While I soaked up the sun at Myrtle Beach this week, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo kicked off in Los Angeles, revealing lots of gaming goodies to the masses. You’re probably well aware of the big ones, but some announcements may have slipped through the cracks. Here’s a brief rundown of the E3 info that you may want—or even need—to know. (more…)

As promised, here’s a quick rundown of games I’ve recently played. Some were reviewed here; some were not. I won’t write a full review for the unreviewed games, but I’ll try to be as specific about what I liked and didn’t like as possible.

Mass Effect 2

Though I was knee-deep in homework at the time of Mass Effect 2‘s release, I couldn’t pass up the chance to play the sequel to one of my favorite games of this console generation. I’m glad I did, as ME2 ups the ante in every possible way, making for the best sequel to any game. The control is tighter; the combat is more focused and a lot smoother; the AI is smarter; the story is longer and more character-driven; and the graphics will blow you away—and without any texture pop-in to boot. The DLC leaves something to be desired, but that’s a minor complaint. I can’t to see where Commander Shepard and his crew go from here. (more…)

Folks that download and play the new Green Day: Rock Band demo on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network will be greeted with this screen upon completion:

Notice the new instrument icon at the end? Looks like Rock Band 3 will include a keyboard/piano instrument. Hopefully this isn’t what Harmonix means when they say Rock Band 3 will shake things up. How does adding the ability to play A Flock of Seagulls change rhythm gaming? I’m not saying I don’t want to rock out to “I Ran (So Far Away)”—I’d love to, actually—but I hope Harmonix has more up its sleeve for the third RB installment.

UPDATE: Ars Technica’s oft-reliable industry source claims the new instrument will not be a keyboard. Instead, it will be a keytar. The source also claims that all Rock Band 3 instruments will be exclusively designed by Mad Catz and will likely be more realistic.

I think a keyboard would be easier to learn than a keytar, but maybe I just don’t want to look like a washed out former member of a glam metal band. What do you folks prefer—keytar or keyboard?

I bet some of you folks thought I, like Elvis before me, left the building. Well, I kind of did. These past few months made up the final semester of my last year at West Virginia State University. Unlike most students who take it easy the last semester, I had to take seven classes to graduate this spring. As you can no doubt imagine, seven classes leave little time for gaming—or writing about said hobby, for that matter.

I planned to make my comeback shortly after graduation but things didn’t work out. A flood hit my home shortly before my graduation day, forcing me to rip up carpet, get rid of ruined furniture and appliances, and buy replacements. Then, to make matters worse, a second flood hit shortly after graduation. I had to rip up the remaining carpet, get rid of more stuff, and so on.

Doesn’t sound like a fun few months, eh? They certainly weren’t fun, but I did manage to squeak in some gaming time on the odd occasion. I’ll write up a what I’ve been playing piece in the near future giving my opinion on a few recent (and maybe not-so-recent) titles. But not having to play games is nothing compared to flood damage. I thank God that the house is fine, along with everyone living in it. You can replace a ruined couch, but you can’t replace a life. God made sure that I didn’t need to worry about that.

So I’m back in the saddle again, kids, armed with a BA in English (go ahead, make jokes about how useless it’ll be), new furniture, and enough free time to make a full-time return to my favorite hobby. Look for the aforementioned opinion piece soon.

For this review I’m going to break down this game in three, different sections .

1.) Singleplayer

Well when I bought Bad Company 2 I didn’t plan on playing singleplayer at all but with all the server issues that EA has been having I started to play singleplayer. My first impressions were…. Wow this really sucks. It was dull and boring and felt like it was just tagged on. I kept on playing and it slowly starts to do more things then just run with a gun, shoot a rocket at the tank and pwn noobs. I still have yet to finish the singleplayer but from what I’ve heard it’s a great ending. One major thing that really bugs me is the amount of cussing in the story it seems like every other word is a guy screaming a F Bomb, which is a MAJOR turn off. Overall 6/10

2.) Graphics and Sound

Before I go ANY further in this review I must say the sound in this game is AMAZING! With my Tritton AX Pro headphones I could hear everything from a tank to a boat-from afar to the rockets being shot at my building. The graphics could be better, they don’t seem very polished. Not enough to make the gameplay any worse just something that EA screwed up on.. Overall I give the sound a 10/10 and the Graphics a 7/10

3.) Multiplayer

Now this is why everyone bought the game and I must say this is a BLAST. There’s always something to do whether it be raining down gun fire from a blackhawk or storming the base with tanks. One thing that I don’t enjoy about the multiplayer is the fact that the guns you get at a levvl like 23 can destory a team of level 10s. Overtime I could see it being a issue. One other thing I really enjoyed was the fact that you get blow up anything in your way like being a wall or a tank. I give it a 9/10

Overall I have to say this game is one of the best games I’ve played and if anyone asked me if they should buy the game I’d say YES!

My Overall score for the game is a 8.5/10 with a boost in the graphics for this game it would be a 9/10.

Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, an Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network game, is a great example of a tactical RPG, or may be described more accurately as a platform turn based strategy RPG. This game reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics how you can move your characters from one box to another. You are to use these characters you are given against a pre-determined amount of “baddies” on that particular level. In the training exercises that they have you do at the beginning of the game, you are Tobias, a young boy, who is, you guessed it, just learning about the ways of the sword, the bow, and magic. This does not mean that you are restricted to controlling only one character, you control everyone on the battle field unless there is a special character that assists you in that specific battle.

The game play aspect started out a little clunky and slow but once the game got going it really felt like you could get sucked in and keep playing this game for hours at a time. You are able to use different types of physical attacks such as a regular sword slashing attack and a long range attack that you can switch to, like a bow or another long range weapon and target your enemies from afar. There are also magic attacks like a regular damage attack used to hurt enemies directly, hexes that can slow down or hurt enemies over time like a snare or poison; your magic can also be used to help your characters like the heal spell that gives an ally of your choosing his/her health back, or cure that can take off poisons or snares. Even the technical aspect of this game is exceptional; for example, some regular attacks that you do can actually hurt allies standing next to you if you swing a huge weapon around. The same thing goes with magic, if a magic spell that you use has an area of effect damage to it, you will hurt any allies in the area. So be careful when you choose to unleash a huge magic spell around your allies, because your enemies may die but your allies probably will as well.

The graphics in this game were decent as far as the reactions to attacks and the magic spells that are cast for an arcade game. But as far as the surroundings you can tell that there wasn’t that much put into it and that they were more focused on the game play aspect instead of how the game looked. There were no problems with any of the sounds while attacks were being made, but the surrounding ambiance sounds were very plain.

This game is rated teen for blood, fantasy violence, and mild language. When playing the game, the blood was squirts of red bubbles coming up from a character or enemy that had been attacked, and a prolonged squirt when that character or enemy dies. As far as fantasy violence goes, the above fight sequences is as much violence that you are going to get from this game. If there is any language it is unnoticeable and not overly vulgar.

This relatively new XBLA/PSN game is developed by Hijinx Studios LLC (previously known as PhoenixSoft) and published by Konami Digital Entertainment Inc.

…Playstation Network Demo scheduled for February 4th.

The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 console demo and PC beta will feature Port Valdez, a new vehicle focused map where up to 24 players (32 on PC) will compete against each other as either the US or Russian armies in the game’s Rush multiplayer mode. Players will have access to five land and three air vehicles where the Russian side can use everything in their arsenal including Main Battle Tanks as well as the fast-moving Quad Bikes and Mobile Armored AA. The fight will also be packed with plenty of infantry combat fought alongside the waterline towards a great oil industrial landscape in the Alaskan mountains.
Have you played the demo?  What did you think about it?  Leave a comment.

Yeah, I know—this place is turning into Hardcore Dragon Age Gamer. I can’t help the news is still slow, so read up and hush.

If you can’t get enough of the nostalgic RPG fun in Dragon Age: Origins, worry not. BioWare’s got their fans covered with an upcoming DA:O expansion—yes, a seriously old-school full expansion—called Awakening, due for release this March. The expansion will ship on a retail disc and will be available in downloadable form, and will cost gamers $39.99.

Players can expect new areas, higher level cap, five new characters (although BioWare has been unclear on whether or not they’re all playable), and lots of new loot. BioWare says players can expect roughly 15 hours of new gameplay in the expansion. (more…)

The next DLC for EA and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, a heart-warming tale of revenge and ogre massacre called Return to Ostagar, hits Xbox Live and the PC on January 5. PSN will see the DLC pack sometime later. If you want to know what to expect in the pack, catch a glimpse below, courtesy of Gamerfuzion and Youtube.