Trash VentThe number one spot to vent!

If you are a fan of the shooter genre COD “World at War” is an absolute must. I am completly new to the franchise and have no experience with any of their previous titles but I can tell you that playing this game has set the bar for what shooters should be. High paced action and realistic graphics makes for an incredible gaming experience.

I found myself at EB games yesterday trading in a copy of Star Wars “The force unleashed” and was faced with quite the decision. Gears of war 2 or COD world at war. I initially walked in with my mind made up…knowing that I wanted to buy COD. But after a 5 minute conversation with the sales clerk I found myself waivering from my original descision.  Dont get it twisted I am a huge GOW fan. However something about this COD really had me interested. I think it is the appeal of shooting the Japanese. I know its sick and twisted but you have to understand that my family lost everything in the war due to their occupation in Asia. I have since forgiven them with the introduction of sushi into western culture. That and for hosting some of the most incredible MMA fights during PRIDE FC.

Ok back on topic. If you are already a fan boy/girl then you already know about the multiplayer functionality and earning your stripes for better weapons. That aside I am drawn to the story of single player. I am not quite sure how long this will last but for now I feel like I have gotten my 60 dollars worth.

Oh…one more thing once you do finish the game there is some crazy multi you can play with your friends to kill nazi zombies. I know sick huh? But its true. Does not get much better than that. WW2 and zombies…what else can you ask for?

Have you ever had this problem? I purchased GTA 4 when it first came out sometime in April. Unfortunately I never had Xbox live hooked up to try multi player. Now that my live account is back in action, it seems like I keep getting errors. Some NTA/Router is too strict message keeps appearing every time I logon to multilayer. If you are recieving the same message DON’T WORRY. It can be fixed. Save yourself the hassle of going through all the xbox configurations in your dashboard. Call your ISP and have them walk your through configuring the modem to allow connectivity. Most likely you will have to go to your ISP site and enter your IP and do a small re config. Your ISP should be able to walk you through this in a matter of minutes.

I do have some beef though with RockStar games. After all this is TrashVent and we have to find something to smash. For whatever reason the servers you end up gaming on are EXTREMELY unstable. You will notice connectivity issues and from time to time the servers will just drop you. It is irritating and may force you to throw your system out the window. But its still worth it to get online when you can and cause some mayhem. Happy hunting gamers and go destroy the city… hahaha

So the latest edition of the COD series from Activision looks to be released on November 11 2008. From the screen shots and videos that have been release so far, this game looks to be one of the best in the series. Rumor has it that the gaming engine will be based off a modified version of COD 4. Campaigns in this game will be based on two scenarios. One being the United States Marine Corp battling the Japanese in the Pacific and the other following the Soviet Red army invading Berlin.

I think the question on most peoples minds will be online multiplayer functionality. Given the game is shooter based basic controls will be left and right analog sticks mixed with trigger shooting. Aside from that the environment promises more interaction and destructibility. Toss in some new weapons like a flame thrower and it looks like we will have countless hours of sleepless nights.

The only person who could give a thorough review at this point is Michael Phelps since its been reported that he has received a honorary copy of the game before its release.

Call of Duty 5: World at War Trailer

I consider myself a moderate gamer, loyal to the called ‘realistic’ or action/crime/suspense genre games such as the Grand Theft Auto series (my favorite one), The Warriors, Hitman: Blood Money and Max Payne series… in other words, I am a Rockstar Games junkie.

What I have not (so far) been a fan of is the movies of my favorite games, because they always seem to have let me down. Whether it’s the wrong choice of character for the antagonist, director’s eye candy additions to attract different (non-video gamer) audiences or other extras that are alien to the game and take away the nostalgic feeling of the game.

I understand that the movie producers demand return for their money, but as an artist I find it unethical to steal a concept or idea and turn it into something different than what it originally was. Let’s take Hitman The Movie for example… look at the photo of the Hitman, and compare it to this… wouldn’t Bruce Willis or even Billy Zane be a better candidate? What was the director thinking of going with a young and inexperienced looking actor to represent Hitman? And the storyline was shit with no actual relevance and connection to the game settings and plots.

Now back to this entry: past experiences with movies and their wrong representation of video games have left me no reason to be excited for the upcoming Max Payne The Movie releasing tonight.

While I am a big fan of Mark Wahlberg, again I am not sure if he is the right choice. Why? Well, first of all the Max Payne character in the video game is by no means a muscle guy like Mark is; he is your ‘nothing to live for’, rugged, smoking, average Joe cop. A better candidate would have been the actual character in the game - pictured right.

As for the the plot, watch the trailer and tell me what’s up with the winged creatures? What is Ludacris doing in the movie, to my knowledge, there are no references of him in the game!

Again, I hate to be pre-judgmental - but once again the movie will not represent what the video game is all about.

If you watch the movie this weekend, I’d love to hear your opinion and review.

Here are a couple of reviews of the movie that you may find helpful.

• Review by Urban Cinefile
• Review by Arstechnica Journals

Anybody get the feeling we all bought a star wars version of “God of War”? Not quite sure what designers were thinking about when they made this game but if there are copyrights for how video games play and feel someone is getting sued. Not to worry I am sure George Lucas has made more than enough money from the Star Wars franchise that he is probably sitting on a beach some where drinking liquor out of a cocanut cup with a toothpick umbrella.

Reviews seem to be somewhat mixed on this one. The game seems to be a love or hate between gamers. Although I am not a huge Star Wars fan the force unleased has met my expectations for what is considered a better than average hack and slash. Still feeling my way through the game I am sure that there will be more challenging levels and funky environments to come.

The game starts off by you having full control and functionality over no other that Darth Vader. You have to admit its pretty cool to have control over the baddest ass mother F*@#$& in the whole universe.  The only mistake I made was not going to the control panel and finding out how to do the combos correctly. Instead I resorted to NES style button smashing to hack my way through the first level.

Another thing that is enjoyable about the game is that there is no preschool tutorial that is mandatory to complete when you power up your system. From the word go your thrown into a war zone filled with giant Wookies to battle.

I would recommend this game to anyone that has a 6 foot cardboard cut out of Chewba standing in their living room, or if you just want to kill some time.

I am a fan of NHL and hockey, but only on TV until I started hearing about NHL 09 - EA Sports‘ masterpiece art work.

I recently played this game on XBOX 360 at a friends’ house and since have been hooked on it. The game play is extremely smooth and the motion/action of players is kept very natural.

Here are some of the key features of the game:

Be a Pro
Similar to “road to the show” in the MLB series, be a pro allows the gamer to start off as a player on the 3rd line of an AHL team. This is the only player on the ice that you control in 3rd person perspective. The in-game “performance tracker” will rate the player’s play in 3 categories, Position score, Team play and Stats. You will also be able to choose what type of a pro you want to be, these classes include sniper, playmaker, grinder, dangler, power forward, offensive defenseman, defensive defenseman and goalie. You will also have the choice of playing as an existing player on a current NHL team.

Breakouts
This feature allows the player to completely control how the team goes from their own zone into their opponent’s. Last year, players could only set up a play in the neutral zone, or in the offensive zone.

Defensive skill stick
NHL 09 expands on the “skill stick” of NHL 08 by adding the power to stop offensive attacks. It allows you to block passes and to raise an opposing player’s stick just before he is about to receive a pass.

New checking/fighting
More than 300 animations of fighting and checking will be added along with a new physics-based checking and a fighting engine which simplifies all fights into one punch KO’s. The euphoria engine is not being used in NHL 09. However, it was used to capture the 300 animations that are seen in NHL 09.

EASHL
The new online league on NHL 09 will let players form teams of up to 50 players. Although games can only hold up to 6 players per team, each game will be recorded for the organization and will represent an online rank compared to other organizations, once EA straightens out all of the problems they are encountering with their servers. At the end of a certain amount of decided games the top teams will battle in the playoffs and receive prizes and other rewards from EA. Players will also be recognized by statistics that will keep track of points and display the top players with their real names instead of their Gamertags.

NHL 94 controls
In order to compensate how complicated the NHL games have become, EA Sports have added an option to use a simplified style of controls to help new players get used to the game. These controls will use the face buttons to do most of the work, such as A being pass and B being shoot (X and O on the PS3), instead of using the right-analog stick. This is an option.

New Moves
One handed dekes: A new type of deking, this allows the user to hold the stick while controlling the puck in one hand.
Flip Dump: Allows players to flip the puck up into the air in any direction.
Lift Stick: Allows players to lift the stick of opponents to gain control of the puck.
Protect Puck: Allows players to protect the puck with their body from opponents.

Commentary
Gary Thorne and Bill Clement return to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

Centennial Tournament Mode
Commemorating the Montreal Canadiens 100th “birthday” NHL 09 will feature a team of all-time Canadien greats, such as Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Jean Beliveau, Guy “The Flower” Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Toe Blake, Dickie Moore, Bob Gainey, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt, Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard, Howie Morenz, Jacques Lemaire, Jacques Laperriere, Doug Harvey, and Emile “Butch” Bouchard. Also lacing them up for the Centennial “Habs” in net will be Patrick Roy, Jacques Plante, and Ken Dryden. In addition to gamers being able to play as the team, they are also able to enter “The Centennial Tournament”, in which they will have to go through an eight-team bracket for a chance to play against these all time greats.

Official NHL 09 Trailer