http://www.realpoor.com/ Where Internet drama can cost you your job! 2009-11-21 03:17:55 -0500 Ever since Mario first graced the silver screen, the movie industry has had a fascination with turning video game into movies. Some of these creations has earned fan praise and financial success, while others are nearly unwatchable. With the line between video games, and movies blurring as games become more cinematic, many gamers are now driven to see their favorite games given the silver screen treatment. Armed with video cameras, some gamers have taken the extra step. To go beyond the dream of their favorite games turned into a summer blockbuster but, to make the movies and trailers themselves. While most of these trailers will never be realized as a full movie, it does make you wonder what it would be like. The following are ten of the best the Internet has to offer in fan made video game movie trailers. Half-Life: In 2001, Valve released the first of the Half-Life series to rave reviews, and earning game of the year awards across the industry. Now eight years later, with the sequel, and spin offs all earning high marks across the board. It is amazing that there has not been talk of a major motion picture staring the theoretical physicist, Gordon Freeman. The trailer sets the movie to follow the events of the first game, from the resonance cascade that launched the conflict, to the battle to the surface, and back. This sci-fi thriller would surely not disappoint. Mario Paint: Mario was the subject of the first major video game movie release, and also the first video game movie flop. Mario paint may seem like a strange choice of subject matter for a movie for one of the world's most famous plumbers. The trailer changes Mario from a happy, cheerful plumber that has an artistic side, to that of a twisted, tortured soul. This suspenseful movie adaptation of the world's most famous plumber shows that everyone has a dark side. I'm impressed with the trailer and would love to see a full length movie in this style. If this movie ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/The_10_Best_Fan_Made_Video_Game_Movie_Trailers_a284.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/The_10_Best_Fan_Made_Video_Game_Movie_Trailers_a284.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/The_10_Best_Fan_Made_Video_Game_Movie_Trailers_a284.html James McKinley 2009-11-20 06:13:45 -0500 The developers of Left 4 Dead really struggled with creating a sequel that was a worthy successor to what many have called the best game of 2009 yet, in many ways Valve s latest blockbuster, Left 4 Dead 2, is much like the first game. It s not really surprising since the sequel is on store shelves just a year after the first game took the world by storm. Really, despite a few enhancements, some general tweaks, and better graphics, the game feels more like an expansion of the first game rather than a whole new property. However, that having been said, it s not necessarily a bad thing. Left 4 Dead s hook has been, and will continue to be, mindless slaughter completely, or nearly so, without a storyline to muck up the fun. Players are free to plug in whenever they want, pump lead into some undead, and jack out when dinner s done. What made the game such a hit in the first place is that it does just about everything right. While the game was built for multiplayer (4 player co-op), single players too can have a blast with it. Gameplay All of that remains in Left 4 Dead 2 but Steam kicked things up a notch with less linear maps, a little bit more story, a handful of new weapons, and much better looking zombies. The most note able improvement is the addition of melee weapons that were sorely lacking from the prequel. Among them are fire axes, katanas, guitars, frying pans and even chainsaws! It s hard to believe that these zombie flick tropes were left out of the first game but as lead developers have said the first game was rushed out of the gate and they weren t allowed to include everything they had wanted. This is something they set out to rectify with the sequel and for the most part it works. There s nothing more satisfying than chopping up hordes of flesh eating dead beats with a couple buddies and laughing at the giblets! That s right, you ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Left_4_Dead_2_PC_Game_Review___With_Gameplay_Videos__Screenshots_and_More_a283.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Left_4_Dead_2_PC_Game_Review___With_Gameplay_Videos__Screenshots_and_More_a283.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Left_4_Dead_2_PC_Game_Review___With_Gameplay_Videos__Screenshots_and_More_a283.html Robert Palmer 2009-11-18 06:55:21 -0500 Video game developers are a funny bunch. They love to hide little gems within their creations; many games have dozens of Easter Eggs and pop culture references throughout. So when a developer get the chance to drop in a cameo by some famous celebrity (real or digital) they usually don t hesitate unless there s legal issues involved. Some are funny, some are quirky, and some are just downright misplaced but I ve compiled what I consider a solid list of the 10 Best Video Game Cameos. 10) Aerosmith in Revolution X It s not enough the Stephen Tyler and his crew pretty much rule the modern rock world; they felt they needed to take over the gaming industry as well. Fortunately for gamers, their misguided attempt, a little game called Revolution X that released in arcades an on the SNES (as well as a couple other home systems) in 1996, never really took off. The game was a side scrolling shooter designed for used with a light gun in which players had to save the members of Aerosmith from the uptight NON soldiers who had kidnapped them. The game featured Aerosmith songs looped continuously and the ability to shoot CDs instead of grenades! No wonder it tanked. 9) Dan 'Toasty' Forden in Mortal Kombat It s not unusual for game developers to develop swelled heads. They often forget that 90% of gamers don t really care who they are and usually only gain notoriety if they a) create an awesome game or b) create something that s garbage through and through (John Romero s Daikatana anyone?) Dan Forden, one of the developers of Mortal Kombat, figured he was going to take his future into his own hands and inserted his likeness into the arcade fighting game. Forden popped up on the screen and exclaimed Toasty! after particularly nasty uppercuts and cemented himself a place in pop culture. Not too bad for a half-second sound bite. 8) ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Best_Video_Game_Cameos_a282.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Best_Video_Game_Cameos_a282.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Best_Video_Game_Cameos_a282.html Robert Palmer 2009-11-16 06:28:20 -0500 Has it really been eight years since gamers has last taken on the mantle of El Presidente ? After a brief stop off in the pirate infested Caribbean during the 2003 squeal, the Tropico Series has appeared to have been ousted out of office. Fear not, for the people have spoken and El Presidente has returned! Will El Presidente's new term of office be as successful as the previous two, or will the rebels finally be too much? Tropico 3 returns to the scene of the first of the series. Set during the cold war, on an unnamed island somewhere in the Caribbean, it is your job to remain in office through any means necessary while in campaign mode meeting goals to complete the island. Much like the original, you may please your people so they will freely vote for you, threaten them into voting for you, or run a true dictatorship. Each of these choices has an impact on how the island runs. If you choose the run a dictatorship, be prepared to deal with rebels trying to overthrow you. To guide you on your quest for power is the DJ of the local radio station, Juanito, who will alert you to threats or important issues on the island. Gameplay During the campaign you must fulfill certain requirements to successfully complete an island. Completing a set of islands unlocks the next set for conquest for a total of fifteen islands in all to mold to your will. Goals for each island can range from having a certain amount of tourists visit, to simply remaining in power till a specified year. These goals are typically not as straight forward as they seem, due to the new world events that takes place during the course of the game. These range from a severe drop off in the price of some exports, having to deal with inverters wanting to buy out part of your exports for a flat price, to being quarantined due to a llama flu scare. This gives some sense of unpredictability in each mission, forcing you to think about what if scenarios while building up ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Tropico_3_PC_Game_Review_a281.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Tropico_3_PC_Game_Review_a281.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Tropico_3_PC_Game_Review_a281.html James McKinley 2009-11-14 06:05:35 -0500 It s not hard to see wasted potential in the gaming industry. Everywhere you look there are games, peripherals, and even entire console system that could have been so much more than that actually are if developers had just pushed the envelope a little bit and tried to take things to the next level instead of giving up and settling for good enough. Because there s so much ground to cover (and because I didn t want to focus purely on games themselves) I ve decided to chop this article into chunks for easier digestion and hopefully a livelier dialog. The categories include: Games, Consoles/Systems, and finally Companies. So without further ado, here are the 7 Biggest Wasted Potentials in the Gaming Industry! Games 1) E.T. (Atari 2600) This game marked the first attempt by game developers to merge Hollywood with at home game systems. While the attempts have generally gotten better over the years, we re still occasionally graced with stinkers (Fantastic Four, Spawn, Transformers). Developers should really take a lesson from gaming history and understand that a flashy Hollywood title isn t enough to sell a game. If it s crap, we won t buy it. Case in Point: E.T. Atari tried to cash in on the monumental success of Stephen Spielberg s quirky little extra-terrestrial dramedy by rushing a game through production and flood the market with tons of copies. When gamers got their hands on the thing, and realized the crappy graphics and mind-numbingly repetitive gameplay was not fun at all, they revolted and pushed the already shaky gaming industry over the brink and into the great gaming bust of 1983. Atari scrapped its grand plan and buried it along with thousands of its game cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico hoping to restore the natural balance between supply and demand. Thankfully the industry rev ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/7_Biggest_Wasted_Potentials_in_Gaming_Industry_a280.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/7_Biggest_Wasted_Potentials_in_Gaming_Industry_a280.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/7_Biggest_Wasted_Potentials_in_Gaming_Industry_a280.html Robert Palmer 2009-11-12 07:27:47 -0500 The Call of Duty franchise has been around for years and has always posted strong numbers but when Infinity Ward once again teamed up with Activision to bring the heat and give us Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, it was almost too much for the world. Released over four consoles and a handful of handheld devices, Modern Warfare has sold nearly 14 million copies and has spawned a faithful following of hardcore fanatics online. When you hit a jackpot that big, it s nearly impossible to hit it a second time but Infinity Ward has stepped up to bat with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and hopes that the enhanced storyline, tweaked multiplayer, and shiny new IW 4.0 engine--with it s awesome capabilities and sophisticate enemy AI--is enough to blow their previous darling right out of the water. However, Infinity Ward may have offended a significant portion of its consumer base by refusing PC users that near-necessity of dedicated servers for online play and failing to release any special editions for home computer (sorry PC gamer, no night vision glasses for you.) So is Modern Warfare 2, the first true sequel in the franchise, all that it s cracked up to be or has the media turned this prodigal son into an overblown and overhyped mess that s going to flop. Let s just say I don t think Infinity Ward is going to have to worry about making payroll with this one. Gameplay, Graphics and Sound Call of Duty has always been about the action experience. Often developers have tossed realism out the window to give gamers a cinematic and exciting experience and Modern Warfare is no exception. In fact, Modern Warfare 2 has turned the action up to eleven and features situations straight out of a classic James Bond flick. You say you want to race down the side of a Kazakhstani mountain on a snowmobile? How about outwitting hordes of enemies in a Brazilian slum? Maybe you just want to run r ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Call_of_Duty__Modern_Warfare_2_Exclusive_Hands_On_Review_for_PC_a279.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Call_of_Duty__Modern_Warfare_2_Exclusive_Hands_On_Review_for_PC_a279.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Call_of_Duty__Modern_Warfare_2_Exclusive_Hands_On_Review_for_PC_a279.html Robert Palmer 2009-11-10 08:35:05 -0500 Each year, countless games are made across the wide expanse of the video game industry. While some are remembered for their greatness, there are a few, that will be forever remembered for the disappointment they gave, the wasted poetical, or just how broken the game was. The only sure way to be able to enjoy these games is to pair them with a Mystery Science Theater style commentary track. Even then, you may need an iron stomach to handle some of the worst very PC games. 10. Spore Just because something is popular doesn't mean it is good. I'm sure Spore fanatics are foaming at the mouth to see their beloved game on this list. However, beautiful and versatile the in game creation tools are, they do not make a game. What they do make is a 3D modeling program posing as a video game. In Spore you are the designer of life from the single celled organism crawling around the primordial ooze, to the space faring race of the distant future. The creator of Spore, Will Wright, promoted it for years as a revolution in video game design, that it would change how we view video games. Sadly, when it was finally released in 2008 it fell far short of the mark Will Wright set for it. Most of the features that was shown in preview videos for years was either simplified, or removed entirely. It is clear that most of the work went into getting the creation tools working. On that front, the game is simply amazing with the ability to mold not only your creatures, but their vehicles, and buildings as well. Once you leave the creation tools, the game is about as deep as the primordial pool you originally crawled out of. With the ability to get to the repetitive space stage in under six hours, if you're looking for something more than a 3D modeling program to play with, Spore is not a game to you. 9. American Idol Rhythm games are a corner stone of the industry. With games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero selling millions, it isn't hard to see why other companies ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Worst_PC_Games_Ever_a278.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Worst_PC_Games_Ever_a278.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Worst_PC_Games_Ever_a278.html James McKinley 2009-11-09 06:18:17 -0500 Video games are a controversial medium to say the least. It seems somebody is always trying to get the whole industry shut down for one reason or another. Let s take a look at some of the fodder these rabid anti-digitarians have fed on in the past. SecuRom The Anti-Pirating Software The video game industry makes a boatload of cash every year when greedy gamers drop the green for those gotta have titles but some unscrupulous little Pwnrs are either too lazy to get the cash in the first place or too cheap to part with after the fact. As a result, the video game industry also loses a boatload of cash every year when games are pirated via torrent sites and the like. So it makes sense that game developers would try to create some sort of secret code that would prevent people from being able to do so. That s what SecuRom is . . . sort of. The software has come under some serious criticism in the past because it fails to uninstall from your target machine even after the game it was installed with is removed from the system. That sounds a bit like malware to me and it s tricky at the least but they fixed the problem (albeit after they were caught ) so why grumble? Because the software is still being used to limit the number of machines any given game can be installed upon. Bioshock got 2 Activations Mass Effect got 3 and Spore (incidentally the most illegally downloaded game in 2008) received only 2. Gamers revolted saying that their purchase price should allow them free reign to install as they wish (which it should) and game developers conceded by allowing gamers to contact them to receive more activations. The whole thing s a clunky system that really needs an overhaul. I understand the reasoning but the implementation is far too awkward to ever work in the real world. Eve Online: The Real Life Emulator? One of the mos ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Darkest_Secrets_of_Video_Gaming_Industry_a277.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Darkest_Secrets_of_Video_Gaming_Industry_a277.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Darkest_Secrets_of_Video_Gaming_Industry_a277.html Robert Palmer 2009-11-07 08:36:35 -0500 Uppity game critiques often give gamers a lot of guff for putting too much emphasis on a game s graphics. They say that concentrating on how pretty the game is detracts from the underlying factors that make such a game so good including the physics, the script, and the acting (if there is any to speak of). Problem is, when you take the graphics away from a game you ve basically got a choose your own adventure book. So, when you realize that graphical design is really the biggest component of any successful video game, the single most important aspect of a game s design comes down to how cool the main characters look. Whether short and dumpy like Mario, big and brutish like Kratos, or just plain bizarre like any number of characters from just about any Japanese RPG, the look of the main character drives the feel of the entire game and can even give developers a little (or a lot) of freedom to cover up weak points in mechanics and plot. Let s take a ride down memory lane and examine the 10 Best Dressed Video Game heroes of All Time. 10) Gordon Freeman (Half Life) Gordon s a scientist by day who gets thrown into alternate realities willy nilly with the fate of the world and the entire human race sitting on his shoulders so you wouldn t expect him to be a flashy dresser. However, when Gordon trades his lab coat for his orange and black HEV hazard suit he gains +30 to his coolness factor. There s nothing his suit can t handle from hazardous waste to ballistic threat the HEV is what every sharp dressed man should be wearing when reality tears and alternate universes start leaking in. Props to Gordon for making Emo glasses cool as well. 9) James Bond (From Russia With Love) Nothing says cool like James Bond and there s never been a better one than Sean Connery so in 2005 when EA resurrected the classic flick from 1963 with the likeness and voice ta ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Best_Dressed_Video_Game_Heroes_a276.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Best_Dressed_Video_Game_Heroes_a276.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Best_Dressed_Video_Game_Heroes_a276.html Robert Palmer 2009-11-05 06:49:32 -0500 The Need for Speed series has been a staple of the racing genre for the past fifteen years, spanning three console generations. Need for Speed: Shift attempts to bring the series back to a simulation style, leaving the police chases and high flying acrobatics for later installments of the series. In development for the past two years, can this installment turn the corner, and bring a breath of fresh air to this aging series? Gameplay Need for Speed: Shift sits in a strange gray area between arcade and simulation. It offers driving assists that opens itself to fans of the series that may not be used to a simulation style of racer. With all these assists off simulation fans may still find the game feeling a bit too arcade like. In its attempts to bridge the gap between the arcade driving fan, and the simulation drivers it will not satisfy either sect. However, those who are not hardcore to either extreme, drivers will find the driving model handles well. It offers enough lead way to bring in new drivers, while offering just enough realism to give a taste of the real car. The damage model for cars also shows this compromise between arcade and simulation. While cars can take damage, the damage model for the most part is cosmetic. The only system that is really affected by damage is steering, and that is only to some degree with full damage on. It is strange to see a car flip several times, and then drive off like nothing happened in this simulation racer. The single player game will mostly take place in career mode. Events are spread across eighteen tracks, with five tiers of competition to work through. The events are very diverse without the same event repeating on the same track twice. Perhaps the most frustrating of these events is the duel, in which you face a single AI controlled car for a single lap, in three rounds. In the first round, you maybe following the computer car, and your goal is to pass it, beating it to the finish line o ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Need_for_Speed__Shift_Game_Review__PC__a275.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Need_for_Speed__Shift_Game_Review__PC__a275.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Need_for_Speed__Shift_Game_Review__PC__a275.html James McKinley 2009-11-03 05:31:50 -0500