Tripp Fenderson

Will someone please tell video game publishers that WWII ended 63 years ago? It’s time to move on.

I dropped EA’s Medal of Honor: Airborne into the Xbox 360 over the weekend and couldn’t be bothered to play beyond a couple of levels. The entire game seems tired.

While playing LEGO Indiana Jones, I stumbled across a photo of a Malamute tacked to a post. As it turns out, during the 1970s, George Lucas had a Malamute called Indiana, hence the name.

Movie fans will recall that Indiana Jones’ real name is Henry Walton Jones Jr. (based on George Lucas’ real name, George Walton Lucas Jr.). In the third movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, we learn the origin of the name from Henry’s father, Professor Jones, played by Sean Connery, In a conversation with Sallah, Professor Jones explains, “We called the dog Indiana”.

Indiana Jones: I like “Indiana.”
Professor Henry Jones: We named the *dog* Indiana.
Marcus Brody: May we go home now, please?
Sallah: The dog? [starts laughing]
Sallah: You are named after the dog? HA HA HA...!
Indiana Jones: I’ve got a lot of fond memories of that dog.

[quote source: ]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/quotes]

Just finished playing LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures on the Xbox 360. What a fun game!!

The gameplay is very similar but more polished than the 2 previous LEGO Star Wars titles. Hats off to Travellers Tales, the developers, for bringing yet another great, family-friendly title to the Xbox platform.

With the exception of 2 grinding achievements ("How we say goodbye in Germany” and “Trouble with her is the noise"), the achievements were easy, most of which could be picked up during normal gameplay or in Free Play mode.

Co-op is similar to the Star Wars titles, letting players drop in or out at will. The control mapping is simple and intuitive—my 7 year old daughter picked it up in an instant and we enjoyed playing though several levels together.

If you’re looking for a fun summer title, definitely consider picking this one up—especially if you play with your kids.

Used Xbox 360 games. Get ‘em while they’re hot.

I’m selling a bunch of Xbox 360 games that I don’t play any more. I’ve posted them with no reserve on ebay with all auctions ending on April 4th.

All games are in excellent condition. Now’s your chance to pick up something on the cheap that you’ve been wanting to play (I’m talking to you Ross).

1. The Orange Box
2. Forza Motorsport 2
3. Call of Duty 4 (Collector’s Edition)
4. Burnout Paradise
5. F.E.A.R.
6. Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3)
7. Lost Planet
8. Meet the Robinsons
9. Crackdown
10. Assassin’s Creed

[photo credit: aditza121]

I decided to pop Eternal Sonata into the Xbox over the weekend. Also known as Trusty Bell: Chopin’s Dream, it’s a Japanese RPG (JRPG) from Namco Bandai and Tri-Crescendo that was named “the best video game about [Frédéric] Chopin ever created” by Mike Fahey at Kotaku.

From the game description:

On his deathbed, the famous composer Chopin drifts between this life and the next. In his final hours, he experiences a fantastical dream where he encounters a young girl facing a terrible destiny and the boy who will fight to save her. On the border between dreams and reality, Chopin discovers the light that shines in all of us in this enduring tale of good and evil, love and betrayal.

Despite the game’s critics, I decided to add it to my rental account because:

1. The demo on Xbox Live was a bit odd—but decent.
2. I needed to take a short break from shooting, driving, and commanding my minion horde.
3. I haven’t played an RPG since I finished Ultima IV back in 1985 on my Apple II Plus (holy crap that was 23 years ago).

Jason spreads a little Friday love for the Wii with a note about some upcoming releases to the Wii Virtual Console. A number of classic games (also known as “yeah, it was a crappy game to begin with but I’m a nostalgic sap") are coming to the console, this time from the Commodore 64.

Personally, I don’t get the whole Virtual Console thing. With the exception of maybe one or two titles on there, the games are ancient and most lost their appeal for me when computer programmers figured out how to get 32 bits of colour out of a chip. I just can’t see spending money to play games like that.

Presented with a choice of buying International Karate (youtube) for our Wii or Ninja Gaiden 2 (youtube) for the Xbox 360 (it’s also available on the Wii), I’m going with Ninja Gaiden 2. No question about it.

Don’t have a Wii and still want to get in on some of that awesome C64 action you’ve been missing all these years? No worries, mate. There are a number of emulators available (http://www.c64s.com, http://www.live-id.org/j64/) that let you play games like Back to the Future 3 or Eddie Edwards Super Ski.

If you do have a Wii though, I’d suggest taking a pass at playing the C64 Virtual Console games and picking up a copy of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Anitra and I played for a couple of hours in various circuits last night and had a blast.

For me, co-op gaming offers some of the most fun you can have on an Xbox 360. While a title like Call of Duty 4 can offer an excellent single person, campaign experience, opening the game play up to co-op/multiplayer can make it shine, especially when the developers put considerable thought into the elements of team play and cooperation for in-game tasks or puzzle solving. It also adds a social element to the game, which is what play is really all about anyway.

I was accepted into the COD 4 multiplayer beta for Xbox Live this past weekend and finally had a chance to jump in last night for the first time.

A co-worker, STL KR10, set up a party for a number of Media General employees who also got into the demo using the game’s excellent lobby system and we were able to play together as a team for the entire night.

The game is a healthy cross between BF2MC and Rainbow 6 with a dash of Gears of War style gameplay mixed in - a fast paced, tactical shooter.

The maps, Crash, Vacant and Overgrown, all offer excellent gameplay - Crash being the most fun because of the choke points and flanking opportunities.

Points and ranking is handled though a great system that includes kills, assists or other scenarios like kills through thin walls. Ranking up allows you to begin tweaking your character class similar to a RPG - you can modify your weapon loadout, abilities, camo and much more by filling your 3 “perk” slots with things like C4, claymores or rocket-propelled grenades.

What’s more, you’ll be able to save various character setups for different games - meaning you can customize your gameplay depending on the map or team with which you’re working.

I found the character classes, weapons and the upgrade system easy to understand and the control layouts intuitive—and despite being a low rank in the game last night (meaning I got killed A LOT), the game offers something for n00bs (like me) and experienced players alike.

Forget Halo 3. Without question, this is my game of choice for the rest of the year.

Coming soon.

EA is releasing a demo version of BF2MC for Xbox 360 on Mar 24th.