NHL 2k10 First Trailer

NHL 2k10 has finally got it’s first trailer out there. NHL 2010 by EA Sports has stolen all the thunder, especially after their success in 2009. Some of the listed additions so far are things like pick up and play controls, true to life authenticity, and a bigger variety of on and off line game modes. If you ask me, they don’t really have many great additions to brag about. They are being very vague so either they are still working on the bigger things or they don’t have anything yet.

What are your thoughts about the trailer? Personally, I’m going with NHL 2010 simply because I’m sticking with the EA Sports franchise. If you look past having a favorite creator, NHL 2010 is still the better game play for hockey at least. They may have failed (and then “cheated”) in football, but EA Sports definitely owns NHL.

Playstation Home Additions

The Playstation Home is making some interesting new additions to your experience. The biggest of which is going to be a ten screen movie theater for you to watch. Is this suggesting that there is going to be some sort of addition where you are allowed to watch movies similar to netflix, possibly watch tv shows, or is it something else all together? It would be pretty cool to have semi-recent full feature movies in there, or even popular series re-runs such as Lost. This is Sonys official statement about the new additions, particularly the movie theater screens.

“The Movie Theater brings you ten times as much exciting content [including from the PS.Blog! -Jeff] with a brand-new 10-screen layout, a new lobby, and the ability to unlock rewards in select screening rooms. Be sure to check out the screening rooms often – you never know when one of them will be giving something away. Stay tuned for lots of exclusive new videos over the coming months, including the future possibility of full-length TV shows or movies, with new features debuting on a regular basis.”

What do you think? Are you at all interested in watching movies or television shows from your Playstaion Home? If it’s anything like Netflix, I sure wouldn’t use it. It’s a lot harder than simply watching them on your computer or just putting it in your list and receiving it within a few days. I think Sony should have tried something new or beat Microsoft to the radio idea.

Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer

Finally, Activision and Infinity Wards Modern Warfare 2 has a trailer including gameplay from the multiplayer aspect of the game. While the campaign can hook players to the game, the majority of it’s million fans are purchasing it for the multiplayer only. I myself haven’t beat the Call of Duty 4 or 5 campaigns yet. They are long and not nearly as fun as playing on live. So if you’re interested in the multiplayer, check this out.

Did anything in particular appeal to you? I especially liked the ability to choose what kill streak advantages you will receive. I didn’t catch what the possibilities are, but I’m sure as your level gets higher, the options will get more and more advanced. Effectively mastering the kill streak bonuses can hopefully lead you to 20 or 30 kill streaks almost every game. The only thing I’m worried about is the potential of one of these bonuses being too powerful and end up making the game no fun. Another thing that confused me was the gun with a pop out radar on that. I hope that’s not showing enemy location constantly.

Splinter Cell: Conviction Delayed

Splinter Cell: Conviction was one of the bigger games slated for release this fall. It was highly anticipated after the successful franchise’s previous versions of the game. Yesterday, Ubisoft announced that the game wasn’t going to be completed on schedule and that it will be releasing first quarter of 2010 instead of this holiday season.

The following statement was made by Ubisoft to justify and comment on the decision to delay the game another couple of months.

“In order to live up to our own ambitions and your expectations, we strongly feel that giving our teams that extra time will allow us to present a game to you that will fulfill that potential. Due to this, we have decided to move the release date into Q1 2010. This extra time will ensure Splinter Cell: Conviction becomes every bit the fantastic experience we want it to be.”

I think they committed to a release date too early. The game should be coming out as amazing as ever in the first quarter of 2010. Personally, this delay seems like a good thing. I mean, who is really going to play it with all of the Halo, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed type games that are slated to release this fall along with the traditional sports games? By waiting a few months, we’ll be tired of these games and ready to move on to one of the few Q1 releases out there.

64,000 Sign Petition in Germany

Germany’s government is working on passing a bill that will essentially ban the most popular first person shooters along with many other violent video games. Specifically, they are wanting to ban any software in which the focus of the game is to realistically kill or preform in-human acts on other people or human-like creatures. This would effectively get rid of games like Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Fallout 3, Assassin’s Creed, and Grand Theft Auto. Really, what games would be left to them? Sports games and racers would be the only thing I’d have left to play out of my gaming library.

64,000 gamers and counting have signed a petition against this new bill. According to German law, this is large enough to call a public hearing to discuss the matter at hand. How long it took to get the 64,000 petition signers was not made clear; however, I expect it to continue growing well over the 100,000 mark. Parents, teens, and children play these games on a daily basis. Outlawing them is just ridiculous and will not only hurt the German economy due to a lack of video game sales, but also the video game industry in general.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

At Comic-Con 2009 it was announced that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed would have downloadable content for both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 versions of the game. This expansion pack will take place on Luke’s home planet of Tatooine and feature the character Boba Fett.

Not only did they have announcements for the console versions of the game, but also a surprise for PC gamers. They are releasing a new compilation pack of all of the downloadable content yet to be released. Personally, I’m not sure how big of a deal this is considering I’ve never even heard of this particular version in the Star Wars series. I’m sure the downloadable content will be worth it if you like the game, but if you haven’t played it in quite some time I have a feeling you won’t mind saving the $10 on this expansion pack. There was no word yet on how many microsoft points or dollars it will cost or when it will be released.

Plants vs Zombies in Xbox Live Arcade

Pop Cap Games has just announced that the game Plants vs Zombies is going to be released on the Xbox Live Arcade. This games great success on the PC has led to it’s release on the Xbox 360. This simple, yet very addicting tower defense game is sure to be a hit on the Xbox 360. Pop Cap Games  has offered no insight about the games price, release date, or anything else about the game.

It’s still a work in progress. We’ll probably see it in the fall of 2009 for a price of 800 microsoft points as this is the normal price we see arcade games going for. If you’re dying to play this game, you can always check out the PC version; however, I have no idea where you’d play it or if it’s free. If you have a link, post it in a comment as I’m interested in giving the game a try before it goes onto the Xbox 360.

Most Downloaded XBL Arcade Games of the Week

It’s interesting to see what gamers are spending their microsoft points on in the Xbox Live Arcade. There are so many games and between the games and downloadable content to existing games, it’s interesting to see which of the arcade hits are making the news. I’ve actually heard of the majority of these games as they’re usually the same ones that you’ve heard about for weeks. If you have some spare microsoft points sitting on your account, and you’re looking for a new arcade game to spend them on that why not consider one of these arcade titles.

1. Battlefield 1943
2. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
3. Ikaruga
4. Worms 2: Armageddon
5. Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers
6. Castle Crashers
7. Uno
8. N+
9. Hasbro Family Game Night
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I’ve played Uno and Worms 2 and they are pretty solid games. They aren’t going to keep you hooked for weeks or months by any means, but they will provide some afternoon fun when you’re bored and looking for a change in games. I’ll hope to keep you updated with next weeks most downloaded arcade games as well.

Raise Fallout 3 Level Cap Again?

Raising the level cap from level 20 to level 30 ruined the game in some peoples opinions. The monsters in the game were built for characters with skills that were based off of the level 20 abilities. Raising the cap an extra fifty percent makes even the toughest opponents in the game seem a bit easy. While it makes the game easier, it also gives gamers a chance to work on some of the skills of the game that they hadn’t focused on throughout their time exploring the world.

While Bethseda has said that they do not wish to raise it any further as it would ruin the game, some gamers wonders if it would be a positive addition to the game. Just think how many additional hours would be logged on the game if they were to simply allow additional levels to be gained. In response to added pressure to release this in the newest DLC update they have said it would even further destroy the balance of the game and that users should simply restart the game and start it from a different aspect such as behaving or not.

Personally, they could do another update just so we can have fully maxed out guys. It won’t ruin the skill gap much more than it already has been and this way we could master some skills we just don’t use very often. Let’s see if any sort of update is included with the next DLC pack for the game. I can’t wait to get a level 40.

Gears of War 2 DLC Released on Accident

Apparently, Thursday night Microsoft made a slight mistake with the Gears of War 2 DLC that wasn’t scheduled to release yet. It was placed into the Xbox Live Marketplace too early and under priced. The DLC expansion pack “All Fronts” was released without warning and unsuspecting gamers were able to jump on the opportunity and secure the download before it was pulled. The only problem was that the download was full of errors and unable to actually fully download the content seeing as it wasn’t prepared to be released yet. It took Epic Games quite some time to realize that the expansion pack had been released early by mistake. Eventually the download was pulled.

The scheduled release date is July 28th and this still remains the official release date for the game. The “All Fronts” pack is going to cost you 1,600 Microsoft Points, while the “Dark Corners” expansion is going to cost you 1,200 Microsoft Points. The content sounds promising, then again, didn’t Gears of War 2 in general sound promising? Sadly, I am a Gears of War die hard turned Gears of War 2 hater.