Xbox 360 Features

How to Get the High Score with a Girl Gamer

When my partner Kevin and I are pronounced husband and wife this September, we will walk back down the aisle to the Star Wars theme played on bagpipes. While this might sound like an idea my geeky soon-to-be-husband talked me into, it was mine. It is these little celebrations of geek culture that put the spark in our relationship. We share a love of gaming, science fiction, cult television shows, and all things Star Wars. Our relationship is built on having fun together, and that’s the advantage geek relationships have. You haven’t lost touch with your childlike side.

There are plenty of geeky couples out there. Just search YouTube for “geek wedding” and you’ll see. But, what if that’s not you? Maybe you have a significant other but she won’t join your Guitar Hero band, no matter how hard you beg. Or maybe you’re working your joystick solo. You want a woman who not only tolerates your interest in gaming, but shares it.

Natal now called Kinect – Hands-On Impressions

Due to embargoes and time constraints, I have posted a vlog with my first impressions of a personal demo I was given for Kinect.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
                         

What’ll You Be Playing This Weekend?

With the weekend coming up, freetime generally becomes a thing. I’ve had a busy week, but with the weekend looming over me, I’ve drawn out a plan for the weekend. This’ll will be a weekly feature, where I wrangle some of the other editors together to put in their weekend plans, too. And hey, while we’re at it, we’ll be asking you, too. Drop in your plans for a gaming weekend. It’ll probably be fun. Probably!

Final Thoughts on the Halo: Reach Beta

The Halo: Reach Beta has finally ended its near two-week stint on Thursday, which is a day after Bungie originally planned. The beta introduced a slew of new mechanics to make it feel fresh and exciting, but fortunately it retained everything that made Halo what it is known for today. Having said that, there are still issues I have with the game that go far beyond the glitches and minor issues one would expect to come with a beta.

For the record, I’m a very avid Halo player. I’ve been playing since the first Halo, and I became a “General” in Halo 3 a little over a year ago. I also enjoy playing some of the non-serious games created in Forge such as Jenga, Duck Hunt, and Sumo Wrestling. I’m saying this in hope that my credentials may align with some of people who didn’t get the chance to play the Beta. Keep in mind I am giving my opinion on everything. (If you need a basic summary of most of the goods in the Beta, click here

More games on demand that you shouldn’t buy

While I think “Games on Demand” could be a great service, I’m still not a fan of it as it only releases older games. Granted, it may okay if it chose the correct old games and occasionally brought out some newer, budget titles as well. This week, Major Nelson announced a few new titles being released this week.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed- $29.99 (I do not recommend)
Top Spin 3- $19.99 (Never played too much of it but I enjoy tennis and the time I spent with Top Spin 3 was definitely fun)
Too Human- ????

UFC Undisputed 2010 Preview

This article is strictly my opinion of an unfinished build of UFC Undisputed 2010, not the finished product. UFC Undisputed was a hit. It sold one million plus units and it was damn good on top of that. So it was pretty obvious that this breakout UFC game would become a yearly series.  The only real question was what was Yukes going to do to change it up and warrant a 60 dollar purchase?

UFC Undisputed 2010 doesn’t seem to have changed that much in its actual fighting. Take for example, the Madden series, I personally think that has changed a lot over the past years, gameplay wise, but UFC hasn’t whatsoever from what I noticed, which isn’t all a bad thing. The first UFC’s fighting was quite impressive, if not very complex at times. The complexity still remains in this one as the ground combat boggles my mind at times. Trying to get the perfect position on someone on the ground can lead to awkward stick movement and repetitive animations (from trying to get the stick movement correctly).

Blur vs. Split/Second

The racing genre has always been a very competitive (HA!) genre of video gaming. Be it sim-style racing or the more arcade style, they’ve always been constantly jocking for position (HA! I done it again!). However, in the past few months, two racing games have seemingly been going at each others’ necks, Blur and Split/Second. This feud is the 2010 version of inFamous vs. Prototype. Except one of these games will not be an absolute travesty. I say it’s the inFamous vs. Prototype argument again because the main similarities here are that they’re both racing games, and they are releasing very close to one another.