Buttonbasher

Travelhacker posted an interesting read on the top 25 Gamer Vacation areas. Ranging from Trade Shows, to Tournaments, theres information for most of the big gamer hotspots.

Check it out here!

KLind

The reason I didn’t get Guitar Hero 2 on 360 was because the guitar was wired. I use wireless on PS2 so why go a step backward? It seems people like me will need to shop carefully when getting the guitar bundle, as a few stores have 2 different versions. One comes with game and wireless Les Paul guitar, and other with game and wired X-Plorer (the same guitar in the GH2 bundle). The wired bundle is priced 10 dollars less, but wireless is really the way to go.

You want this:

Not this:

UPDATE: Apparently there’s a problem with the PS2 version coming with the Red GH2 controller as well.

Try looking to other stores besides Wal-Mart, as they seem to be the main source of this bundle.

Shop carefully.

Source

KLind

In the most recent Smash Bros blog update they show off the Target Smash mini-game mode from the new single-player mode (The Subspace Emissionary), although at the end of the post they slip in a rather large piece of news. You will be able to record 3 minute films of your matches and then send them to your friends to view.

In Halo 3 I find myself watching my own a lot but not really watching people’s films. It’s still good to have this feature though!

KLind

Seems like an interesting place to work… Now time to check the house for Portals. Thanks for the paranoia Microsoft!

KLind

There have been a ton of 360 demos coming out these days.  The Clive Barker’s Jericho demo has been on the marketplace for a few weeks, and the Guitar Hero 3 demo is included in the most recent issue of Official Xbox Magazine.

Jericho isn’t really an average FPS. The character you play as is actually killed off very early in the game. This allows you to travel freely around between Team Jericho. You can change character mid game. The game’s puzzles rely on certain characters abilities. I played most of the demo as the character Church. She’s equipped with a sword that can take down enemies with ease.

The game itself didn’t really present as much challenge as I would have thought, but it seems to have a good balance between the gun play, and exploring. Although with the exploring there were some rather big issues. While exploring I got to a point where I was asked to run up to ‘the wall’ and press A to climb. At this point there were many walls all around me. I spent 40 minutes trying to find this ‘wall’ only to find that I would have had to backtrack to get to the it. That whole time the character Abagail Black  said “Move it Church!” a total on 37 times. It was extremely annoying.

The demo still had some interesting  aspects. The area reminded me of an Oblivion dungeon due to the lighting, and the characters looked very disturbing.It’s worth a try, just remember that when it asks you to climb ‘the wall’ turn around…

KLind

Press Release:

Microsoft Announces “Official Halo 3 Original Soundtrack”

Fans can enter contest to have their music featured alongside Bungie’s famed composer, Marty O’Donnell in the upcoming album

Microsoft and Sumthing Else Music Works announced today the upcoming release of the “Official Halo 3 Original Soundtrack” album. The companies today confirmed the first details of the album, which will be available in stores this Thanksgiving and will be produced and co-produced by two of the music industry’s most respected veterans, Nile Rodgers and Michael Ostin, respectively.

The “Official Halo 3 Original Soundtrack,” created by award-winning composer Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, offers fans the chance to experience the sounds of “Halo 3″ and relive their battles as Master Chief with rich original orchestrated scores from the game and additional bonus tracks. This soundtrack will consist of a double CD set available exclusively on Nile Rodgers’ Sumthing Else Music Works label. O’Donnell’s work on the three previous “Halo” soundtrack albums (also available on Sumthing Else Music Works) has garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards.

To celebrate the release, Microsoft is sponsoring a nationwide contest to identify one lucky artist or band to be included on the “Official Halo 3 Original Soundtrack.” Submissions are currently being accepted on the “Halo 3″ MySpace page at myspace.com/halo3 until 12:00 pm PT on October 22, 2007.

Submissions will be reviewed by an esteemed “Halo” Judging Council, moderated by both Halo 3 album producers Nile Rodgers and Michael Ostin, composers Marty O’Donnell and Steve Vai, The Used and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Grand prize winners and second and third place finishers will also receive a “Halo 3″ prize package including a Xbox 360 “Halo 3″ Special Edition Console, a copy of the “Halo 3″ game, additional “Halo 3″ merchandise, an exclusive “Halo 3″ Ibanez Xiphos electric guitar, and a Zune-Halo 3 edition music player.

For more information on the, contest and other exclusive content, please visit http://www.myspace.com/halo3. For more information on the “Halo 3″ soundtrack, please visit http://www.sumthing.com

This is listed as coming out November 20th (including www.sumthing.com) so it’s probably official. I will most definitely be picking this up. I have all of the previous soundtracks and after hearing some of the stunning pieces in Halo 3, I need to have this!

KLind

For more information on how to do this mod (PC Only) check out here

I think I might need to get Portal on the PC (as well as the 360 version of the Orange Box)

KLind

This style reeks awesome. No platforms were mentioned (bet on 360 and PS3) but we do know that it’s more than a year off.

KLind

This idea is simply awesome. Jack Black is a big gamer as well as a big fan of the game Psychonauts (he’s been seen in Psychonauts T-Shirts at award shows even!).

I can not wait for this. For more info about the game, check out this months Game Informer for much more detail.

KLind

First we saw rumors of the Xbox 360 Arcade pack mentioned in the press, which were soon followed by links to Amazon’s preorder page. Now the pack is showing up on certain store shelves. Next step would be for Microsoft to announce the product…

Joystiq has some more specific details about the bundle. Along with the 256MB Memory Unit, Wireless Controller, and HDMI port, the disc that was previously thought to contain full games, instead contains trials of Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship, and Uno. That’s right, they’re not the full versions. YOu have to buy those separate.

Other things you won’t be getting with the bundle are: XBL Headset, Ethernet Cable, HDMI cable, HD Component cables. Also the Joystiq tipster reports that the Amazon listing of 279.99 is actually 299.99.

Not sure how good of a deal this is due to lack of cables and a useful amount of memory, but I guess this is no longer a rumor…

KLind