GAME> Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
SYSTEM> Xbox
SOURCE> EGM #173, December 2003

Man, I dig those crazy plug-in-an-extra-controller-on-Port-4 gags!

GAME> NBA Street Vol. 2 (2003)
SYSTEM> Xbox, PS2, GameCube
SOURCE> EGM #168, July 2003 (Target insert)

The NBA Street franchise is a miniaturized version of the entire 2000s generation of gaming. The first one came out for juggernaut PS2 first, then GameCube a year later. The second edition made it to Xbox since Halo came out and proved people actually wanted to buy one. The third release had exclusive Nintendo characters on the GameCube version to stunt sales. The fourth installment was a minigame-centric PSP game.

Then a fifth Street came out fox 360 and PS3 and nobody cared.

Note that prices were already very fair, but shipping has always been a little steep there for my liking. With this new discount, now’s the time to stock up. I recommend grabbing anything for other platforms you need at the same time to save some money.

Source: Video Game Instruction Booklets, where Xbox items are on sale.

There is no doubt that a lot of Xbox gamers fondly remember geometry wars. Some even said it was the best launch game for the 360. Even with all the outcry, we never got to see an iPhone version of this game or its sequel, but now all of sudden while I was stumbling around the iPad store I noticed Geometry Wars was staring me in the face. A face that then broke into a huge grin! The thought of having one of my favorite XBL games on my iPad made me so happy. I checked and it’s the real deal, no clone or copy from another company. The best part is that the game is already on the store which means it will be ready to play the second you get your iPad, after you lick it and shove it down your pants first of course. It will set you back $9.99, and how it controls we will have to wait and see, but this is a nice surprise knowing such a high quality game will be there at launch.

Check it out here.

Gaming tattoo’s are not new by any means, many people have chosen to adorn their bodies permanently as an homage to their favorite game or game character. That said, you rarely see someone get inked before a game comes out. That is where my friend Jeff Threat comes to the party. Recently he decided to get himself a kick ass tattoo from Rockstar’s upcoming Red Dead Redemption. He had talked about doing it all last week while we played BF2. I knew he loved getting inked, but I really didn’t think he was gonna go through with it. Well he surprised me this weekend with a bunch of photos of his brand new tat. With his permission I decided to share them with our readers, and at the same time ask all of you what game would you get inked for? Check out all the pics of his tattoo below.

Jeff Threat
Reddington Shores, FL
Owner of Slaughter Beach Co, LLC
XBL – Zombie RoboCop
Tattoo Artist: Josh Hazel of State of Mind Tattoos, Maderia Beach, FL

Since the release of BF2 there has been a lot of back and forth about which is better. Even though in reality better is a meaningless word since its all about personal preference, but that won’t stop me from dissecting both these titles and seeing who stands alone as the best “Modern” war game. We are breaking this up into four rounds. Which ever game wins the most rounds is the grand daddy of war games.

Round 1  – GRAPHICS

These are two very good looking games. It’s really hard to look at both and pick a clear winner, but I picked BF2 and here is why. When I look at both of these games it is really hard to see too much difference between them. You can notice that MW2 does seem to be a bit sharper when it comes to some textures, and graphically it is obviously well polished and has more stuff going on. BF2 has more of a grainy hardcore look to it, and a few less colors. The reason that BF2 gets the nod is the fact that it looks so good but has a much bigger scale involved, and then you add in the fact that almost everything you can see is destructible…case closed. BF2 also has much better smoke and particle effects, and you get to see them way more often since shit is blowing up all the time. Neither game will disappoint your eyes, but BF2 is sweet destructible eye candy. I know this one is highly debatable, but at the end of the day I think that BF2 does a better job of using its visuals to create an atmosphere.

Winner  – Battlefield 2 Bad Company

Round 2 – SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN

This is a tough one to call. I had so much fun with both campaigns, flawed as they both are. MW2 has a intriguing story, but it was told mostly in load screens and through dialogue, which is not a bad thing if done correctly, but in MW2 it’s not. Where MW2 does excel over BF2 is the variety in single player. There is a bit more to do, where as in BF2 most missions just rely on running around killing. That’s not a bad thing as it’s done very well in BF2, but MW2 still has the edge here/

I didn’t enjoy the first Battlefield’s campaign that much, the characters were enjoyable, but the pacing and story lacked a lot. With BF2 is seems they listened and stripped the campaign of most annoyance issues. The campaign is well paced, the humor has been retained, and it just felt way more focused then the first one. I would of however liked to see more of the gameplay revolve around the destruction engine.

Both these campaigns offer a lot of fun for gamers, and both give you around 6-9 hours of play time depending on the difficulty. It was a hard choice, but if stranded on a desert island with a Plasma TV, Xbox 360, Working Power, but no online. I would have to take MW2 along with me. Both campaigns are fun, but the variety in MW2 is what sealed it for me.

Winner – Modern Warfare 2

Round 3 – CONTROLS

Everyone knows it doesn’t matter how good your game looks if it controls like a drunk donkey…cough Killzone 2. You gotta have the gameplay to back those visuals up or the games online community will shrink quicker then your junk at the sight of Lady Gaga…ahem Killzone 2. Luckily for all gamers both these games control like butter. So how do you decide which one is better? That’s a good question because in all honesty I don’t really know either. I can’t really find any kind of fatal flaw in either control scheme. They do each have their own learning curve, but neither is hard to use or excessively complex. There is a lot more to control in BF2 since your class will have more accessories and items, but those blend right into the controls. So I guess all I can do here is call it a tie. Unless anyone of you can come up with a solid reason why one is better then the other.

Winner – DRAW!

Round 4 – MULTIPLAYER

Lets face facts, 90% of people who bought either of these games did so mostly for the online gaming. Each game could have released as online only and still sold quite well. So being the best in the online space is something both developers spent quite a lot of time on and it shows. Both games are amazing to play online. They are intense, and sometimes frustratingly so, but both offer hours and hours of your wasted youth sticking 12 year olds with knives. So how do I separate two awesome games and pick a winner? I will do so by looking at which one offers gamers a more feature rich experience.

Let’s look at MW2 first, basically you run around a map, or camp like an ass, trying to find someone to shoot. It’s the basics of FPS done very well. The variety comes from things like perks, gun selection, and every now and then raining death down inside of an AC-130. There are no vehicles, and the maps are fairly small, but that is what I imagine some people love about the game, because once you strip away all the extras its just a very well done point and shoot. Simple but amazingly fun. The problem with MW2 is that it lacks enough variety. Once you rank all the way up there is nothing really left to do, no motivation to go forward since running around shooting people does tend to eventually get old.

BF2 does all the things that MW2 does, but in the end it takes it to another level. Not only do you have perks and a bunch of weapons to unlock, but you also get so much more variety when it comes to gameplay. The Maps in BF2 are huge compared with MW2. This used to be a problem because you would spend forever running around a map looking for something to do, but in BF2 this is not the case. You are almost always in the action, and action is the right word. BF2 shines above MW2 in Multiplayer because it creates a sense of urgency and chaos that I never felt in MW2. The action in BF2 is so much more involved and intense that it hooks you from the beginning and doesn’t stop or slow down. Another aspect that puts BF2 ahead is team work. Team work in MW2 is basically supporting your friends and laying down fire. In BF2 the classes allow for so much more strategy it keeps the game interesting. One man can make a difference in a game, but it still takes the team to win.

I could write twelve more pages about how destructible cover enhances the game, and how this game may just be the best game to snipe in period, but if you play the game you already know. If you played the first BF and didn’t like the multi player then please give the new one a try. I did not like the first one either, but this one stands on its own as a masterpiece of online gaming.

Winner – Battlefield 2 Bad Company

Overall Winner  – Battlefield 2 Bad Company  3 to 2

I know the trolls will love to hate on this result, but remember that game developers one uping the competition is a good thing for all of us, it sparks innovation and will force Infinity Ward & Activision to evolve Modern Warfare 3, if they still own the right to the game come next year.

We’re all saddened at the realization that an era is coming to an end but looking back, we’re incredibly fortunate to have had such a great run and such strong support from our fans. Halo 2 has been at or near the top of the Xbox LIVE charts for original games since it launched over five years ago. We’re extremely thankful to everyone who has played, enjoyed and supported Halo 2 over Xbox LIVE. That said, mark your calendars now – on April 14th let’s all rally to go online for one last hoorah. One final farewell and one final opportunity for all of you to kick our asses at Halo 2.

On a personal note, I can remember the many happy hours I spent playing Halo 2 with my friends. This is a pity, but at least it’s going to go out with a bang.

An unattended yard sale, which was really just a table with a couple of things on it, had my item. It was a complete, boxed, near mint original Xbox console. Black, two controllers, three games. No sooner had I approached it and looked at the price tag than the woman who owned the house appeared. The price said $30 for the system and $10 for the lot of three games. Thinking I could surely resell an Xbox in this condition, I asked if there was a way I could test it. She agreed, and her son hooked up the console to demonstrate that everything was how it should be while I made a trip to the ATM. She dropped the price to $30 for the system and games combined, and I came back with said $30. So, at this point I’m on my way home with an Xbox and three games, right?

The games that I have here are Sims Bustin’ Out, Shrek 2, and Halo. You’ll hear me joking in the upcoming podcast 90 (which was recorded the night before I bought this) that my most hated game and franchise are Halo, a game I’ve never seen more than a Red vs Blue video of, so let’s call that a starting point. I hooked up the system when I got home and poked through the green menus, then fired up Halo for a full system test. I need to make sure everything, including every button on both controllers, was working. I actually found the game surprisingly not terrible, and even felt an amount of disappointment that I wasn’t going to get to continue playing when I finished testing everything. Of course, aiming with a stick sucks, but that’s a given.

Having tested everything involved, I started checking online to find out what the resale value of an original Xbox is. It turns out, it’s not so good. While $30 for the console and games was a good deal, it wasn’t a resalable deal, which means I can’t expect to get more than $30 for it on eBay. The realization at this point that I had actually gone out and purchased a Microsoft game system on purpose, and perhaps for good, was starting to sink in. For those who’ve just joined us, I’m not a fan of Microsoft as a corporation or its products, and while the Xbox doesn’t have the reputation as a piece of crap the 360 has, I’m still wary of it.

I’m getting ready to move at the end of the month, and the Xbox is coming with us. We’ll see what happens from there.

The coupon code you use is simply the word “june,” and Glyde has made some recent changes. You can enter that code immediately on the item page, as well as see whether your existing balance is enough to cover the remainder, meaning you can do a quick one-click checkout. Also nice is that Glyde has their own special logo mailers now, rather than the white ones with a sticker they had before. Check that out in the picture here. See the coupon below.

Source: Glyde via email

I offered him $20 for the lot, and he took it. Taking a closer look I noticed Time Crisis and immediately looked around for Guncons. There were two on the table at a dollar each, so I took those too. While my daughter danced in class minutes later, I took inventory.

There are 35 pieces in the lot altogether. The jewel of the batch is most probably the near mint complete black label copy of Square’s RPG Vagrant Story. That game alone should more than cover the purchase. I expect the PS1 longboxes to draw some attention as well, particularly the somewhat obscure Jumping Flash!. I’ll try to sell one Guncon with Time Crisis and another with Point Blank. The Wii game is Cake Mania: In The Mix, which doesn’t interest me but is recent enough to sell. The Xbox games are pretty worthless, Halo and Star Wars Episode III. There’s also about a dozen sports games here including Cool Boarders and NFL Blitz which I’ll likely have to sell in a remainder lot. The rest of the games are popular but common titles like SOCOM, Gran Turismo 3 and a couple of Jak games, things like that. Rounding out the last few are some demo compilations and even an empty box or two.

Later today I bought what seems to be a broken Model 1 Sega Genesis for $15, but I may be able to fix it. On the bright side it had two working components I needed for my previous Model 1 from last weekend, so between the two of them I have at least one that works perfectly. And again, with a little multimeter and solder action I may have two. Either way, now I can sell my Model 2.