January 2009

I will admit: that the premise for Lair, a Factor 5 and Sony Computer Entertainment production is genuine. But that does not necessarily mean that this game is anything worthwhile, especially worth spending any of your hard earned dollars on. While in theory this seems like a great idea for a video game: ride on around on a cool looking dragon and breathe fire upon your foes while hacking and slashing from atop your reptilian steed, this game is plagued by so many flaws and faults that it greatly deteriorates what otherwise would be a great video game with an awesome and original premise that offers much to gamers. Unfortunately, this game is riddled with glitches and common oversights that went untouched and overlooked during the production process. The end results make playing this game so annoying that many gamers will become easily frustrated early on in the game.

The controls are really choppy, which is equivalent to the choppy graphics and long level load times.

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Toot your horns and get ready to go on a high octane racing adventure with the latest foray of tire burning, suffocating and blinding racing for the Sony Playstation. A creation of Sony Computer Entertainment and SCE Studios in Liverpool does bring to the world of avid racing game fans everywhere, Formula One Championship Edition. This time around you can expect amazing graphics, a kick butt managerial mode and plenty of awesome cars and highly detailed, intense racing tracks to destroy your million dollar racing machines on. However, like the many Formula One games that have preceded this one, get ready to drive your car in endless left circles, sometimes right, until your eyes bleed. But then again, that is the how Formula One racing games work – so I can’t be to biased against them for making this game true to its real life format. And now on to the goodies and bad parts about this racing adventure from Sony.

Sony made sure to pull out all of the stops when they created Formula One Championship Edition for the Sony Play Station Three console.

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Every year brings a host of new releases, some good, some bad and this year looks set to be a good one with a number of exciting titles on the way. Let’s have a look at the pick of the bunch due for release in 2009.

First up is Street Fighter IV which looks visually stunning with stylized 3D environments and characters. Although the game-play will be the same 2D affair we’re used to there will be more movement in the camera for a better sense of depth and loads of new special moves to master. Old favourites like Ryu, Ken, Guile and Chun-Li, as well as villains Vega and M. Bison return for more fighting action and they’ll be joined by a host of entirely new characters. It’ll be released on PS3 and Xbox 360.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is next up and it picks up the story where the original left off, in fact it starts half an hour before the end of the last game and casts you in a new role as the psychic Michael Beckett.

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When it comes to racing games that are as realistic as possible, often times many video game production companies avidly fail to deliver a truly exceptional product. However, when you take one of the largest video game production companies in the world, that being the monster company Sony Computer Entertainment, and have them work hand in hand with Polyphony Digital, the ending results are the most fabulous and realistic racing game ever created for any of the next generation consoles, yet in this case, exclusive to the Sony Play Station 3 console.

Released in the earlier part of 2008, ‘Grand Turismo 5: Prologue,’ is by far one of the most intense, realistic and vetted racing games of all time. And considering that Sony has authored four prior releases, they had a rather lofty already existing platform to improve upon.

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Contrary to all of the rumors and wilds speculation that must have been circulating the offices of Namco when they were getting ready to release the much anticipated fourth edition of their arcade smash hit endeavor, Time Crisis 4—they would have been much better just leaving this game to the quarter pumping neophytes at the local arcade, who would have made them more money than this traditional shooter flop did. And for those of you who are not familiar with the Time Crisis franchise, I will quickly bring you entirely up to speed, okay!

If you ever find yourself in an arcade, where protagonist patrons waste ample amounts of silver quarters frying their brains in front of mostly old school games that offer a nostalgic notion – then you will most certainly happen upon Time Crisis, 1, 2, or even three and sometimes in rare cases, Four. This game made a solid name for itself as one of the most popular arcade shooters ever, and here is why. It features two player game play in front of huge wide screen TVs and it was filled with props.

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The statistics on the numbers of people in the United States who are considered to be overweight are rather astounding. At last census (December of 2008) the US government stated that at least sixty percent of our population was considered to be overweight, with more than half of them are considered to be seriously obsess (thirty pounds or more over the average weight for their bodies). In line with this was the statement on the US government’s website (us.gov) that proclaimed the most popular New Year’s resolution in America was weight-loss. And furthermore, the website stated that those who sought out effective methods of losing weight, inclusive of at least twenty minutes of continuous exercise at least three to five times per week, would greatly reduce their risks of contracting serious illnesses later on in life namely, heart disease, cancers and diabetes.

Why People Enjoy Working out to Video Games
Video games are just plain fun for most people – at least those who enjoy playing them.

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I sent both Bob and Baxter to college. While they were there, I flipped a coin and decided that Baxter would be the heir. This left Bob (the spare) free for me to goof around with. I decided to make Bob a vampire.

Vampires were added to The Sims 2 with the expansion pack Nightlife. After you install this expansion pack, two new NPCs (the Count and the Contessa) will appear in your Downtown lots at night. The vampires can also be identified by their two stereotyped behaviors:

1. "Stalking." A "stalking" vampire walks around with their arm over their face, in the classic Noseferatu pose.

You can have your own vampire Stalk somewhere by clicking the destination, and choosing "Stalk here."

2.

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Post nuclear apocalypse Washington D.C. is the setting for the intense, gory and super violent thriller RPG, Fallout 3. However, many gamers are in an uproar because the game seemingly causes fallout of its own when they try to play it. And the platform that they are trying to play it from matters little when it comes to Fallout 3. Basically, this puppy causes its own little nuclear winter on just about every operating system, but why? And mind you, its not just me that’s complaining, it’s the entire gaming community that is demanding that they fix the multitude of issues that are associated, namely with the PC version of Fallout 3 – here is the scoop as I see it folks! And trust me, I will not sugar coat it one single bit. I love the game, hate the glitches and here is why!

Can Any Platform Play Fallout 3 Properly?
In a rush to release the game for multiple platforms, the makers, Bethesda, overlooked all of the compatibility issues that were lying before them.

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I should preface this by pointing out that I am a complete nut for The Sims games. I lost a year and a half of my life to The Sims. I was there for the debacle that was The Sims Online. (I was a beta tester, but dropped out after the first few weeks. My review in a nutshell was, "Blecch.") I gave Spore a whirl, didn't care for it, and switched back to The Sims 2.

As you can imagine, I'm terribly excited about the prospect of The Sims 3, which is scheduled for release this February. There is precious little pre-release information about The Sims 3, aside from what you can read on the back of the box or on the Amazon page. (The game went up for pre-release sale not long ago.)

There are two features which will set The Sims 3 apart from The Sims 2 you will now be able to follow your Sims to work, and they are no longer bounded at home by the edges of their property.

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