Sega just released a demo for Alien Vs Predator which allows players to enjoy an 8 player deathmatch on one of the ship maps.  Players can party up and join a room with up to 8 players.  You can choose from Alien, Space Marine or Predator (while there seems to be a limit to how many Predators can play).  There are also locked options to choose from the class of character you play as.  For now there is a generic Space Marine and a basic Alien.  What is extremely unique about this experience is that each character is truly different from the others.  For instance, the aliens generally crawl on the ground, whip their tails and thrash with claws while the marines have the basic gun load out and the predator has slashing and shooting abilities.  The aliens can crawl all over any surface which can be disorienting at times but can also add a lot of fun to the game.  I have yet to be a Predator but the Marine has a flash light, can’t see well in the dark but his gun is very powerful against all enemies.

From what I could tell the game seems semi-language free.  There is a lot of blood and gore and the kill animations are pretty realistic.  It is definitely creepy to play as a Marine when you are battling alien races and can’t see infront of you.  Bare in mind that this game doesn’t come off as being tactical at all.  It felt more in the realm of Quake or Unreal Tournament where you play fast and die a lot.  If that is your thing than you may really enjoy this game.  The demo is free and you can try it out for yourself.

Have you already played the demo?  Let us know your impressions in the comments.

OK, I’m just going to get to the point. Shadow Complex rocks! Seriously, get your Microsoft Points, run to your console and buy this game now. Don’t play the trial first—you know it rocks. Don’t wait a few days—you’ll be playing Batman in a few days. Get this game now!

For the uninitiated, Shadow Complex is Chair Entertainment’s new exploration based, side-scrolling, shooter built ground up for Xbox Live Arcade. The game borrows heavily from all the great Metroid and Castlevania (Symphony of the Night and its successors) games. In this style of game, players move in a single plain but traverse a sprawling over-world aided by a fantastically well-designed and easy to read map.

The game begins with our hero, Jason Fleming (Voiced by the up and coming Brad Pitt of Video games: Nolan North, who played Nate in Uncharted) and his girlfriend, Clair. The two are out on a date to go hiking through some caves Clair explored as a child. Within moments however, Clair goes missing and ends up kidnapped by a shadowy government organization whose base just happens to be located within these caves. Armed with only your trusty flashlight, players must explore the base and gather all the weapons and tools they’ll need to save Clair. (more…)

After one final Xbox Originals release on the Xbox Live Marketplace, don’t expect to see anymore digital downloads of your favorite Xbox games. Microsoft feels it is time to close the door on the Xbox and will cease to release Xbox Originals following one last unannounced game. Microsoft has yet to discuss this final Original title, but the smart money is on Halo 2.

Current Xbox Originals will still be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for purchase, and of course titles users already purchased can be re-downloaded at any time. Microsoft isn’t pulling the plug on the entire service. Still, it’s a shame Microsoft doesn’t see a lucrative future in continuing to release Xbox Originals. I’d love to see a few more gems from the first Xbox, such as Jet Grind Radio Future and…um…I can’t think of anything else.

Any titles you folks wish you could see re-released as a Xbox Original?

Major Nelson was kind enough to inform everyone that on Tuesday, June 16th beginning at 12:01 PST, Xbox Live will be down for scheduled maintenance for up to 24 hours. The forums and My Xbox section of Xbox.com will also be down. This will be in support of some of the new features announced at E3, but Major Nelson stressed that there will NOT be any new features added to the Xbox 360 dashboard when service is restored.

Dust off those single player games, or maybe track down some of the good games on the Wii (yes, they do exist!) and use your time wisely while you’re deprived of online multiplayer goodness.

Based on the anticipated success of the upcoming release of Halo ODST.  Bungie Studios has announced today that they are currently in production of Halo Cortana.

Halo Cortana will take place in the mind of Spartan 117 (Master Chief) as the anatomically incorrectly nude Cortana guides Master Chief through his missions. 

    ”Halo Cortana will be all of the Halo games in every series as seen through the eyes of Cortana.  You will be prompted with options on what rediculous phrases and annoying retoric you want Cortana to say as she watches Master Chief do everything” – Alex Standford (production designer)

In fact, the game is so simple you won’t have to do anything but watch and make verbal decisions directing good ‘ole MC what to do.  You can expect continual iterations of Halo Cortana including an online version where one players Cortana verbally berates your opposing players Cortana as the Spartans automatically battle it out.  The release date has yet to be announced.

The recent info coming out about Resident Evil 5 adding a versus mode at the price tag of 400 microsoft points or $4 on the Playstation Network got me thinking. Thinking about a time back before downloadable content ran rampant on our gaming platforms. What did we do? How did we ever justify a purchase!? 

We were FINE. We had our game and we played the heck out of it. We got our moneys worth out of it. What the developer burned onto the disc is what we got. When they had new stuff, it came in the form of the sequel to the previous game. But since DLC has been added into our gaming lives, we let developers and publishers walk all over us because they know our appetite. I understand the need for game companies to make profit off of their work, but charging us every time they can does not show good faith. 

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Imagine watching a basketball game where neither team scores or a football game where no one gets tackled. Could we consider that entertainment? I found myself feeling a similar lack of entertainment after playing a few of the Xbox 360 titles for 2008. Spending hours playing through a single player campaign to find that I completed only five out of fifty achievements is quite the “Debbie Downer”. Don’t misunderstand, I enjoy the technical and advanced skill required for some achievements but to play through an entire campaign and not accomplish at least half of the achievements listed is very frustrating. I understand that the more difficult achievements add replay value to a game but I want to be significantly rewarded for the hours I put in during my first play through. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a strong believer in making a large amount of the achievements listed in games unproblematic to accomplish during the first play through. The complex achievements should be reserved for the hardcore gamer, not the entire audience.

For example, I have been a fan of the Ninja Gaiden franchise since the original Nintendo (NES) versionso naturally I was anticipating the 2008 release of Ninja Gaiden 2. If you were a gamer of the NES era you can remember the times of leaving your console on for days to beat the campaign; this was the era before memory cards and hard drives. Putting aside my nostalgia, after playing through the very frustrating campaign of Ninja Gaiden 2 on the Xbox 360, I was very disappointed in the amount of achievements that I had accomplished compared to the time invested. I spent 10-15 hours playing through a campaign, and the return on my time – a serious lack of achievements accomplished. I was discouraged. In fact I contemplated trading it in for Kung Fu Panda just so I could grab some quick achievements.

Overall, Ninja Gaiden 2 was a great game but the achievements were too few and far between. It seems some recent titles like Gears of War 2 and Left4Dead understand the fact of rewarding achievements to the player at a moderate and encouraging pace. Finally, a word to the developers – instead of focusing on making the achievements very complicated to accomplish, reward the gamer for spending the hard earned $60 and indulging himself in your virtual world. Give me a hefty amount of achievements for completing your well-designed campaign. After all you spent months or even years designing and completing your game. Don’t you want me to be entertained?

If you look up perfection in the dictionary you will see a picture of Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix next to it. From the graphics-to gameplay to the multiplayer, this game oozes perfection.

If you are still reading this review then you must not own this game already, well buckle up as I take you down memory lane with this updated classic.

Ok let’s start off with how awesome the graphics are. The graphics in this game are able to achieve a rare thing by giving it a new hd look, but at the same time it gives off a reflection of nostalgia. To better explain, while I am setting there playing it I notice how awesome the graphics look and how much detail is in all the characters and the backgrounds.  Then bam! out of nowhere I get this like weird memory of me being eight sitting in my bedroom playing the original Street Fighter II Turbo amazed about how great the graphics look and how much detail is in the character models.

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I just finished our Community Playdate with Xbox Live and I have a full room of 18 people in and out for roughly 3 hours. Special thanks to everyone who participated. If you were there, leave a comment in this post and tell us about your experience.
Also, make sure you click on the forums link above and register there as well. We will have all types of events in the future and would love to see you there.
Again, thank you everyone for showing up. If you have any questions please email preacher@christian-gaming.com.

If I can say anything good about Need for Speed Undercover is that it has the feel and sound of a typical Need for Speed game.  When racing you can go fast and you truly experiance a sense of speed when you are traveling in excess of 150 mph.  The sound of the engines and the peeling out of the cars is awesome I really felt like I was in a Camaro or Shelby Cobra.

 The trouble with this game starts when you are given an open world to drive around in much like the last few Need for Speed games, but where it falls flat is at no time can I drive around and find races or secret areas. Instead you have to bring up your GPS and then automatically go into any race available to you or just drive around until the closest race will pop up on your GPS system.   Then you just press down, this proves a problem several times over when I would get done with a race I would sometimes automatically press down to hop into the next race but instead the closest thing to me was a car shop.

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