Xbox has teamed up with Cliff and I for a special Valentine's Day "Game with Fame" event. Join us on that day with your co-op buddy for life in some Wingman matches in Gears of War 3.

For more information, go to the official xbox site: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Community/Events/GameWithFame ...

OR look for the event on your xbox 360 dashboard!

 xoxo

Hey Jellybeans! I've been in a major holiday spirit this year and have been saving up tons of stuff to give away because I love y'all. So, I will be giving away the following items this week however way I choose to do so. It could be a dare, trivia question, or who knows! Just look for my tweets and be the first to send in a correct response to win.

* Please note. All of the xbox 360 games I'm giving away are exclusive to the US region consoles only and WILL NOT work on other country's consoles. The PS3 will work anywhere in the world though. All these games are new. Also, If you win something please don't try to win another item. I will ignore your other entries! Let's be fair and allow others to win. :) 

If it's crossed out, it's already been won and claimed.

Batman: Arkham City (PC) Total War: Shogun 2 (PC) Assassin's Creed: Revelations (PS3) inFAMOUS 2 (PS3) Killzone 3 (PS3) Uncharted 3 (PS3) Little Big Planet 2 (PS3) RAGE (360) Batman: Arkham City (360) Saints Row: The Third (360) x3 x2 L.A. Noire (360) Halo: Anniversary Addition (360) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360) Forza Motorsport 4 (360) Bastion (XBLA) Iron Brigade (XBLA) Ms. Splosion Man (XBLA)  Bard's Tale (iOS) x2 Infinity Blade II   (iOS)  Costume Quest (Steam) x2 Psychonauts (Steam) x2  Batman: Arkham City 360 Controller Astro Gaming Scout Bag  Gunnar Optiks Gaming Glasses (Color: Onyx) x2 Super Meat Boy t-shirt (medium) Duke Nukem Forever t-shirt (medium) Gears of War 3 t-shirt (medium)

GOOD LUCK HAVE FUN MAKE BABIES! <3

Do you have what it takes to rule a kingdom?

Pretend, for a moment, that you have a chance to go back in time and into a video game where you can take over a prince/princess' life in a medevil fantasy world. Forget for a minute that there's no running water or Internet, no television, no cars and then answer this: do you think you'd be a total pain in the ass snob or a little darling angel? Didn't take me too long to figure that out after I was ruddily woken up in my comfortable looking pixelated bed by my servant for an "extremely important meeting." That "must attend" meeting where I hear a rooster cockadoodledooing outside my window turned out to be me needing to eavesdrop on my stupid older brother to learn about his evil plans to become more rich by basically hosing the economy. He must have been hit over the head with a heartbreak hammer because he irrationally decides to make many changes around the castle laws seemingly out of nowhere that leaves you no choice but to set things right, or to be evil ... in your own way, of course. Here's a few of my thoughts and opinions about this game.

You play as the offspring of the main character in Fable 2. One ordinary day you are woken up to find your big brother has gone completely mad. Your parents are now gone and he was crowned king. Turns out he didn't get enough hugs as a kid so he decides to torture his mansion staff by working them more on less pay and did I mention that he will also kill any townsfolk who get in his way of judgement? I suspect you never really ever loved your brother since you decide to plan a way to take him out and fix things up throughout the lands of Albion.

In the beginning you team up with your handy dandy butler (John Cleese?) and the head of the military forces, a chap named Walter. (Throughout the game you can work up your fellowships with other leaders.) Y'all escape the mansion through an old getaway cave that in all honestly looks like no secret but more like a tomb. Once you make it to the end of the cave you just so happen to open a portal to your father's secret lair which holds the power that will help you destroy your brother.

Fancy that.

The ghost of the blind chick who helped you to becoming a hero in Fable 2 returns to guide you through the journey. It would be easy to tip the cook to poison some of your brother's food, but that wouldn't make for much of a story or game now, would it? Having the townspeople on your side to uproot the current system is what your ultimate task is. Once everyone sees you have what it takes to rule their lands better than your brother then they will fight and or die along your side.

BAM. Flash forward! Once your brother is taken care of the journey is not nearly over, in fact, it is just starting. Turns out the second half of the game involves your ruling of the kingdom! You are forced to answer to the townsfolk about their armies and lands and concerns as any leader must. Especially in a recession.

As always, you can chose to be good or evil all throughout the game by the actions you chose and I loved the way Lionhead studios went about it in Fable 2. One of the only things I was disappointed with in the entire game was how they didn't emphasize the different choices between the two. In F2 when you stole from a house or killed an innocent person a devil icon showed up above your head. In F3 you get nothing (yeah the A & X has clouds or fire around them but it took me 1/4th through the game to even notice I was making the right choices I wanted to make.) If you are going good I would suggest always choosing the "A" option when interacting with a NPC and "X" for the bad option. Trust me.

That was one of the most greatest nights of our lives. Got to chat up some friends, go bowling, and eat shrimp off a giant shrimp mountain. Boom shots in cute Gears 3 shot glasses were going around, there were to-go baggies with Gears 3 MnMs, and a photo booth!!! Thanks Epic for throwing a fantastic party. Go GEARS!!! <3

Enjoy.

I love this convention, it means the world to me. It's a place for nerds like us to feel comfortable running around geeking out with each other about comic books, movies, artists, and video games. I talked to a few outsiders who bought a day pass and were curious as to why this event is so big and all over the news. They were attempting to understand what all the hubbub was about. For once those folks get to feel "out of place" among *us* while we storm their minds with how incredible our industries are and how strong our pact is to continue to do and share what we love most. Things that define us, intrigue us, and most importantly make us happy - a celebration of nerd culture!

Have you ever flown on 3 different airlines, on 4 different planes, and had to go through 3 security checks in one day? Well that's what happened to us. Our flight from RDU > DFW was smooth and easy (despite having to wake up at 4am). After landing our smiling sleepy faces became frowning opened eyed ones when we noticed our flight to SAN was canceled. By this point it was 9am, the last AA flight was at 10pm... That wasn't an option because Cliff had to be at his Gears 3 panel before 6! After watching the AA agent ferociously slam her long nails on her 1995 keyboard for 40 minutes, she found a solution. Only option actually. Fly from DFW > Tucson then switch airlines to Delta and fly from Tucson > LAX where we continued onto SAN by United. Luckily everything worked and we made it into San Diego by 3pm! Crisis averted.

Next Cliff & Rod shared the panel together announcing a few things while showing an all new trailer just to those at CCSD. Later Paul Jr from American chopper showed up and revealed to us the super cool news that they made a customized bike that could fit into the Gears universe. When the bike turned the corner of the crowd everyone's jaws dropped to the floor. It was so beautiful yet intimidating! The remainder of the night I hung out at the Microsoft party and caught up with friends I only get to see a couple times a year at these events. We were exhausted from the day and crashed early.

 

Finally a day where we could hit up the con floor! Found myself an original 1996 new Tamagotchi that brings back far too many memories. Named him Dookie because he's a super dooper pooper! There are incredibly too many things to buy at these conventions so I had to keep my wallet on a strict diet. Found a tiny pink Halo spartan which will soon be making friends with my Bioshock's Big Daddy on my swag desk. Returned to the NerdHQ venue midday where there was another exclusive panel for Gears 3. This one did cost $20 to attend but once again, 100% of the proceedings all go to charity. Here they uncovered the first ever revealed easter egg from Gears3! Not going to tell ya though. ;)

Special shout out to all the jellybeans that make up my L337 FL337 that I got a chance go meet. Y'all were so kind to me! Keep on rocking and thank you! Also wanted to say GG at all the cosplayers out there. I know y'all put a major amount of time, money, and heart into your outfits. One last thing, Cliff and I really appreciated the congratulations we received in person about our engagement. Thanks! ::HUGS::

Disclaimer: I feel for all who suffered loss during Katrina, and I absolutely know I didn't have it the worst in anyway. This is a story about a part of my life with my own personal feelings and experiences during the horrible catastrophe. Do not expect a story filled with violence, rape, and looting here. This is merely my personal journey as a middle class white teenager.

Unlike many, I was very fortunate.

During Katrina back in 2005 my family (Mom, Grandma, Dad, 2 brothers, & 1 sister) and I lived in a suburban town outside New Orleans called Mandeville. When the storm was heading our way my dad took my brothers up to his sister's house upstate. My sister, Grandma, and I decided to stay with my mom who is an RN at a big local hospital because they were short on staff since everyone was evacuating. We packed up a few things such as batteries, DVD/CD players, gameboys, clothes and sleeping bags and waded over. We were crammed in a conference room with other employee's families (about 40-50 people.)

That was the night Katrina officially hit town.

We watched the news and took in any information we could about what was going on outside. At around 2am the power went out for a few seconds until the hospital's backup generators kicked in. It kind of felt like the Zombie Apocalypse was hitting for a bit there.

The day after was still stormy so we couldn't go check out the damages. (We were told not to anyway because power poles could be down and active.) I eventually met friends there around my who brought guitars & a few laptops. One guy had a Counter-Strike 1.5 disc in his car so we installed and LANNED up one night in a break room (internet was down of course!) It was funny how all the snack machines were completely dried out in 2 days there. A week in some kids and I decided to be a rebel and sneak outside. There is a neighborhood next to the hospital in which we wondered about. I felt like I was in a forest made into a jungle gym.

Since food was scarce in the supply room and everyone inside had no idea if the water towers were down in the city we weren't allowed full showers (Italian showers for 2 weeks eww!). My mom was awesome and snuck us up to the women's locker room one night and let us take one. Remember the scene in the Walking Dead when they hit the CDC and have hot showers? It felt like that. Cafeteria food was great as this hospital is one that has a great menu - shocker! We fortunate to be given 3 meals a day, unlike many in the city.

Lesson learned: It truly helps to have a parent on staff at a hospital in these sort of times.

The day finally came where the doors were unlocked where we could go home (all the road ways were covered in fallen trees that took a while for the city to clear.) We left after my Mom's shift driving home at night to our home. Driving home was mad intense because you know you are driving through your city and 100% of the power was out so it was rather disturbing driving through the darkness. My dad and brothers had returned that day to secure the house. Thankfully, our house is on a hill and only took water damage in our garage compared to 90% our neighbors. Only one tree nipped our house which only took out a chimney.

The first night home sucked because we only had one generator who only controlled showers because it was so muggy inside from the heat anyway. I lived off my burnt CDs & started up a new Pokemon Yellow game on my old lime green Gameboy Color. Nights were so creepy from hearing on the news of looters so my dad kept guns out just in case someone wanted to break in. I'm not certain if he would have actually shot someone but it made us feel safer.

Soon after my best friend in the whole entire world, Chris, was home alone and scared to stay there so he bunked up with my family and me which was fun. Another neighbor who is also my pal who worked with me at EBGames knocked on the door one night.. My dad answered the door to find him holding 2 samari swords asking if he could bunk with us as well because he was scared alone too. I informed him that there were looters out there, not ninjas, and he joined our party. It was like people were joining our JRPG adventuring party.

A couple days in we picked up some good old MREs (military food) that FEMA dropped off at a local Target. Those are quite delicious and fun to eat as we were always fighting over the red beans & rice. (Yes, I liked them AND the hospital food.) Each one comes with a tiny Tabasco sauce for extra flavor and they had a bag of chemicals cooks your food when water is added. TECHNOLOGY! We all kept busy for those 2 weeks by helping clear our streets of trees and debris. Yayyah little miss me used a chainsaw and didn't lose any limbs, although if any looters showed up I would have chainsawed them.


It was one unique trip we had to make through as a family. We did have one loss, however - our great great great great grandfather's family vacation house which was located on Lake Ponchatraine was destroyed in the storm. For us, it was a place filled with memories of summer getaways and family reunions. Sadly, all that was left was the washer, dryer, and refrigerator that had sunk to the bottom of the lake. And, according to Louisiana law, if your house rests off water of any kind you can not insure it. To this day we are still trying to build up money throughout our family to one day have it rebuilt for all the future nuggets in our lives!

This game starts off with a harsh gameplay mechanics and literally unappealing looks. Honestly, the first level was a struggle to make it through. You play as this English man with Goku hair who was a captured human of a Mech infested world. He was given the name "Monkey" because he grew up alone in the woods during the invasion of the mechs. When you enter the game, you're withheld in a chamber on a ship that is crashing downward towards earth. Thankfully, you make your way to an escape pod and woken up with a mad headache with some random girl staring at you. She is this tech savvy gal named Trip who just wants to return back to her family's village with protection so she puts this device on your head which enslaved you to her who can command you at will to do anything.

(Hence the name Enslaved.)

She agreed to release you once she makes it safely home. He can't say no because if she dies, his slave device wipe trigger a deadly electric pulse that will kill you! You'd think that was just a mind trick to keep them from disobeying but in the first level they made it obvious by killing a slaved solider the same way. So, clearly, it works. On, Monkey!
The way they had Trip come across as on their journey was a sweet "sorry I'm making you do this" kind of girl. She isn't completely a crutch because she has abilities that can help you move from point A to point B such as a hologram which acts as a decoy for a few seconds helping you attack from behind. Later on you gain the ability to carry health packs that she holds for you. I can't help but wonder - why no co-op? For a game that seems based around two players cooperating it seems like this would be a no-brainer.

I'm really enjoying the story line here. Throughout the game there are hints of emotion between to two. I was craving that moment they would just kiss... I'm not letting you know though if they ever did. The tension is certainly there, however, in a Ross and Rachel sort of way. But with Mechs.

Game play has nothing ground breaking new. Basically you enter a new room which is filled with enemies then you have to plan a way to destroy them. You have 4 types of power ups in the game; Combat, Health, Shield, and Staff. Around every corner there are orange orbs in which you collect to upgrade your character's abilities. Just killing enemies won't help you fully upgrade. It's a bit of tidies work wondering around for them.

Each level reminds me as if I'm playing a Tomb Raider game for each room is a puzzle to defeat. The enemies consists of mechs, mines, & turrets. Occasionally if you don't kill a mech in time they will call for assistance which only makes the game much harder. I'm so grateful for Ninja Theory adding boss fights. Some games get away with not adding them in like Halo Reach... Really? Those are my favorite parts of games!

Bring it!

If you have free time & can make it through learning how go ignore the annoying camera angles/controls then it's a pretty fun find. The game finally picks up steam at Chapter 3 (out of 15). The game's fighting style is mostly crafted around melée, but they do offer ranged weapons. Still, I'm amazed that the game doesn't have co-op or multiplayer of any kind, especially in this age of used games and rentals.

Ever feel you've changed as a gamer since the Xbox 360 came out? I remember getting cheats out of magazines and inputting the code into my GameShark then telling my friends about it. Now that felt like an achievement. When I beat a game, I never had to show proof to my pals that I actually beat it because they just took my word for it as I did with them. The online achievement system has changed the way I game over the past few years in good ways and as well as some "unhealthy gaming" ways.

When I got a new game as a kid (let's say for example Donkey Kong Country for the SNES) I had a goal - a driving passion to beat that game and play it again and again. Why doesn't this generation of games make me feel the same way? Is it the length of the gameplay, the complexity of of the story line, or possibly the free roam capability? The older games have warp secrets to get to the next level or world so you didn't have to plow through all those levels. This generation of games usually just give you the same option to play whichever part you wish to ... but it just isn't the same.

Here's the difference between earning PS3 vs 360 goals. Paying for online makes you feel more worth your time to show it off because you not only paid for the game itself, you get to flaunt it over XBL. With me, I feel as if the PS3's trophy system is too layered meaning 4 different types of trophies you can get for one goal?

Wait, what?

Yay I beat a boss but since I didn't do it flawless I only get a silver trophy not a gold. Dude, Sony, I don't care weather I get a different type of trophy for beating the boss because I put in time to beat it and that's all I really want people to know. Ever hear "man I totally beat that boss in Demon's Souls last night and got gold for it." no you hear "man it felt great working my thumbs off to beat that final fight last night." When I get a new 360 game the first thing I do before starting the game is read through all the achievements so I know what to look for in the game. To be honest I have no idea where the list of Trophies are located on the PS3.

I hate to say this but I do in fact judge a game by how easy or fun the achievements are to work for. If I beat a game and only got 100 gamer points for it, I feel ripped off. Some of them out there give out way to many for multiplayer. It should be evened out. Games such as Bioshock, Darksiders, and Fable 2 were extremely satisfying playing through them working for the achievements I feel great getting for collectables and level completion. Steady drips of gamer point crack keep gamers coming back for more.

PC games are now getting in with the achievements scene. I played CS for 6+ years and Valve recently added achievements. If they tracked the kills, headshots, bomb defuses, and time played would I want that back then? I used to be a heavy WoW player for a few years and when achievements were implemented in a new expansion I thought genius! Kind of makes you wonder why Microsoft didn't trademark the name and own it, forcing everyone else to come up with their own version.

Achievements have tattooed a spot into my gaming brain. If I put time into a game I might as well have something to show for it. Thanks Microsoft!

The Zombie apocalypse…

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and talking with friends about the “what if’s” of the zombie apocalypse. Seriously, what if it DID in fact hit? Here are a few of my questions and opinions on those questions.

1. If the zombie apocalypse hits would cloning be legalized in order to mass produce human flesh to feed the zombies?
   
   If we ever decide to domesticate them for pets, we would need some type of artificial food. They eat flesh and there isn't enough in the world for us to eat bacon with them. Cloning would be a no-brainer in my opinion. You could make little "zombie away" packets for the stranded, homeless ones that has meat in a can to throw at them. Maybe even hardened ears and toes blood coated can be manufactured as treats. They wouldn't be picky about what they are given because they are stupid so no fancy cookie cutters are needed.
   
   
2. If zombies were to be brought back to life, would cosmetic companies make a fortune creating skin rehabilitation products?
   
   I think scientists would get more wrinkles in creating such a thing because it wouldn't be easy. If they could turn a zombie back to a decent moron of a human I'm sure they would work on creating skin cell replenishments. I'm sure surgeries to connect the sliced up wounds or severed lems would have to take place first, but after that process work on working out that decayed skin blemishes.
3. Would hipsters deliberately wear zombie clothes to appear anti-establishment?
   
   We all know hipsters like to appear dirty with their retro clothes, where else would they get the real deal? …By taking the clothes off the dead zombies of course. Maybe that would just reverse the affect and clean people would become the new aged hipsters. Wait, why are zombie clothes ALWAYS so torn up and beat down? I bet if I wore a t-shirt for a month around the world it still wouldn’t look like that, what do they get themselves into?
   
   
4. If zombies never poop would they have HUGE zombie food babies from all that ::om nom nom:: munching?
   
   If they are dead, their organs most likely don’t work, so they wouldn’t be digesting the pounds of flesh they consume on a regular bases. The more food they have in them, the more slowed down they will become, therefore easier to avoid, kill, or capture the walking dead.
   
   
5. If all zombies ever do is eat the living, how does that person have any flesh or guts left to even come back to life?
   
   Think about it. In movies they always seem so violent and end up eating the entire person. How do so many people end up as a zombie? I doubt zombies who corner a human would just take a small bite and say “there ya go, you can be my friend.”

There are millions of questions out there, but those are ones I haven't heard of yet. Possibly the real zombie apocalypse will most likely be us turning lazy like the people in Idioacracy or Wall-E. Let me hear your comments on this! :)

Wow.

Think about it. Apple now has 300 stores open around the world, 1 million visitors a day, and 40,000 apple product user classes a week, and it's only going to get busier for them. The new iOS 4.1 has High Dynamic Range (HDR) for photos, the ability to upload HD video over Wi-Fi which is neat, and my personal favorite - multitasking! With the photos you can crop and edit them without using an app... bye bye PhotoGene & RotateMojo. It will be available to download next week for free of course.

(Reminds me of when Microsoft would start rolling features into Windows, which would kill off those who made the earlier apps.)

It seems they has been busy lately with all these new products coming out this Holiday:

Honestly, I have an iPhone and so I have no real need for this thing,  but it is so dang cute I may end up buying one anyway. It has a full little tiny touch screen! ^.^

PROJECT SWORD

Epic Games showed off a first game for iOS which is powered by the Unreal Engine 3. The game in the making is code named “Project Sword” and it looks outstanding. It has a Fable type look and looks like Punch-out type gameplay, but with knights in shining armor. The battles are one on one and you can play against a friend using Game Center. You attack your opponent by slashing your fingers across the screen which sounds pretty simple but there’s probably more to it. You can now download a demo of this game's world called "Epic's Citadel" for free in the Apple Store and roam around the gorgeous city. Apparently the full game will be available this holiday. It’s so pretty! :)

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1.0 or later.

Download Project Sword Demo free here >>

GAME CENTER

Whoa! This is SO FREAKING AWESOME. I'm so excited about this. Game Center allows developers to put multiplayer into their games as well as the app itself. Even though the name "Game Center" sounds like an old guy's football website, it's what I've always wanted. Apple read my mind. It has features such as:

• Multiplayer action - Finally my cellphone will be a gaming weapon.
• Challenging amounst friends  - In those multiplayer games you can literally send a challenge straight to their phones which will look like a notification to accept or decline your request.
• Auto match matching - If you have no friends irl, then you are in luck. This allows you to play against random people in the world.
• Abillity to compare scores - Yeah if you pwn your boyfriend you can post the score to the world.
• Help you to discover new games - You can stalk your friends to see what they have download or played recently.

iTunes 10 & Apple TV

iTunes 10 changed their logo from the old CD with music note to a new aged icon. They also made the interface (thank the good berries) simple. I used to dread using iTunes, but maybe we'll become friends again after all their updates.

It's availible to download now here >>

Apple is introducing Netflix, YouTube, and Flickr to Apple TV. There is no storage because it is all streaming. You can buy TV shows for cheap and commercial free too! There’s an HDMI port, Ethernet port (it also has wireless built in), and a remote. The user interface is super simple and easy to use (same as is it now). I have always heard great things about Apple TV but I’m not sure if I’ll ever need it since I have the Xbox 360 which does all of that, though the movies may be cheaper to watch then the Zune network.

Good work Apple, your listening to what we want and crafting beautiful new technology.

+1 dedicated user

* Images from Gizmodo.com