanics.
Thankfully, as expected, the shooting and driving is satisfyingly entertaining. There are enough missions to occupy hours of violence and, for action lovers, that’s a fine reason to enjoy this romp through the wasteland. The other major draw is the multiplayer, which brings multiplayer car combat front and center.

Id definitely has a handle on great death matching and Rage’s vehicle-centric online play is terrific. Totally ignoring the first-person shooter elements, the competitive play is fast-paced and well-designed. There are a handful of entertaining game modes fought in superb and spacious arenas. The downside of the multiplayer is the four-player limit, which is too small given the expansive scope of the maps. There are also two-player cooperative “legend” missions, which are fun, if shallow, but not really a replacement being able to play the main single-player game with a friend.

Id Software has always been known for their technology, and the latest iteration of their graphics engine takes the core visual style of Doom 3 and expands it to vast open spaces. Despite some graphic glitches on the console versions, Rage is a beautiful game with a solid frame rate and nice variety of indoor levels. The audio is also superb, with powerful surround effects, solid voice acting, and a decent musical score.

Blast Factor: Ultimately, the best way to sum up Rage is shallow, but fun. There’s virtually nothing here that hasn’t been seen before with more depth. Even when the game threatens to evolve beyond its own shallowness, it just can’t make it. Taken as a straight-forward, mission-based shooter, there’s plenty to like. Yet, after so long in development, the game has an almost half-baked feel. The presentation, the environment, the combat… almost all the parts are in place to make Rage an epic post-apocalypse adventure, but the sum total is ultimately less than these pieces.

Aged over a decade since its releases in arcades as well as on the Sega Saturn, Radiant Silvergun’s high definition re-release on Xbox Live Arcade still yields as a frustrating and impossible, yet addicting and challenging “shoot em up” game.

Admittedly, I had never played Radiant Silvergun until trying the re-release on the Xbox Live Arcade, so I had no idea what to expect. I assumed it to be something like an amped up version of Galaga, but I was severely wrong.

The game is definitely not for everyone, and that’s made evidently clear right off the bat.

Starting with weapons that you will stick with throughout the duration of their gaming experience, Silvergun’s story mode drops your ship off in the middle of battle. Enemies all shapes and sizes start flying in weaves and circles, shooting various artillery, hoping to blow you to smithereens. There is no training, and players hit the ground running, scrabbling with the multiple weapons they are equipped with.

The player’s ship is small, but stacked with a healthy variety of goodies to destroy enemies, regardless of their sometimes goliath size. The idea is that each weapon should be used to strategically dispose of specific enemies, and when it comes to boss battles, specific parts of your enemies. The more pieces of bosses you destroy, the larger the bonus is at the end of each stage.

Equipped with a Vulcan gun, as well as a homing laser, a lock-on scanner, diagonal missiles, and a sword, players need to utilize each in different scenarios. Knowing which weapons will be the most useful against which enemies is the goal. Sometimes the homing laser may not be able to hit weak spots on a boss’s body, so the side missiles that leave behind explosions are the route to go. Sometimes a player’s Vulcan gun may be so overpowering all they need to do is just hold down the “A” button and lay waste to everything that crosses through their barrage of death. Each plays a special role in surviving the chaos that ensues through the duration of every stage.

To be completely honest, the word “chaos” may be an understatement.

One hit from any of the enemies’ projectiles will end a player’s life, reducing the life count in the upper left corner of the screen.

And this will happen. A lot.

Ten minutes in I wanted to throw my controller through the television and call it a day due to the massive frustration and tediousness of the levels. But sticking with Silvergun is where the rewards come in. As aggravating as it is to lose all of your ships in just the first phases of level one, the arsenal you use upgrades as you play and, in story mode, continues to level up regardless of death and continues. Your Vulcan gun may be at level five when you run out of lives, but when you save and continue (and begrudgingly start on the very first stage again), the Vulcan gun will still be level five, making play-through more manageable each time. With no power ups or helpful add-ons, players must truly rely on their skills and persistence to level up each weapon. The downside is eventually the first stage becomes a chore as players eagerly (or angrily) grind to pick up where they left off with stronger weapons than before. The repetition can be a bit much. I always found myself yearning for a save function, but only the progress of your weapon upgrades are noted.

Radiant Silvergun is for the determined and strong-willed. Instant gratification gamers need not play, because they will find none here. Only the most patient players will be able to muster through the chaos of weapons that, on occasion, will cover the entire playable screen. And sometimes that won’t even be enough. You’ll grit your teeth. You’ll yell. You’ll probably even contemplate destroying your Xbox. Persistence is the only way to method getting through the story mode, as boss battle after boss battle continuously attempts to beat down players (both in the game and emotionally).

Memorization is key. Players will begin to learn stages due to the amount of times they must be replayed. Silvergun forces players back to stage one with every “game over,” which can leave people zoned out and mindless in front of their televisions for hours just in attempts to get back to where they were prior.

The game offers two modes that players can pick from, “Arcade” and “Story.” Personally, the story mode is a lot more fun, despite the attempt at a story. The arcade mode has different options, however, where players may skip to different stages after they get through stage one. There is no choice in “Story” mode.

The story itself is translated into English subtitles, but still wildly confusing and overall pointless. Subtitles come onto the screen during game play, which makes it impossible to read in attempts to survive the onslaught of enemy fire. In the end, it just becomes annoying. I disregarded trying to understand the reason I was blowing up enemy ships and just went with it, mowing down anything in my path.

Radiant Silvergun offers a multiplayer option as well, which I found, if anything, incredibly amusing. Playing with a friend, we suffered the wrath of Silvergun together, dying left and right, yelling and laughing all the way. Eventually we became numb to defeat and kept plugging away. Playing with a friend definitely eases the pain and aggravation, that’s for sure. Eventually, we got in sync with one another and began covering specific sides of the screen, knowing what to expect and leveling up our weapons, making the game that much better.

It’s clear this is a videogame from a different time, which may say something about present day gaming altogether. It brings up the issue that some games are just too sugarcoated, holding gamers’ hands too long, leading them through things they are perfectly capable of doing on their own. It was a cruel awakening that Silvergun gave me, but I found I quite enjoyed the challenge. Some games are just too easy. Radiant Silvergun loudly boasts back that it refuses to be lumped into such a category. There’s a fine line between challenging and impossible, and Silvergun rides that line perfectly. After my initial shock, my comprehension of this fact led to addiction.

Yes, I still have trouble with the game even on the “very easy” setting (the “very hard” setting is really just another way of saying “yeah, right”), but that’s the point. Silvergun is a game for those who can grind and persevere. I’m a gamer that refuses to back down and this is a game that refuses to give in. I’m sure the game is beatable, but I don’t know if I will ever get to that point. We’ll just have to see as my Vulcan gun and homing lasers get stronger and stronger with each attempt.

The Blast Factor: Radiant Silvergun has shattered my hopes and dreams over and over, but for some reason, I keep coming back for more. And it may be twisted, but I kind of like the close-to-impossible challenge. It’s one of the best arcade shooters of its kind, pushing players to really “want it,” so to speak. The re-release got a nice makeover in HD, making the madness on screen look even better. The multiplayer is just an extra treat so friends can suffer along with you. The grinding can get tedious, however, and one mistake can set players back, which can be too much on occasion. If players truly want to test their ambition and persistence, Radiant Silvergun is worth purchasing off of Xbox Live Arcade. If you’re a gamer that needs instant success, then you may want to drop some quarters at the arcade on it instead of making the long-term buy.

Katy Perry is breaking records this year.

Katy Perry at the premiere of "The Smurfs" at the Ziegfeld Theater on July 24, 2011 in New York City. (WireImage)

The singer’s new film, “The Smurfs,” opened at #2 at the Box Office and she is the most nominated artist this year with nine VMA nods, although she has not won an actual Moonman yet.

Perry is now close to becoming the first female artist to have five #1 hit singles from the same album on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Michael Jackson first accomplished this record with his album Bad.

The singer’s new hit “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” is quickly moving up the charts and now sits at #2.

Perry’s previous #1 songs from Teenage Dream are “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” and “E.T.”

Well, scratch another toy off my Christmas list, as Sony announced earlier today that though its new handheld, The PlayStation Vita will be released this fall in Japan;  gamers in both the USA and European territories will have to wait until sometime in 2012.

Sony warned all along that the device may not be ready for release this year, but it was widely suspected that a release date would come before the end of the year.

Sony also commented that they do not plan to lower the price of the Vita as a result of the 3DS price drop issued by Nintendo last month.

In a move that should surprise pretty much no one; Capcom confirmed today that they’ll release Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3, the disc based update for their critically acclaimed and best selling fighter this November. The game will feature combat tweaks, eight new stages and twelve new fighters — four of which were revealed today.

On the Marvel side, Ghost Rider and Hawkeye of the Avengers will be joining the fray, while Firebrand and Strider will represent Capcom. Capcom’s whole idea was to reveal more of the new roster as we approach the release date, but pshhht…this is the internet, and nothings secret, as in almost record time, what looks like the entire new list has leaked on to the web in the form of character sketches found deep within Capcom’s press site. Looks like we’re getting Vergil, Phoenix Wright, Nemesis, and Frank West for Capcom, and Doctor Strange, Rocket Raccoon, Nova, and Iron Fist for Marvel.

The title will hit Xbox 360 and PS3 this November for the budget price of $39.99. Check out the first screens below.

Why an elephant? Because.

Probably not. But isn’t wild internet speculation fun?

The latest rumors come after the domain microsoft-sony.com was registered and traced back to Microsoft. It could be something, or it could be nothing as domain names are known to be wacky for ass covering reasons.  But hey, who knows.

Making the rumor even more interesting is the rumor that Kotaku reported that the two companies were in active discussion regarding their new consoles — to be released in 2014.

What does it mean? Probably nothing. But he stranger things have happened. Did you ever think Mario and Sonic would be in a game together?

You’ve probably already made up your mind about motion gaming. Chances are you’ve already cast it off. You don’t waggle, you prefer your sports with a controller and you definitely don’t dance. Child of Eden is here to challenge that idea. It’s an artful experimentation that not only assaults your ears and eyes, but uses the technology to tell an engaging story. Like nothing you’ve ever played before, Child of Eden is not only a great game, but could change your mind on Kinect and motion gaming altogether.

Part musical sequencer and part art project, It’s difficult to explain just what Child of Eden really is. The story revolves around trying to stop a virus from attacking Project Lumi, which would reproduce a human personality in exchange for an artificial one. You progress through the game by “purifying” items in each archive (or level). This works essentially like shooting would in any on rails shooter. You’ll take out or purify these enemies in two main ways, rapid fire shots or a lock on type gun. You’ll also have access to euphoria bombs, a powerful explosive that clears enemies.

Purifying enemies and finishing levels is incredibly rewarding, especially when using Kinect. There’s something remarkably satisfying about flicking your wrist and throwing your palm up to take out a group of enemies, but it sometimes doesn’t work out as easy as it should. A good portion of Child of Eden requires you to switch up the use of both of your hands, and the game seems to have an issue distinguishing which hand you’re using and as a result will misinterpret exactly what you want to do.

Undoubtedly the most impressive aspect of Child of Eden is how impressively the visuals work with each other aspect of the game to create a better game.  Take the level progression for instance, each of the game’s five levels (or archives as Child of Eden refers to them as) is broken up into specific aspects of life.  The Earth level for instance is made up of earthy tones and trees while the evolution level features animals transforming into other animals.  These level themes play into not only how the game looks, but how the game plays as well.

Child of Eden's visual style in like nothing you've seen before

The most impressive aspect by far is how well the music fits in with the Child of Eden experience. Starting off as rocking guitar riff and eventually rolling in to the techno style that fans of creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi have come to know. It’s also the music that keeps you in the game, as paying attention to the rhythm will allow you to time and plan your shots better.

Of course, with everything going on, you can make the comment that too much is going on with Child of Eden and it’s easy to get lost in the game’s assault on your senses. The key is to keep yourself in a rhythm to not succumb to this. Playing through Child of Eden opens up both a hard mode and a mode called “feeling eden” which enables you to play without fear of dying – it’s a great way to experience the game.

The Blast Factor: Child of Eden isn’t like anything you’ve ever played before. It’s part motion game, part shooter, part music game and all gorgeous. It’s a game that serves as a experiment of art in games, but most importantly it’s an engaging and truly unforgettable experience. Playing Child of Eden is not only the best game to feature motion control yet, it’s also a great game period.

Today, Activision confirmed and detailed Call of Duty Elite, an subscription based service set to both unite the community and bring premium content.

First, don’t panic — while Elite is built on a monthly payment system, there’s also a free version coming. So what exactly does Call of Duty Elite do? In essence, it allows you to keep all of your Call of Duty information in once place. The service will allow players to track their statistics, clan information and compete for real world prizes. It’s expected that the Elite community will get first crack at upcoming DLC as well.

Elite will launch as a beta later this Summer and be released for all on November 8, which also happens to be when Modern Warfare 3 hits shelves.

Stick with Blast for more info on Call of Duty Elite and Modern Warfare 3, as Blast will go hands on with both titles at next week’s E3 in LA.

So here’s a video that’s apparently a presentation of Nintendo showing off it’s new, yet unofficial next gen console known as Project Cafe. While we do know that the company held a private session for developers to see Project Cafe, here’s where we call shenanigans; the opening of the video claims that its from a “video games Editor.” What do you guys think?

Network television continues to limp towards its season finale, as a slew of once popular shows in their later seasons hit or tied series lows.

“Chuck” drew a 1.3 in the demo and just over 4 million viewers. It’s renewal prospects are up in the air given the new management at NBC, and the shocking fact that most of their shows are non-competitive. The fate of “The Event” (1.1 demo, 3.7 million) is more certain, as is “Law and Order: LA” (1.2 demo, 5 million viewers), as in certain to be canceled in the coming weeks.

CBS has seen its fortunes dwindle on Monday also since the departure of Charlie Sheen, making you wonder if they’ll demand his return. A “Two and a Half Men” repeat scored a 1.7 in the demo, and 6.3 million viewers overall. New eps weren’t good either for the eye net, “How I Met Your Mother” hit a low with a 2.5 in the demo and 6.3 million viewers, while “Mad Love” was dismal with a 1.8 in the demo and just over 5 million viewers. Once mighty freshman hit “Mike and Molly” suffered (2.2 demo, 7.5 million viewer) and the network that paid more than $2 million for the right to syndicate “Hawaii 5-0″ might want its money back (2.2 demo, 9 million viewers).

ABC rode “Dancing with the Stars” to a nightly victory. “Stars” averaged a 4.1 in the demo over two hours, and gave a bump to “Castle,” which led the 10 pm hour with a 3.1 and 12.6 million viewers.

Over at Fox, just-renewed-”House” hit lows as well, drawing a 2.9 in the demo, and 7.7 million viewers. It

Here’s the winners of this week’s giveaway for Beta codes for Gears of War 3. Winners, send me an e-mail with your username at sinicki.j@blastmagazine.com and I’ll hand over the goods.

The following users have won Gears beta codes!

-JoJo Disotto, who prefers the sawed off shotgun.

-Nasser Z, a fan of the torque bow

- UnionJackHunter, who also prefers the shotgun

- Jose Vasquez, fan of the gnasher

- Dendaye, who is the sniper you all hate

- Mewannathis, who is looking forward to charging with the retro lancer

- Zeki, the pyromaniac who likes using the scorcher

- Kane Barrass, who goes simple and uses the lancer.

- Hadi Ali, who has used the gnasher for each gears title

- nitrinho who also likes the lancer

Congratulations to the winners, have fun curbstomping! Look forward to a new giveaway next week!

Back at GDC a few months ago, Nintendo casually made reference to the Super Mario 3DS title that was missing from the handhelds launch lineup.  Sure, there were a few screens and a logo (with a tail!) but beyond that, we knew very little about the long awaited game. Now, the character’s legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto is starting to talk — and yes, it’s awesome.

“It’s a combination of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario on N64,” Miyamoto told EDGE magazine in an interview. “It won’t convey the message if I talk to you today, but if you play it at E3 that will give you more understanding of what I’m talking about.”

So, it’ll be playable at E3 for sure then. Awesome. Miyamoto finished the interview by commenting on that tail seen in the game’s logo — an yes, is what you think it would be. Can you say raccoon suit? ”The tail you mentioned on the logo – it’s what you think it is,” Miyamoto said. “You probably know what’s going to happen using that character.”

Miyamoto also assured EDGE that the game is coming later this year. Stick with Blast for more info on Super Mario Bros 3DS, along with all of the E3 happenings.

Will Ferrell began his stint on “The Office” Thursday night, as the countdown to Steve Carrell and Michael Scott’s exit comes to just two weeks.

While Ferrell and Carrell showed nearly instant chemistry, the episode that followed didn’t live up to the hype, prompting the question, can this series survive the exit of its star?

Ferrell portrayed DeAngelo Vickers, and while he wasn’t quite as vapid as Michael Scott, he’s still crazy in his own way, perfect for this nutty little universe “The Office” has created.

But in that, the show goes wrong. Instead of taking an opportunity to change the pace with the boss of the show, they keep going in the same direction, just with a different high-profile comic. Instead of trying to evolve the jokes, it’s more of the same-old, ridiculous and awkward situations created by the boss.

Michael Scott and Vickers take an immediate liking to each other, that is until the rest of the office loves Vickers. No one goes more out of character than Darryl, who goes to great lengths to impress the new boss, for reasons that aren’t exactly clear. This all makes Michael a little jealous, prompting him to attempt to one-up the new boss.

Vickers himself causes more than one situation that are somewhat humorous, but ridiculous. No boss would have these traits, at least not one who continues to find gainful employment. While Michael Scott’s unlikely rise has always had some basis in his strange effectiveness as a salesman, we don’t really get an explanation why someone with such strange eccentricities like Ferrell keeps getting work.

Ferrell’s got more episodes this season, including a few after Carrell’s last episode. But here’s hoping for a different boss, because this one didn’t exactly feel right.

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If there is a show that consistently keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, it is without a doubt, the “Vampire Diaries.” Even if we completely disagree with what the writers do with a plot line, the show never fails to stir things up and be promisingly crazy week after week.

This week’s episode, “The Last Dance,” was, just like the rest, one for the books right from the start. Klaus proved to be as messed up as we all secretly hoped, compelling Katherine to repeatedly stab herself in the leg (that ought to keep her busy) and getting right down to business with his plan -dedicating creepy songs to Elena. Watching Matt Davis pull off Klaus was an amazing change to watching him do his typical “good-guy-slayer” routine with Alaric. We can only hope that the real Klaus (Joseph Morgan) will be equally as awesome next week.

The 60’s decade dance backdrop proved to not only successfully dress one of television’s prettiest casts in fantastic outfits with throw-back music and chemistry charged dancing, but also followed suit as far as social gatherings in Mystic Falls goes and be a source for unforgettable show-downs.

Caroline and Matt’s cliff-hanger storyline from last week seemed to take a spot on the back burner which was disappointing. However, the episodes have been so plot-heavy lately that it may be good that we can focus on that drama next week (when hopefully, Tyler will come back, to the rescue). This left room to pull in some borderline heavy Jeremy and Bonnie brooding, with Jeremy being typically Gilbert and emotional about not wanting Bonnie to go through with sacrificing herself to save his sis.

Elena and Bonnie’s tragic self-righteousness caused some serious emotional tension (where else do you see two people ready and willing to fight over who gets to die first) but also demonstrated a side of their best-friendship that we haven’t really seen pull-through since the first season. It is refreshing to see the strength of friendships grow in a show, which usually puts the majority of its focus on romantic relationships.

Fortunately, the writers seem to have finally figured out which basket to put all their eggs in; ‘The Last Dance” was one of the most Stefan/Elena/Damon love-triangle concentrated episodes we have seen in a long time. Though we can’t help but appreciate Stefan’s genuine need to keep Elena from getting hurt, the ending managed to leave us with chills with Damon admitting his emotional attachment to her in an up-front way without having it not be her, or compelling her to forget, or anything of that nature (finally). Even if Damon and Elena somehow never give credit to their obvious attraction, Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder have gorgeous chemistry.

While the episode seemed to end tied in a bow for once (except, oh yeah, Elena woke up Elija) we can rest assured that all hell is still yet to break lose in our favorite vamp-crazy-town. Damon said it best, “here’s to duplicity.”

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JoiStaRR released an alternative-dance remix of Coldplay’s “Yellow” Monday.The track is from her debut mixtape “Broccoli & Noodles” featuring Kanye West & J Dilla, which drops in May.

JoiStaRR – Yellow by JoiStaRR

JoiStaRR has toured with Kanye West for more than five years, and performed/recorded with various musicians, including Raphael Saadiq, PJ Morton, Ghostface, Estelle, Kid Sister, T.I., and Musicq Soulchild.

She has written songs for Chris Brown, Mary Mary, Estelle for Slash, and Mario, Brandy.

While the original song is s rock ballad emotional tune, her version of “Yellow” came out as a very fast-paced dancey, up-tempo, catchy tune. It seems like she completely renovated the song.

With the launch of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo raised the ante for innovation thanks to the inclusionof both dual screens and a touch screen. Now, the company has created the first mainstream use ofglasses-free stereoscopic 3D. The question, of course, is does 3D actually enhance the experience ofplaying games on the go.

For gamers who appreciate what 3D offers, Nintendo has released an impressive piece of technologyin a tiny package. The handheld sports a 200 MHz GPU, which in comparison to the iPhone or averageAndroid-based device seems positively anemic. The 3D-capable top screen measures 3.53 inch andsupports a widescreen resolution of 800×240 pixels. The touch screen is 3 inches and sports a lowerresolution. Unlike the DS, that’s a wide difference between the two screens, so games that utilize bothscreens for gameplay (like Contra 4) seem unlikely.

Regardless, the main screen certainly produces excellent visuals. Without a doubt, Nintendo’stechnology works. The 3D effect is superb when used well. The 3DS can clearly provide images withan amazing sense of depth and dimension. The graphics are crisp and colorful, and on par with theGamecube and even the Wii. The 3D effect is a bit finicky though. You have to stare at the screenstraight on, and hold it still, or else the picture breaks up into a ghosted double image. There’s a handyslider bar to the right of the screen for adjusting the intensity of the 3D effect, or just turning it off.

The entire unit is actually smaller than the DSi, so it’s easy to slip into your pocket and take on the go.The 3DS supports 802.11 Wi-Fi and relies on its wireless abilities more than any other Nintendo gamesystem—even the Wii. Between the potential online gaming abilities, more streamlined friend codesystem, the new Streetpass mode, and, of course, the upcoming 3DS store, the 3DS should prove to be avery connected handheld.

Granted, the DSi had most of these features and could play games online, but it lacked a convenientway to create a friends list—the archaic friend code system Nintendo insists on using was actually gamespecific on the DS. The 3DS uses a system-specific code, so you only have to give your buddies a singlecode to connect with them.
The store, ability to browse the web, and the much-anticipated option to finally transfer DSi storepurchases to your 3DS will supposedly all be available in May. Right now, the online abilities of thesystem are nearly non-existent. Few of the launch games even support online play, but it’s clear that the3DS, once updated, will offer a level connectivity hitherto unseen from Nintendo.

The biggest feature of the 3DS next to actually being 3D is the Streetpass mode, though how useful thiswill be in actuality is up to speculation. When the system is in sleep mode, it can detect other sleeping3DS systems and connect to them. For games that utilize this functionality, this leads to data and bonusexchanges. In Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, for example, teams of character figurines you collect will actually fight AI battles with other 3DS teams. The winner will open their 3DS to reveal newly earnedbonuses, coins, and other goodies.

Streetpass is an intriguing attempt at essentially anonymous social gaming, and Nintendo at leastdeserves props for devising a creatively cool feature. How much use developers make of this abilityremains to be seen.
The inclusion of an analog nub is another improvement over the old DS. It’s a comfortable stick thatallows for more advanced controls, since movement is no longer confined to the D-pad. Other thanthat, the layout is identical to the DSi. The Wii-like graphic user interface is further refined as well. Thescrolling, icon-based menus are easy to navigate, although a few of the system options are somewhatburied.

The 3DS also sports an in-depth Mii creation system, just like the Wii. It can even create a Mii based on a head shot, which makes creating the little figures quick and easy. Wii owners will instantly recognize theMii Plaza as well for showing off collected Miis, though their use is still mostly a gimmick. The onboardcamera can take 2D or 3D shots, and, just like the DSi, has front- and back-facing cameras.

While the ability to take 3D photos is great, the resolution is painfully low, so you’ll likely only be viewingthem on the 3DS. The cameras are also used for Augmented Reality (AR) applications. The 3DS comesstandard with Face Raiders, a fun first-person shooter that creates floating heads based on photos, andthen requires players to move around the room while staring at the screen to find and shoot the heads.

The 3DS also includes a set of AR cards in the box. These cards mostly just create a 3D image of popularNintendo characters overlaid against your environment, though one of the cards also offers a few simpleAR games. It’s all a gimmick, but still amusing—especially for kids.

As great as the overall hardware is, there is one major flaw—the battery life. DS owners have long cometo expect insanely good battery life out of their systems. With the 3D and Wi-Fi on, the 3DS can maybeaverage four or five hours on a charge. To help minimize this inconvenience, a charger dock comesstandard.

The line-up of launch titles hasn’t exactly been met with unbridled enthusiasm. While the 3DS’sofferings aren’t terrible for the most part, they’re also not great. Capcom’s Super Street Fighter IV 3DEdition is probably the all-around champ. It offers terrific graphics and gameplay, online multiplayer, andStreetpass support.

Namco’s Ridge Racer 3D and Asphalt 3D are both surprisingly good, if old school racers, and Nintendo’sPilot Wings Resort is a fun, if shallow casual flying experience. It’s just a shame that Nintendo didn’thave anything in the way of what players really want at launch. The 3D release of the N64 classic,Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, is due this summer, but there’s no Mario, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, orMetroid. Worse, none of these beloved franchises are likely to appear any time soon.

As it is, early adopters will have to satisfy themselves with ports of Super Monkey Ball, Bust-a-Move,Nintendogs, and a few other popular regulars. Nintendo claims to have had the most successful hardware launch ever with the 3DS, but whether that will translate into improved support fromdevelopers remains to be seen. If developer are willing to invest in the potential of the 3DS over thesecurity and cheaper development costs of a regular DS game, future releases might just live up to thehardware’s bright potential.

They came because they’d read a story.

In November 2007, a group of Bostonians converged at the Irish Immigration Center in downtown Boston, the workplace of Irish-born opinion columnist Thomas Keown. Some came because they’d been inspired by Keown’s article entitled “Give a Little Bit” which had appeared in the Metro two months prior. Others came because they’d received an email from Keown with the subject heading, “Our very own Irish Potato is starting a nonprofit.” Both the article and the email told the story of Anthony Mulongo, an up-and-coming Kenyan journalist whose life was forever changed by a girl named Gift.

As a teenager, Mulongo was chosen by the Kenyan government as one of the eighteen brightest students in the country to be enrolled in an intensive journalism school. He began a successful career as a reporter for national television and newspapers. Like all Kenyans, Mulongo saw street children frequently, but he never felt moved to do anything to ease the plight of these poor children whom most believed to be pests, until he met Gift and witnessed her story.

Six-year-old Gift was skeletal, her stomach protruding from starvation and malnutrition. Dirty and exhausted, she was carrying her infant brother on her back. Her mother had died of AIDS, so Gift had no choice but to dig through the trash to try to scrounge up food for her baby brother and herself. When Mulongo met Gift, he lifted her little brother off her back, only to find that he had died at some point in their journey. Gift had no idea until that moment.

This was a critical moment for Mulongo. He knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t do something to help. The choice he made changed the course of his life—as well as the lives of Keown and the others in the Irish Immigration Center. He decided to adopt Gift and raise and educate her as he would his own daughter. Additionally, he gave up his career as a national journalist and instead wrote advocacy pieces about street children.

When Keown visited Kenya on vacation in the summer of 2007, his plan was to spend time on the beach, see exotic animals, and drink cheap beer. But his friend Dave, who had done some pro bono legal work in Kenya, suggested that he look up Mulongo. Using quarters and a pay phone, Keown called Mulongo and the two men made plans to meet for lunch.

Keown got on a train from Nairobi to coastal Mombasa, the city closest to where Mulongo lived. When the train arrived in Mombasa, Keown was overpowered by the stench of rotting filth. He looked out the window and saw street children just like Gift who were digging and pawing through a mountain of trash, scavenging for something to eat.

When Keown found out that Mulongo was doing something practical to help children like those he had witnessed on the train to Mombasa, they connected instantly. Over a meal of bony chicken and watery soup, Mulongo told Keown how he had adopted Gift and, by this point, over 30 other street children as well. He and all the children lived in a small, three-bedroom house with a tin roof called “Mudzini Kwetu,” which means “our home.” Each of the girls living there had chosen her favorite color of paint and tattooed the house with her painted handprints, marking it as her own. The house’s walls were covered with bright yellow, red, and blue handprints, as high as the girls could reach. Mulongo’s goal was for these children to feel that they were part of a family and that the little tin house was where they belonged.

Keown went with Mulongo to see Mudzini Kwetu for himself. He met Gift, who was now 13 years old and acted as an older sister to the 33 girls and one boy who were living in Mudzini Kwetu. As the first child to be adopted by Mulongo, Gift was happy and healthy—living proof that a loving family and a good home can heal even the deepest scars.

But some of the other children, who had recently been rescued, were still physically and emotionally wounded, such as the three sisters who, for privacy, are known as K., A., and R. Like Gift, they had to forage for food after their mother died of AIDS; K. was 12 years old, A. was six, and R. was just a year old. After six months of living on the street and fighting for survival every day, they were discovered by the police. But the police didn’t help these girls; they turned them over to the authorities and they were sent to juvenile prison just for living on the streets. When Mulongo heard about the sisters’ plight, he and a pro bono lawyer fought to get them released into his care. They had to fight especially hard to get K. released because she was considered destructive and dangerous. When Keown met her, she was indeed bitter, angry, and mistrustful, as much from her months in prison as from her time on the street. The youngest sister, R., was still bony and malnourished.

The seven-month-old twins, Agnes and Macharia, were two other newly rescued street children. Agnes and her brother Macharia, the only boy living in Mudzini Kwetu, were found by the police starving and screaming in the slums of the nearby town Mtwapa. Residents of Mtwapa said the infants had been there for three days. Unlike the officers who stumbled upon K., A., and R., these officers knew about Anthony’s home for street children and brought the twins directly to him. Shortly thereafter, they found the twins’ mother, drunk on cheap liquor. “Save the girl if you want,” she said, “but throw the boy in the dustbin. He’s not going to survive anyway.” While at Mudzini Kwetu, Keown held Macharia in his arms; six weeks later, despite receiving the best care and medical treatment available, the little boy died.

Though these children came to Mulongo broken and abused, he believes that they will be the seeds of change that will break the cycle of poverty and injustice in Kenya. As a network of educated Kenyans who grow up together, they will enter industry and government, asking themselves and each other, “How do we make life better for children who are living on the streets like we were at their age? How do we build schools, provide clean water, and create good homes for them? How do we change the systems of injustice that contributed to their lack of resources, put some of them in jail, and made others live as sex slaves?”

Mulongo’s vision resonated with Keown. Up until that point, Keown had spent much of his adult life feeling cynical about large charitable organizations whose efforts didn’t seem to produce any tangible results. Sitting in Harvard Square with his friends, he had had many conversations over $3 coffees or $6 beers, discussing how there must be better uses for their beverage money but not knowing where to give it so that it would make a real impact. But Keown saw the difference that Mulongo was making. He was providing a home, a family, and an education for children who had suffered abandonment, starvation, disease, physical and sexual abuse, imprisonment, and neglect. And more than that, he was proposing a plan to equip these children to confront the country’s systemic injustices.

When Keown returned to America after his Kenya vacation, he continued to be inspired by Mulongo’s decision to devote his life to helping street children. He wrote his next Metro article about how everyone should follow Mulongo’s example and give up a little of themselves to make a positive impact on others’ lives. “Mulongo sacrificed everything,” he wrote, “but if we all give a little, no one has to give it all.”

With today’s Amy Adams casting news, we now have many of the principal actors in the new Superman film, “Superman: Man of Steel.”

Diane Lane will play Martha Kent, Kevin Costner will play Jonathan Kent, Adams will play Lois Lane and Henry Cavill will play the title role.

These all sound great, and I’m excited. Even Cavill, who I’ve never seen and has a different look than I was anticipating, I’m giving that a chance.

However, though more important casting looms, such as Perry White and the main villain, the main part that colors this entire film has already been cast: Zac Snyder is directing the movie.

Yeah. Zac Snyder who directed “300,” “Watchmen” and “Sucker Punch.”

“300″ was awesome action with little else, “Watchmen” deteriorated as it went on and I walked out on “Sucker Punch.”

And this is the guy directing “Superman,” who’s had no legitimate film in thirty years and is due for a relevant rehash akin to “Spider-Man” and “Batman Begins?”

Snyder was actually one of the final two in contention to direct the film. Darren Aronofsky was the other. What???? Why did they go with Snyder?

Because the film has to come out next year. Warner Brothers films will lose the rights to the Superman franchise if they don’t release a Superman film in 2012. When it came down to that , Arronofsky said he couldn’t make a good film under those deadline constraints.

So from the get-go, Warner Brothers is going with the guy who said “Sure! I can make SOME KIND OF MOVIE by then.”

Snyder has proved to have strong visuals and strong action. These likely will give some good elements to the film.

Yet throughout his directing career, Snyder has never had a realistic or relatable character. Not once.

Superman has been on the film back burner because for decades, no director has been able to create a story with him that is compelling, unlike the aforementioned superhero films that drew audiences all across the world in

So Warner Brothers hires the guy who can’t do characters at all to create a film direly in need of a relatable character.

There are some intangibles. The story was written by David Goyer, the writer of the story for “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” And the director of those films, Christopher Nolan, is producing the new Superman film.

It’s got a solid cast. But is all that enough to overcompensate for the terrible director they have driving the latest Superman vehicle?

In celebration of Resident Evil’s 15 anniversary, Capcom has announced that they will release HD versions of Resident Evil 4 and Codename Veronica this fall as downloadable titles for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

According to the publisher, both games have received new visuals and will support trophies and achievements respectively.

Originally released for the Nintendo Gamecube, Resident Evil 4 has had numerous ports and stands as one of the most well reviewed games of all time.

SPOILERS: The first TV spot for “Scream 4″ is now online, along with several racy new pics — giving ever more clues to the plot of the film, and most importantly, who dies!

The trailer informs us that two girls were killed on the anniversary of the Woodsboro murders. That indicates one of the sets of girls in earlier trailers were going to die — likely the cameo kills of Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin, but possibly Megan Hale and Shanae Grimes. Further light was shed on Alison Brie’s character, who we already knew was going to die; we see where Ghostface pops out at her, and we get another look at her getting thrown from the roof into that press conference.

And another spoiler — looks like Adam Brody is getting knifed in the back.

Check out some new stills from the film below.

The one with Dewey in the stacks looks like the scene where Gale was fighting with Ghostface in previous trailers. Perhaps this is the shot of Dewey finding his murdered wife? Oh, and quasi-spoiler, the mid-driff hanging from the ceiling in the second-to-last-photo appears to belong to the woman shown at 0:02 in the trailer.

Emmy-winner Michael Chiklis has been cast in the title role of the CBS comedy “Vince Uncensored,” in a move that all-but guarantees the cancellation of “No Ordinary Family,” just as we’ve been saying.

Chiklis will play Vince, who strives to be more open and honest in his life after a “life-changing experience.”

Chiklis currently stars in “No Ordinary Family,” an ABC show about a family with superpowers. The show has been poorly received by critics, and is one of the least watched shows on ABC, leaving little doubt that the show will be cancelled. Other stars of soon-to-cancelled shows are also jumping ship at ABC, though fans adamantly (and ignorantly?) have sworn the characters may just be getting killed. So perhaps Chiklis’ character is getting killed but “No Ordinary Family” will survive? Not a chance.

Adam Lambert will perform an acoustic version of his song “Aftermath” on the “American Idol” Thursday.

The 2009 runner-up of the “Idol” tweeted, “Hey guess what?! I will be performing ‘Aftermath’ on American Idol on Thursday, March 10! Gonna take it down acoustic style.” He also stated that the remixed track will be available on his official website the same day, which is also part of an effort to raise money for The Trevor Project. The song is a perfect fit for supporting the Trevor Project’s primary objectives of protecting, informing, and supporting LGTBQ teens.

The singer will drop his up-coming CD/DVD “Glam Nation Live” on March 22. It was shot during his show in Indianapolis, Indiana at Clowes Hall on August 31, 2010.

At just 23, Lauren Pritchard has a resume that many performers twice her age would envy. While trying to get her music career off the ground as a teenager, she landed a role in the original cast of the (eventual Tony Award-winning) Broadway show “Spring Awakening.” Now, five years later, the singer/songwriter is preparing a cross-country tour in support of her debut album, “Wasted in Jackson,” which was released in the U.S. this week.

Pritchard has found a happy middle ground for her two passions, in more ways than one. In person, she has the poised demeanor of someone with a theater background, but the nonchalance and occasional irreverence of a musician. Munching on a salad and barbecue potato chips at the Universal Records office in New York City recently, Pritchard chatted with Blast about the path that brought her to this point.

The title “Wasted in Jackson” is a nod to Pritchard’s birthplace — Jackson, Tenn. (During our interview, she repeatedly mentioned growing up in the “Bible Belt.”) Raised by parents whose musical interests include Al Green, Steely Dan, The Who, Prince and Foreigner, Pritchard recalls first falling in love with music while listening to “Best of the ‘70s” compilations during family road trips.

“That’s what kind of started the singer/songwriter thing for me,” says Pritchard, who now calls London home. “I was 10, 11ish … when I found people like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. … I was listening to music that was really honest, people really talking about what they wanted to say.”

Though she started piano lessons at the age of seven and played in recitals starting at age nine (“which I hated,” she adds. “I was absolutely terrified. I would, like, break out in a cold sweat minutes before”), Pritchard didn’t begin writing her own songs until age 14, when she bonded with other musically-inclined teens during a weekend youth group church retreat in Nashville.

“We sat around, just playing music and shooting the shit,” she said. “I went home after the weekend and wrote a song. … That was the first moment I ever had a real kind of jam session. And it made such an impact on me. … I already knew that was what I wanted to do, and that just sort of furthered that for me.”

Her parents, especially her mother, supported her passion (“not in a cheesy way,” she insists), and even allowed Pritchard to move to Los Angeles at 16 to live with her best friend’s family and pursue a musical career.

“I had very realistic parents,” she said matter-of-factly. “If they really thought that I couldn’t succeed, they would have told me to shut up and do something else. … You know, you see a show like ‘American Idol’ and you see these parents, ‘My child is the best singer in the whole world!’ … And you’re like, oh, what is wrong with you? My mother was never like that. … I had parents that were like, this is what you can do well, and this is what you should do. But it was never in a forceful way. It was something that I wanted to do. Basically, there was reassurance and moral support.”

Though California was a bit of a culture shock for the Tennessee transplant, (“I didn’t even know what the fuck Chanel was until I moved to L.A.”), she got an agent and began auditioning for commercials and bit parts to supplement her income, while at the same time performing as a backup singer/keyboardist in a reggae band. She found a network of supporters, not the least of which was her best friend’s mother, Lisa Marie Presley.

“A lot of the reason why I kept going is because I had people around me going, ‘It’s not going to be for nothing,’” Pritchard says. “When my mom left (to return to Nashville) … Lisa filled that gap for me. She was extremely supportive. … I owe so much to this woman. I wouldn’t have anything had she not let me live with her and had she not taken care of me. … She really believed in me.”

While finding her footing in L.A., a twist of fate led to what would be a life-changing resume builder.

As Pritchard tells it, “I went on an audition for this tiny little underground show called ‘Spring Awakening.’”

by Elizabeth Gruchy

Every Saturday afternoon on the Emmanuel College campus, you can see Kaitlyn Hajjar and her group of Quidditch-loving athletes running back and forth between hoops on their Scarlet Falcon brooms.

What looks like a fantasy game for lovers of all things Harry Potter is actually becoming a somewhat respected and challenging physical contact sport.

“I got hit in the mouth the first week with something and walked off the field bleeding,” said Hajjar, the founder and president of EC’s Quidditch team.

Hajjar said the team is still looking for players.

“We have 15 people who show up every week but anyone is welcome to join. Were actually looking for a snitch right now,” she said.

For anyone looking to join the team Hajjar gave me some tips and what you’ll need to play:

1. Agility- As a player you’ll need to have great agility to run around the field holding your broom as well as a volleyball used as the quaffel. The broom is hard and can often leave bruises on your legs.

2. Aim- In order to score a player must get their ball through one of the other team’s three hoops. This requires good aim as the keeper tries to defend the hoops.

3. Sense of Humor- It takes a very passionate person to run around on a broom stick in public. Each player must not be afraid of what people think. Quidditch is a nationally recognized sport and the team follows a very strict hand book.

4. Mouth Guard- The only thing you’ll need to buy with your own money is a mouth guard to protect your teeth from any bashes from a stray broom.

If any student thinks he or she has what it takes to fulfill the role of beater, chaser, keeper, seeker or snitch, they can meet the group behind St. Joe’s Residence Hall at Emmanuel every Saturday at 1 p.m. and join their Facebook group, Emmanuel College Quidditch.

There are many reasons why public transit hasn’t taken off in the U.S. as it has in parts of Asia, Europe and elsewhere. For one, ever since the Model T first rolled off Henry Ford’s assembly line, Americans have had a love affair with cars. Also, a successful plot by General Motors and several partner companies in the 1930 and 1940s bought up and shut down rail transit lines across 45 American cities, replacing them with bus routes driven on GM buses. Meanwhile, the U.S. government embarked on a plan to link the nation’s metro areas via interstate highways, further encouraging car travel. The sexy new car designs of the 1950s then drove the final nail in the coffin, relegating public transportation to an afterthought.

But with rising oil prices and growing fears about global warming, public transit is looking sexier to many Americans. As part of 2009’s landmark American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the White House committed $8 billion to efforts to create and maintain high-speed intercity passenger rail service. And just weeks ago, after calling for giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years, Barack Obama pledged another $53 billion to increase the nation’s network of high-speed rail lines.

Plans to expand high-speed rail service are already underway in several U.S. regions. Illinois was the first of 31 states to receive a portion of the funding to begin building high-speed rail lines linking Chicago and St. Louis. A recent report found that high-speed rail in the Midwest would reduce air travel by 1.3 million trips and car travel by 5.1 million trips per year by 2020, saving 188,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions (equivalent to taking 34,000 cars off the road while still getting everyone to and from work).

Funding is also slated to go to California, where trains traveling up to 220 miles per hour will move people between San Diego and San Francisco in less than three hours. California’s high-speed rail system, which should in service by 2020, is expected to cost about half as much as would expanding highways and building new airport runways and gates to accommodate fast growing passenger transportation demand.

Not everyone is on board with high speed rail. Florida’s Republican governor Rick Scott recently rejected $2 billion in federal funding to build an 85-mile high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando, arguing that cost overruns would likely leave Florida taxpayers making up billions of dollars for something they don’t need. Scott’s move in killing the Tampa-Orlando run calls into question whether or not Obama can push his plans through in other parts of the country that are also conservative strongholds.

No matter how quickly Americans get up to speed on high speed rail, the U.S. certainly has some catching up to do. According to statistics from the International Union of Railways and other sources, China leads the world with upwards of 2,800 miles of high speed rail lines in operation and another 5,500 miles planned. Spain, France and Japan each have around 1,200 miles in operation; Germany has 800 miles and Italy has 577. The U.S. has only 226 miles in operation currently. The Obama administration would like to see Americans riding on more than 16,000 miles of high speed rail lines by the middle of the century.