Life and Leisure. Tech and Toys.

I hope this means they will increase their library of Streamable content because right now their Stream selection isn’t worth $7.99.

The new Horde Mode 2.0 allows you to gain cash for each kill during a round. You can use the cash towards weapons, barricades, laser fences, turrets and decoys. You can even purchase a SilverBack mech suit. The enemies will also get a lot tougher in the new Horde Mode by introducing Berserkers and Brumaks into the mix.

Not enough King in this trailer… The gameplay footage makes this game look fun but if the controls are like Street Fighter 4 I think I will stick with Marvel vs Capcom 3.

I recently restarted my GameFly account because of the drought that is summer gaming. The best thing about these droughts are that new games are on the horizon and you have a chance to catch up on games you’ve missed out on. Particularly those games you do not wish to own and are only worth a rental.

My frustrations with GameFly have always been the inability to receive the games you really want consistently. Most of the time your queue doesn’t necessarily work out the way you mean it to. For instance I wanted to rent God of War III which had an availability of “High”, so I put it at the top of my list. However I was sent Bayonetta which was second on my list but also had an availability of “High”. Question marks ensue.

Normally what would happen is that if a game on the top of your list had a lower availability you would get sent another game on the list with a higher availability. Which makes what happened to me a bit of a quandary. So what I can deduce is that my nearest GameFly distribution center didn’t have any copies of God of War III and thus sent me the next game on my list. So the real culprit is inaccurate availability statuses and furthermore statuses that are based on national availability instead of nearest distribution center.

One solution to this is to only have a single game in your queue, that way you always get the game you want. However, this works against you in other ways as well. Semi-secretly, your GameFly queue also acts as a waiting list. Supposedly the logic of the user priority also takes into account which users have been waiting for a game longer. So your queue helps you by holding your position in line but at the same time offers GameFly an excuse to send you a game that wasn’t at the top of your list.

Luckily for me I’ve actually been wanting to play both of these games so this strange occurrence isn’t a total loss. A nice feature would be to send the user an email when their top priority isn’t available and ask them if they’d like to wait for their top game or just get sent the next thing that is available.

Shaped kind of like the original Xbox 360.

Sega Game Gear mated with an Amazon Kindle.

UPDATE: The Wii U will not support DVD or Blu-ray playback

The Wii U is a backwards compatible console offering HD visuals and a new touchscreen controller. The console itself will connect to your television via HDMI and offer internal flash memory as well as SD and USB ports for external storage. The wireless touchscreen controller also features a built-in camera, speakers, microphone and gyroscope for motion controls.

The Nintendo Wii has been a power house in console sales since it’s inception in 2006 and revolutionized the gaming industry by making video games ubiquitous amongst the general public. Heck, even my own parents bought one. The Wii’s inviting motion controls have made it possible for anyone of any age or gender to throw themselves into the casual gaming sphere. Gameplay so revolutionary for its time it took Nintendo’s competitors until 2010 to release their own motion control devices. While Microsoft took an innovative leap of faith with it’s Kinect, Nintendo saw Sony release an almost exact replica of the original WiiMote.

While the Nintendo Wii garnered recorded sales numbers the Wii failed to impress hardcore fans. Nintendo is finally trying to reconcile their losses with the Wii U’s high-definition graphics and processing power, but is it too late? My personal opinion is that it’s too late but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Nintendo has solidified itself in the casual market with the Wii and the success of the DS. The Wii U and the 3DS will just further their cause. While I don’t see the Sony Move being a feared competitor I am certain Nintendo is at least mildly worried about Kinect’s potential. However, Nintendo is just leaps and bounds ahead of the competition already, I don’t think it’ll shake Nintendo’s resolve one bit.

Why do you need a game when the video looks this good? I love the throwback Millennium Falcon and the early model Star Destroyers. Not to mention the token smuggler character and queuing in the Phantom Menace music when the light saber battle is about to start. A great intro video for a Star Wars game that won’t live up to it. Don’t get me wrong, I think The Old Republic will do achieve great things for the MMORPG market and finally stand up against World of Warcraft. Still, this video was near perfection and SWTOR will be far from perfect.

Spoiler Alert! I skimmed through it myself because I didn’t want to see too much and it’s a really long video. Not to mention the player is just taking his time looking around, probably on easy mode. By the looks of it MW3 looks like more of the same. Way more of the same, and in thicker doses. The action is intense and the streets of New York provide a back story that obviously hits closer to home.

A cool feature you’ll notice in the video is the player can switch from red dot sight to ACOG holo sight in the middle of battle. For balancing purposes don’t expect this to show up in multiplayer.

Must have…

via SpankyStokes.com

This game just keeps getting better. Grinding won’t seem so lonely anymore.

CBS Sportscaster Gus Johnson will no longer be heard on CBS college basketball and NFL casts. Gus Johnson and CBS reportedly could not agree on a new contract for the upcoming season.  The man famous for making gold out of his late game calls during March Madness will be looking for a job this upcoming season. He was also added to the commentary of the Madden NFL series last year and will remain part of Madden at least for this year.

I know Gus Johnson will have no problem finding a job but I have to say the English Broadcast of the Global Starcraft League is lacking a bit of professionalism and fire.  While I love the combination of Artosis and Tasteless, I’ve always wondered what it’d be like to have a professional sportscaster in the mix. Of course the reason it hasn’t happened yet in eSports is because the money just isn’t there.

I don’t believe it’ll be that way forever. Seeing how Korea is just enamored by Starcraft, it’s possible the United States could be next. Starcraft could be seen as the Korean national sport at the moment even though Starcraft was created in the US. The cultural difference is that Starcraft is actually cool in Korea and the professional players are seen as rock stars in their country. Korean pop artists and idols make frequent appearances at the GSL because it is seen as a national event like the Super Bowl. Could this ever happen in the US?

Gus Johnson is reportedly trying to swing a deal with ESPN and FOX to cover the PAC-10 for the upcoming college football season.

Girl's Day performing at 2011 GSL World Championship Finals