What's coming up in July?

Well, now that the spectacle that is E3 has come and gone, we can get back to our normally scheduled gameplaying. This July may not have super blockbuster titles, but we can still highlight a couple you should keep your eye on.

July 1st:

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (PS4, July 2nd for XB360, XB1, and WiiU)

I enjoyed the hell outta this game on Steam and now it's coming to current gen consoles (and 360). Definitely worth a look.

Sniper Elite 3 - (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)

Also currently available on Steam and coming to current and previous consoles. From the little I saw of the PC version, this seems like an absolutely good time. Full of X-Ray killshots that are pretty sick.

July 22nd:

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty - (PS4)

A remake/recreation of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee coming first for PS4 and later for Xbox One, WiiU, Mac and PC.

July 29th:

The Last of Us Remastered - (PS4)

One of the most thrilling and "heart-string-pulling" games ever made gets a full remaster for the PS4. 60 frames per second, native 1080p display, the DLC from the PS3 version and improved visuals make this the definitive experience. If you missed it the first time, you owe it to yourself to get lost in this title.

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Like I said, not much going on this July, which could change and probably will, look for the bigger releases to start popping up in August/September. For now, these are just a few games that can fill your rain-filled days/nights (assuming your power stays on long enough).

Flashback Friday/History of A Console: Atari 2600

42 years ago today, June 27th 1972, Atari was incorporated, and one of the giants of the video game industry was born. Since that is an important date, (and since I kinda ripped into Atari during an EARLIER console history lesson), I figured I would make a special entry and be nice to Atari. They were good to us after all.

So let's look back and talk about the system that broke the mold and would begin many a child's love affair with video games. The Atari 2600!

The Atari 2600 was released on September 11th, 1977 in North America. This was NOT Atari's first stab at a home console since they brought home their arcade smash-hit Pong in many consolized forms. The 2600 was originally priced at $199 and came with TWO joysticks (funny how that doesn't seem to be a thing anymore, apparently nobody thinks you have friends nowadays), and a copy of Combat.

While in development, it was known by the name of "Stella", named after an engineer's bicycle. Due to the success of Pong, many small companies were making home versions of it, eventually flooding the market and making Atari's revenue dwindle. Atari needed to do something to keep afloat, especially since Fairchild Semiconductor released their own console, the Video Entertainment System (aka the Channel F, aka the console nobody remembers) in August of 1976. The 2600 went through many name variations early on, known as the Video Computer System (VCS, to take the fight to the VES), and the Sears Video Arcade when sold through Sears, Roebuck & Co. The name "2600" refers to the system's part number (CX2600) and was officially named that after the 1982 release of the Atari 5200.

Many consumers at this time were tired of Pong since that was pretty much the only game around, everyone owned a home Pong console. Hell, that was one of the first games I ever played since my Grandparents had one when I was a wee lad. The Atari 2600 not only came with a copy of Combat, but featured 8 other games at launch, effectively giving consumers the choice they had been wanting.

There was a problem: like most new, upstart ideas, nobody knew what to do with it. It's not like there were programmers and developers lining up just waiting for someone to come along with an idea for a home console, and consumers didn't know any better. Was this a justifiable business? Is this just a fad? Well, Fairchild thought it was just a fad and pulled out of the market, leaving Atari and its 2600 as the lone horse in the race. People may have seemed hesitant, but through constant support from Atari and some financial help from Warner Communications, the sales figures went from 250,000 units in 1977, to 550,000 in 1978 (which was still disappointing to them and led to founder Nolan Bushnell's exit from the company) to one million units sold in 1979, also being the best selling Christmas gift. Basically the Furby of its time. (Ugh, I still get nightmares of those things, they are CREEPY).

The success can be attributed to programmers figuring out how to best use the hardware and by giving consumers a choice of not playing Pong all day every day. Then, Atari claimed the rights to a home version of an arcade smash-hit called Space Invaders (if I had a mic, I would drop it). The 2600 version was released in January of 1980 and helped boost sales to two million units sold and a $2 billion revenue in 1980.

The original console had six switches on the front, getting the nickname "Heavy Sixer", in 1980 the two difficulty switches were moved to the back, leaving 4 up front, and gave the revision a black coat of paint, earning it the nickname "Darth Vader". This was the first official console to get the "2600" moniker. Around this time, Atari worked on 2 other consoles to compliment the 2600, a wireless version called the 2700 which never launched due to a design flaw, and the 2800 which was released only in Japan which never caught on due to the competition from the Nintendo Famicom (what would become the NES here in the States).

Now, let's look at some of the games that defined Atari and the 2600 in the early days of video gaming:

Combat: 1977 (2600 pack-in game)

Sure, the console came with it, but it helped that it was fun. 27 games on the cartridge which were variations on Tank, Biplane, and Jet games. The most popular was Tank Pong in which your shots bounced off the walls.

Pitfall!: 1982

Pro tip: Go left at the beginning, it will make your life a lot easier.

River Raid: 1982

One of my favorite 2600 games. A scrolling plane shooter where you blow up tanks, boats and helicopter while having to replenish fuel (which you could also shoot for big points). If you kept up the cycle, you could literally play this game forever.

Adventure: 1979

The Grandfather of the "Action-Adventure" genre. The player could go on 3 different quests ranging in difficulty. Also introduced the world to the concept of an "Easter Egg".

Raiders of the Lost Ark: 1982

One of the most complex games in the library. Both controllers had to be utilized to play the game: one to move Indy, one to use the inventory screen. Was balls hard!

Keystone Kapers: 1983

I'd say this is my other favorite 2600 game besides River Raid. You are tasked with chasing down an escaping crook while avoiding various obstacles being thrown at you, rolled at you, or just in your way in general.

H.E.R.O.: 1984

OK, add this to my favorite 2600 games. Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation. You play as Roderick Hero (R. Hero...'Our Hero'...get it?) as you save trapped miners with your handy helicopter backpack.

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I could go on and on, I'll mention a few more and leave you to google them:

- Kaboom!
- Space Invaders
- Centipede
- Millipede
- Missile Command
- Defender
- Chopper Command
- Haunted House
- Warlords
- Yar's Revenge

See? Classics!!

- Pac-Man

uhhh....wait....

- Custer's Revenge

Oh..no no no no no and a whole lot of no.....

- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Now that's just cruel and unusual punishment!

Those last three not only were complete shit (E.T. being widely regarded as the worst game ever made), they helped bring about the famous video game crash of 1983. I will save the crash for a later post, since it is an important even in the history of video games.

The decline of the 2600 began with many publishers feeling angry with the company for not giving them credit in their games. Leading to many people quitting Atari and forming their own companies, most notably Activision. Atari even tried blocking third-party companies from publishing games in court, to no avail. By this time, several other companies entered the market, the most detrimental being Mystique, who created several "Adult-themed" games for the system, including Custer's Revenge and Bachelor/Bachelorette Party, which led to several protests.

Despite all this, the low cost of the system and massive library helped the 2600 and the 2600 Jr. (A smaller redesign) sell well through the late 1980's. The 2600 was finally discontinued in 1992. That's an impressive 15-year run. Games, however, are still being made today through small "Homebrew" developers. They can be played through emulators or can be copied to a blank cartridge to run on a real 2600.

That's an important note too: with technology being the way it is now, you can access the Atari library in MANY different ways. You can run emulators on your computers, access them through an app on your iPad, you can run it through (gulp) Game Room on the Xbox 360 (I assume it's still up), and so on.

The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2007 and is one of, if not THE, most important console in the history of video games. It brought about the beginning of the home console era, and almost destroyed it through the crash of 1983.

Happy Incorporated Day, Atari!

What I Think Of: Transformers - Rise of the Dark Spark

I am in full on Transformers overload, and I love it. I am a member of Loot Crate, which sends a box full of mystery items to my door once a month, this month's theme was Transformers, in which I received a T-Shirt, a mini vinyl statue of Jazz, an Autobot sticker (among other things).Transformers: Age of Extinction hits theaters this week AND we get a new Transformers video game that's in the style of War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron, 2 of my favorite Transformers games of all time.

Growing up a big Transformers fan, I am always up for more robots in disguise, and while Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox tried desperately to make me hate the films, I rather enjoyed them and look forward to Mark Wahlberg's entrance to the franchise.

If you are like me and get a little nerdgasm every time you hear the iconic transforming sound, then you want to know if the new game, Rise of the Dark Spark, is any good. Let's roll out!

While War and Fall were developed by High Moon Studios, Rise was developed by Edge of Reality, who worked on the N64 ports of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, the PS3 version of Mass Effect and most recently the Free to Play shooter Loadout. You can tell though that EoR went with HM's idea to make a Transformers game as it looks and plays very similar to the older titles.

Which is fine, for the most part, since I loved those other games. I just can't help but feel like I've played this game before. What's more, this game is available on this gen (Xbox One, PS4, WiiU) and previous gen (360, PS3) consoles, and they all look pretty much the same. I guess I was hoping to be blown away by the first appearance of Transformers on the next gen-consoles in the same way I was blown away the first time I played War for Cybertron. Not only is it a little disappointing on that end, you don't have to look too hard to find textures that are real muddy and never pop-in.

I'm about a few levels into the campaign. Mission 1 you play as Drift alongside Optimus and Bumblebee trying to stop Lockdown from getting the Dark Spark, the antithesis of the Matrix of Leadership (any child of the 80's remembers the Matrix from the Transformers movie that we all know and love). Mission 2 you play as Shockwave and Soundwave as you, alongside Starscream (my favorite Decepticon) search for the Dark Spark as commanded by Lord Megatron.

Hey, three are standing...does that mean three shall fall?

That's as far as I've got in the campaign cause it's BALLS HARD. Not because the game itself is hard, but because you die so fucking fast. It should be called Rise of the Dark Souls. I'm not bad at games, I mean you won't find me on any MLG teams ever, but I can play a damn video game. I died on the first fight of the game 3 times. twice cause I walked for a second and got gunned down, and the third because the bridge story beat fell on me and crushed me. One time in Mission 2 I had full shield (100) and full health (100), I dropped down off a ledge to a platform just below, I lost all my shield and was down to 50 health from 2 shots before I touched down. Another time with full everything I took two shots and died. It's beyond frustrating.

I want to run and gun and be a badass robot, it's hard to do that when I am trying to find cover to regenerate my shields every 5 seconds. This is on Normal difficulty by the way.

When you are actually doing the running and gunning, it is still fun, and strangely satisfying when you get to uppercut Insecticons.

#BadassMode - Just insert flames.

While the other games had a choice of competitive multiplayer and co-op horde mode "Escalation", Rise of the Dark Spark ONLY has Escalation. This is a huge bummer to me and I can't help but feel let down after spending the same amount of money on this game but getting less out of it. If you want to get your competitive Transformers on, looks like you should play War for or Fall of Cybertron.

That being said, the options available to you within the Escalation mode here seems cool. You have over 40 characters to choose from, you have currency to upgrade and repair stations such as Rocket Turrets, barricades, and corrosive stations. You can also create a loadout of your character with HACKS, such as explosive headshots, extra ammo with less health, less ammo with more health, etc, all which give you various XP bonuses.

Escalation mode seems like the ideal way to level up overall anyway, so I would focus on that as soon as possible, as I went from level 4 to level 9 in one game.

Hey, no fair. You got a dragon.

What does levelling up get you? It gets you boxes. Follow me here: There are different levels of boxes, Bronze, Iron, Silver, Gold and Prime. They contain such things as character unlocks, abilities, weapon upgrades, HACKs and so on. The level of the box I don't think actually matters since I have seen the same thing in different tiers. I liken this to Mass Effect 3's multiplayer. I like the concept, but I wish they would have taken it further, like being able to customize your Transformer, put decals on them, create your own Transformer and name it, maybe unlocking taunts, something like that.

That's kind of the overall feeling I have with Rise of the Dark Spark: a product that is solid, but doesn't stray from the formula any, making me wish they would have taken this game further. This feels like a step backwards/sideways for the franchise, mainly because this game has been done already and done better in War for and Fall of Cybertron. While Transformers fans (such as myself) will still get something out of this game, I can't help but look forward to the next great Transformers game.

What I Think Of: EA Sports UFC

UFC and MMA in general can be a niche thing. Some people are WAY into it, others could really care less. Much like boxing. I am in the camp that likes watching someone get knocked the fuck out! I could do without all the ground humping. (Just an outside opinion, please don't punch me!)

THQ made several UFC games before they ceased to exist, and they were quite good. UFC Undisputed 3 was a pretty fantastic game. Also, EA came out with EA Sports MMA in 2010, which was also a pretty great game. So how does the latest trip to the Octagon fair? Well...

llllllllllLLLLLET'S GET READY TO R-(whoops, wrong Buffer)....

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIII'TS TIME!

It's best that I get this out of the way up front: This game looks pretty incredible. If you show a picture of virtual Jon Jones to a UFC fan, they would be able to tell right away. The facial hair looks great, the ring entrances look like you are watching a real televised event. This is next-gen UFC at it's finest.

Then you get into the actual fight and the attempt to knock someone the fuck out. While some animations look a little weird, overall it still looks fantastic. The punches and kicks look like they hurt, the fighters give facial grimaces when they get hit, the close up replays look great, and there is no better feeling than watching your fighter K.O. your opponent and watch him crumble to the mat.

The attention to detail is pretty superb. Besides the facial animations, the shorts move like they should, the hair moves as best as video game hair can (few moments of clipping but nothing too outrageous), and the blood looks real overall. (few look like ketchup but overall a real feel).

Great 'stache or GREATEST 'stache?

Now let's move on to the modes, which basically boil down to Quick Match, Career, and Online (There is a "Challenge" mode, which basically amounts to the training mini-games in Career mode).

When you start your career mode, you get the option of importing your EA Gameface, which never seems to work for me and makes me look like a mutant. I'm gonna blame the lighting and my weirdly shaped head. You then put your information in, run through a few drills, then go on The Ultimate Fighter. This basically amounts to your first few fights being MUST wins to progress, with no flair, no commentary, and being pretty boring.

Then you jump into the UFC ranks and begin the cycle: fight, 3 training mini-games, boost your attributes, fight, 3 training mini-games, boost your attributes, fight, 3 training mini-games, boost your attributes, fight....

Bored yet? See what I'm getting at?

Your opponent is picked for you, you don't have a choice. Along the way you gain sponsors which unlocks new gear for your fighter and you can add them to your banner that hangs from the cage.

One thing that I did find interesting is the inclusion of an "Abilities" system. Similar to Call of Duty perks. You have 5 slots in your "Game plan" in which to put various perks, and they can be ground focused, strike focused, or health focused.

Great beard or GREATEST beard?

Throughout the Career mode, you will get recorded videos from Dana White, as well as other UFC fighters and personalities. This is lame. First of all, most of them are in front of a green screen (and it's obvious) and secondly, they don't really have anything useful to say and don't ever reference YOU specifically, which is kinda what career mode should be all about. I can recall one video from Jon Jones that said "Hey, I read on the blogs that you got a new sponsor, keep it up". Unnecessary and unimportant and downright lame. I would have preferred a static image and some reference to my fighter by name.

Not all the video is bad though, when the game features a fighter or an aspect of fighting (The feeling of a K.O., the bounce-back from a loss, etc.), I found them at least enjoyable. Though, overall, I feel these videos to be dumb and really takes me out of the game.

Online play has some really interesting ideas. You can take part in tournaments where you move up or down a "season" depending on how many points you have. You may have 10 fights to get 15 points (3 for a win), and move up a rank, or down a rank if you do poorly within the tournament. You also can just fight in a straight quick match.

A problem I found here, however, is that there is no "Rematch" option after a fight. You have to go all the way back to the beginning, choose your weight class, and find someone else to play against. It would have been nice to have a "Rematch" option, or at least a "Find me another player NOW" option.

Great kick to the head, or GREATE.....you know never mind.

The controls in EA Sports UFC are worth at least mentioning. The game does a pretty good tutorial when you first boot the game up. It walks you though the various aspects of a fight: standing, on the ground, clinch, submissions, defense, etc. Then you forget everything by the first fight cause it's really confusing. I think the tutorial said to defend a takedown was RT and down on the R stick, even though I've never got that to work, and also I could be way wrong. When I am stuck in the full mount position, I jam on the R stick in circle motions to at least do something, anything, then I get knocked out, leaving me frustrated. I have had a couple of times where I flip over, giving up my back, then back to full mount, then giving up the back, and then getting knocked out. I guess I need to push LB while doing that. WHY? I don't want to put in "The Konami Code" just to stop getting punched in the face.

I mean I get the whole "easy to learn, difficult to master" thing, and I know I need to spend more time with it, but EA had a control scheme in EA Sports MMA that was easier to understand and fun.

Let's ring the bell on this (does the UFC use bells? Don't they use horns?). It seems that EA Sports UFC is EA's attempt to iterate on the THQ games instead of what should have been a hybrid of the THQ ideas and EA's ideas from MMA. I'm not saying this is a bad game, it looks great, and it is fun to play, but it just seems flat and boring at the same time.

Also, it's awesome that Bruce Lee is in the game.....but why is Bruce Lee in this game?

Greatest punch ever. That's all...

What I Think Of: Tomodachi Life

It is known throughout the gaming universe: Japan makes really odd, quirky games that end up being a lot of fun. How many times have we seen a trailer for a game, get excited for it, only to find out it's only being released in Japan? Hell, it's happening right now with Phantasy Star Online 2, it's only available in Japan and we North Americans are starting to get a little anxious for a release here.

Nintendo is never afraid to push the quirky button and go out there with ideas. Here is a prime example, so here is what I think of Tomodachi Life for the 3DS.

Tomodachi Life already has a cult following in Japan, being released on April 18th, 2013. Over a year later, the rest of the world is getting their hands on it and experiencing what all the talk was about.

Guys, this game is weird.

I suppose I should elaborate, huh?

This is a life-simulation game, I liken it to The Sims with not as many aspects to worry about. You don't have to worry about sending your Mii's to their jobs or making sure they use the bathroom, or things of that nature. It's really straightforward and easy to pick up, and works excellent as a handheld experience.

The word "experience" may come up a lot in this post since I really don't know if I can classify this as a full-on "game" (not meaning that in a bad way AT ALL).

The game starts innocently enough, asking you to name your island (I, of course, landed on 'Fantasy Island' cause duh!) and creating a Mii look-alike of yourself to be the first inhabitant. You can either import one from your system, start from scratch, or have the 3DS create one for you using photos taken by the 3DS camera. You then can adjust and tweak how you look, add your birthday, then go about setting your personality. You choose spots on sliders based on how serious you are, how fast you are, how expressive you can be, etc. The game then puts you in a personality group (I was an Outgoing Trendsetter, so pretty spot on), these are used to better decide how strong your relationships with other Mii's can be. Finally you set how your Mii sounds like when you talk, which can be downright frightening sounding. You can choose the pitch, speed, quality, tone, and accent of the Mii, or hit random and laugh for about an hour.

After a few tutorials on how to interact with your Mii, he/she becomes lonely and asks you to give them a friend. You can pull a new Mii into the game very easily the same way you brought your look-alike in the game, and you become fast friends.

As you add more and more Mii's into the game, more and more of the island opens up. You can open up such locales as a café, an amusement park, a news station, and more. You will find your Mii's traveling to these locales and it is always amusing to watch your Mii's interact with each other.

You spend the majority of your time at the Mii Apartments, when you see a squiggly-mark icon, that means they have a problem you can solve. They could be hungry/thirsty, they could want a new interior for their apartment, they could want new clothes, they could want you to tell them what to say when they are happy/sad/worried/angry, etc. You can buy food/clothes/interiors at the various shops on the island and new ones are being added on a daily basis. If you solve your Mii's problems, they gain XP, you gain money, and eventually they level up, you can then give them a gift, a special interior, teach them a song to sing, or give them a catchphrase. I believe the level cap is 30, but I could be wrong.

If your Mii is showing an orange-face icon, it means they want to interact with another Mii which could lead to a friendship. You can interact with this by telling the Mii what they should talk about, which plays into the personality traits. Mii's who are friends will hang out at each other's apartment, be involved in cutscenes, visit island locales together, and can also have fights, which could end up breaking up a friendship.

Of course, friends of the opposite gender could lead to more,  a full-on relationship, the Mii's can become sweethearts, eventually get married, and have a family together. It is worth noting that there is a setting in the game that disables Mii's having babies. 

If the icon is a green person yelling, the Mii wants to play a game, which could range from a match-2 style game, a quiz based on island inhabitants, or a "catch-this-as-I-drop-it" style game. Your reward is an object added to your "treasures", which can be a basketball, an old sock, a toothbrush, and other weird items that you can sell at the pawn shop.

Every night, you can invade your Mii's dreams. One dream involves you being a snail in a never-ending race, one dream had about 8 Mii's all chanting "All hail the Creamy Stew", and they just get weirder from there.

Various events take place at certain times on the island. You can by an exclusive item at the various Morning/Afternoon/Evening markets, you can catch a magic show, you can even play a Final Fantasy style RPG with a party of 4 Mii's. In the quest I played I defeated the evil Disco Ball boss.

Before this post gets to be as long as a Kings/Rangers Stanley Cup game, I'll highlight a few of my personal experiences:

- Napoleon Dynamite tried asking out Elizabeth Comstock, she said "I'm Sorry", I had to give him a lot of food and new clothes to help him feel better.

- Ice Cube celebrated his birthday while his friends gathered around singing to him. Those friends being Captain Falcon, Duke Nukem, Batman and Iron Man. That's a party!

- Doctor Clayton Forrester is currently dating Storm from the X-Men and tried proposing at a fireworks show. Didn't go well since she couldn't hear him over the sound of the fireworks.

- According to the compatibility tester, I am meant to be with either Nikki or Brie Bella from WWE. Apparently I should give them my number like ASAP.

- Louis C.K. discovered a fantastic way to clean dirty floors: rolling around while wearing old clothes. 

I could go on and on and this game is one of those experiences that could use a "daily check-in" feature. Every day is something new and exciting and really captures that "I wonder what today brings" mentality that will keep you coming back.

So let's wrap this up. If you like life-simulation style games, then you will find this easy to pick-up and get into. If you normally don't like that style of game, the quirky humor and easy-to-get-into style works great. I spent an entire weekend playing this, only stopping to eat and sleep and if you let yourself get into this game, the hours are going to fly by and you will have memorable experiences that will make you laugh and see your Mii's in a whole new way. This is a lot of fun and I recommend this to anyone who likes weird, new things.

Flashback Friday: Sega Soccer Slam

The World Cup in underway in Brazil and World Cup Fever is sweeping the Solarverse. FIFA is the best selling sports game in the world and puts out an accompanying game for the World Cup, and FIFA is actually really damn good, year in and year out. The closest competition would be Konami's Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution series, which is ok, but FIFA Soccer tends to own the digital soccer/football world.

So this week for Flashback Friday, let's not talk about either one and instead shine a light on Sega Soccer Slam.

Sega Soccer Slam was released in North America (follow me here) for Gamecube on March 18th, 2002, Xbox on August 22, 2002 and Playstation 2 on September 2, 2002. As you can tell from the cover art and the name, it's an arcade spin on The Beautiful Game, much like RedCard and more recently with Mario Strikers: Charged for the Wii.

(For the reason that I am an American, I'll say the word 'soccer' but just know in my heart I want to say 'football' for my international fans).

Throw the rules right out the window here; punch your opponents and unleash special kicks with characters that look like Power Rangers villains.

There were several modes in the game, Practice, Exhibition, Challenge, Tourny, and Quest mode.

Practice mode teaches you step-by-step how to play Soccer the way your 8-year-old self always wanted to, like a superhero. Exhibition let you choose your team (6 to start, 3 more you can unlock), your stadium, and your opponent. Challenge Mode lets you create a custom team and play a set of matches to unlock 9 extra characters. Tourney Mode lets you create a Tournament (weird, right?) that lasts 5 days (in-game of course). Finally, Quest Mode allows you to choose from one of the starting 6 teams, play 10 games, and accumulate money to spend on character art and power-ups, basically their idea of a "season" type mode.

There were also 2 mini-games: Hot Potato, in which you earned points from passing, but anyone in the blast zone when the ball explodes loses points, and Brawl, which is a 4-player beat the crap outta each other game.

Each team had its own unique look and specialty:

- Team Toxic (Green) - from North America. Excel at passing.

- Team Volta (Yellow) - from Western and Southern Europe. Excel at Speed.

- Team Subzero (White & Ice Blue) - from Eastern and Northern Europe. Excel at fatalities hitting and abusing. (Can't be a coincidence, right?)

- Team Spirit (Purple) - from Africa. Excel at High Shot Combos.

- Team Tsunami (Ocean Blue) - from the Pacific Rim (Hawaii, Australia, Japan. Not the movie....though that would be pretty sweet). Excel in shot accuracy.

- Team El Fuego (Red) - from Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil). This is your typical "well-balanced" team and is also aggressive.

The 3 unlockable teams is where it starts getting a little more obscure:

- Team Love (Pink) - An all girl team who hoped to meet their idol; Team Subzero member Lola. They are faster than Team Volta, making them the fastest team in the game.

- Team Robo (Robot colored, I guess?) - Robots created by Team Tsunami member Rumiko. After trying to exterminate the robots, seeing them as failures, the Robots formed a Soccer team to take down their creator. Best shooting team in the game.

- Team Ohm (Gold) - from Southeast Asia. Team member Dakai (a Burmese ex-rebel leader) was secretly making an elixir of immortality, when he ended up making a superhuman power for his team. They are similar to Team El Fuego, with added hitting and shooting power.

I remember playing a LOT of this game on my original Xbox. While it was a pretty fun single player game, this was best spent with other players giving you a real challenge. I remember the AI for Soccer Slam either being super easy, or unforgiving, adding the human element kept this game exciting and fun.

If you are looking for a fun arcade Soccer/Football game to take a break from FIFA with, I would easily recommend playing a few games of this with friends in between televised World Cup matches.

GO GO USA!

What did EA and Ubisoft do at E3 2014?

So, earlier today I highlighted the Big 3 (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) and their conferences, well there were 2 more shows from EA and from Ubisoft, so how did they fare? Let's take a look?

- A look at a Stormtrooper for the new Star Wars Battlefront, and that's pretty much it. Then the developers say how much they love Star Wars. No shit. I bet Mike Ditka is a fan of the city of Chicago. Moving on....

- More info about Dragon Age: Inquisition, character classes, amount of content, etc. Looks acion-y and much needed after DA2.

- A new Mass Effect is happening. We see a picture of Shepard and some music, and that's pretty much it.

- The Sims 4 is shaping up to be a lot of what Sims fans want. Graphically, though, it doesn't seem like that same leap that we got with 2 to 3. Still, that's not what Sims fans come here for.

- EA Sports UFC is out in a week and looks great. Followed by footage of NHL '15 which looks gorgeous and makes this hockey fanatic VERY excited!

- New Criterion game? Burnout? Don't know. It involves planes, ATV's, helicopters, and we don't really know much about it.....starting to sense a theme here EA.

- EA Sports PGA Tour marks the first Tiger-less golf game in like a billion years and also uses the Frostbite 3 engine, also touts the extreme fantasy courses, like driving a ball over a battleship. Cause, you know, video games.

- Madden 15 is a football game. Will look great, moving on....

- With the MOBA market getting FLOODED, it will be interesting how Dawngate carves its own niche.

- Mirror's Edge 2 is a thing! They showed real early prototype material but it's nice to see it being worked on.

- FIFA 15 is a football game. Will look great, moving on...

- Battlefield: Hardline looks like Battlefield 4 mixed with Payday, which on paper sounds awesome. Though it is 32-player max and kinda looks like a BF4 mod. I would love to get some hands on time with this, which you can do since the beta is happening now! (PYRO!)

Pretty disappointed in what EA brought. It seemed like a lot of "We don't know if this is a game or not but look at what people who work for us are doing". Nothing really out of the blue, and I feel I have a lot of questions that I know won't get answered. Maybe they will at next year's E3....who knows?

I'll say this upfront, Ubisoft is getting weird, but they are doing it the right way and I really like what they are doing.

- FarCry 4 looks awesome. Putting a game in the Himalayas gives them lots of vertical space to play with and it looks just as absurd and over-the-top as 3 did. I am on board.

- Executive producer Dan Hay says after the first 5 minutes "you're fucked". See? I really like Ubisoft.

- I also adore Aisha Tyler and think she's perfect for this sort of thing.

- Just Dance 2015 is a thing, and people really seemed to not care.

- Another look at The Division and an appearance by The Crew which is slated for November 11th for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Both look like promising games, which they also did at last year's event.

- Assassin's Creed: Unity looks even more kick-ass and it will be interesting to see how this new 4 player co-op gets worked in. Apparently it's a separate thing from the single-player campaign. Go watch this part on YouTube as it is one of the best presentations of a game at this year's event.

- Shape Up is a crazy fitness game ripe with weird minigames. Jumping up and down on a virtual keyboard while an "Eye of the Tiger" remix plays? Have I mentioned I really like Ubisoft?

- Valiant Hearts is a really artistic 2D adventure game set in World War I and using the UbiArt engine. Really eye-catching.

- Rainbow Six is back with Rainbow Six: Siege. Which includes truly destructible environments (hopefully). Great reveal here and as someone who THOROUGHLY enjoyed the Vegas games, I am looking forward to what this can be.

Good showing from Ubisoft here, minus the Just Dance part which should be heading out to pasture soon (maybe sales figures are astronomical, but I would imagine Dance Central is the superior game....cause it is). Really cool stuff coming from them and it's easy to get behind a company like this.

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There's your E3 press conference round-up in a nutshell. What games are you looking forward to the most? Are you ready for all this hype?

Too bad, already happening.

Quick Thoughts on the "Big 3" at E3 2014

It's the most wonderful (or craziest) time of the year in the land of Videogamedia: E3, where companies show what they are working on for the upcoming year and make gamers daydream about what can be, before the inevitable fulfillment or disappointment. You can feel the hype in the air.

With last year's conferences focusing on the new hardware, this year was shaping up to be pretty game-heavy, and it did not disappoint. I want to take a second and hit on some key points from each of the "Big 3's" (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) press conference. Here we go:

- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is looking really pretty. I thoroughly enjoy Kevin Spacey so more of him in my life is always a good thing. While I will never sit here and say I am a Call of Duty pro, I do enjoy playing the series and hope this grabs me the same way Modern Warfare 2 did.

- The much wanted Forza Horizon 2 looks like what we have been wanting, more of everything. Horizon was a pleasant surprise and after the mixed feelings behind Forza Motorsport 5, this could be what brings the franchise back to prominence. Also, it's coming out September 13th, 2014!

- Evolve looks downright frightening (in a horror sort of way, not quality way).

- Assassin's Creed: Unity looks to be a great step in the right direction. I felt ACIII lost the plot a bit and Black Flag brought it back. Unity introduces 4 player online co-op as well. Which could be a lot of fun. Looks very promising. (Though with protagonist Victor Dorian, I expect to be making a lot of Scrubs related jokes).

- Dragon Age: Inquisition needs to come out like now. Say what you will about DA2 (disappoint), Inquisition looks like it will right the ship.

- Sunset Overdrive still looks freaking ridiculous and awesome, including 8 player co-op. Also, this comes out October 28th!

- Dead Rising 3 DLC (available now FYI for $9.99) will be bought by me soon. Capcom taking a shot at themselves with all their ridiculous naming and characters, love it. Good on them.

- Dance Central Spotlight coming this fall. Always a good time.

- Fable Legends seems really interesting. The idea of playing the villain and being this "malevolent god" setting traps for the heroes is a cool take on the genre and well worth checking out. Beta hits this fall.

- Project Spark continues to look interesting and will be cool to see where people take it. Also, Conker is in it. (Kinda out of left field, but ok).

- You want Halo? Well you are getting it with Halo Master Chief Collection. You get Halo C.E., 2, 3, and 4 on Xbox One, which also includes EVERY map ever made for Halo multiplayer (that's over 100) with 4000 gamer score. You also get a beta invite to Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: Nightfall which is a digital short that leads up to Halo 5. Holy shit! Also worth noting (since they did) is that Halo 2's multiplayer is being implemented the same way it was when it first shipped.

- Inside is the new game from the guys who did Limbo and looks equally as eye-catching.

- Microsoft embracing the indie developers. It was going to happen eventually, right?

- Rise of the Tomb Raider looks like more of what I loved about the last Tomb Raider game.

- Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a game you should all be pre-ordering the second you are done reading this, just trust me.

- The Division keeps having fantastic showings, and needs to stop being delayed, I want to play it like now!

- I love Platinum Games, their games are insane and Scalebound is no different.

- New Crackdown game? With the original team? Called Crackdown? Get ready, agent. I'm in!

Overall, solid showing from Microsoft. Xbox One heavy and game heavy. Still, holy shit that's a lot of Halo that I am going to LOVE playing all over again.

Moving on....

- Sony starts off with a bang. Here is Destiny and it appears this is the console you should be playing it on, it looks that good. Beta starts on PS4 July 17th.

- Scratch that, looks like you should play it on the new white PS4 that Destiny will be bundled with on September 9th. I think I will keep my black PS4 but man that white one looks sexy.

- The Order: 1886 looks spooky as hell, and a game I really want to learn more about. You have my interest.

- Entwined seems like a really cool concept and is available now for PS4. Might be worth looking into.

- InFAMOUS: First Light is a standalone prequel, and as someone who loved Second Son, I totally recommend keeping an eye on this.

- LittleBigPlanet 3! (Drops the mic)

- (picks the mic back up) additional characters and last-gen map compatibility! (Drops mic again)

- Project Beast finally gets the full reveal as Bloodbourne, from the makers of the Dark Souls games. 2015.

- FarCry 4 demo. I loved FarCry 3 so if this continues to go into the over-the-top and obscure, I will love 4 even more. Looks promising.

- You can invite your friends to your game even if they don't own the game??? What? How? This could be a gamechanger if done right.

- Dead Island 2 y'all! Looks to be set in California (island?) but I am looking forward to this as I considered the first Dead Island a surprise hit. (Riptide maybe not so much).

- The Last of Us Remastered continues to be a great way for people to experience a masterpiece if they didn't on PS3.

- Magicka 2! Yes!!

- Grim Fandango? Double Fine? Shut up and take my money!

- Sony really pushing their indie games, which includes Broforce and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number.

- No Man's Sky looks gorgeous and well worth keeping an eye on.

- Playstation Now hits open beta on July 31st (day before my birthday, just saying).

- "We are working on Vita games....ok moving on".....uh....ok....

- Mortal Kombat X! (Drops mic, shatters) Damn! Anyway, MKX looks fucking incredible. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

- I should really get into this whole Powers thing, huh?

- A Ratchet & Clank movie? Awesome! Also a reimagining of the first Ratchet & Clank game? Even more awesome! I'm a fan.

- Metal Gear Solid V still looks damn impressive, really makes me want to get into this series. 

- Grand Theft Auto V coming to next gen consoles and will have save transfers. I wonder how the achievements and trophies will work.

- Batman: Arkham Knight looks phenomenal! Looks like the perfect way to end this franchise.

- Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (if I had the mic, I would drop it again). Looks fantastic as usual.

Sony came out swinging. Huge game releases, the new white PS4 is very appealing, and a lot of exclusive content. Though I feel the pacing of the show was a bit off when they starting getting into PS4's power and the Playstation TV, still a hell of a lineup.

One more, can Nintendo hang around?

- No actual "press conference" from Nintendo, opting instead to do a Nintendo Direct Live Stream. I wouldn't read too much into that, it actually ended up working out better, I thought.

- The Nintendo figurines are called "Amiibo" it uses the word "Mii" and sounds like "amigo", that's my reasoning for the name.

- Super Smash Bros will be the first to use the figurines, which can fight in the game, level up, learn new techniques and keep persistent stats. Neat idea that has worked for Skylanders, we shall see how it works here.

- Amibo will also work for Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10, and other games in the future. To what extent? Who knows?

- Yoshi's Wooly World is freaking adorable. I LOVED Kirby's Epic Yarn, so more of that look is always welcome. 

- Remember that mini-game from Super Mario 3D World where Toad collects stars? Captain Toad gets his own full game and looks to be a lot of fun.

- New Legend of Zelda game looks like Zelda meets Skyrim with a huge open-world landscape that looks stunning.

- Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Pokemon games. 'Nuff said.

- Bayonetta 2 looks crazy and will also include the first game and neat Nintendo goodies. Awesome!

- I hope Hyrule Warriors is good, I appreciate the Dynasty Warriors games (even if I don't love em) and the idea of Link slaughtering legions of enemies sounds appealing.

- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse looks to be a splendid experience and the claymation effect really showed well.

- Our dreams were realized with the official reveal of Mario Maker. Create your own levels and put them in the old 8-bit style or the "New" era. This has potential to be truly awesome.

- Splatoon's segment ran WAY too long, but the game seems like a lot of fun. The concept of claiming territory through ink and having that factor into the gameplay seems like a really cool idea. They did mention tilting the gamepad to look, which I sure hope is just an option cause that doesn't sound like a good idea at all.

- You know, I would watch an Anime Smash Bros series.

- Lady Palutena in Smash Bros? Kinda feel like E3 is where you should announce someone with a little more recognition.

- Update: Nintendo announced (after the Live stream) that Pac-Man will be joining Smash Bros. See? THAT's who you should have led with. That's awesome news!

Nintendo continued on after the live stream and showed a few more games like Mario Party 10 and talked a bit more about Amiibo, but overall I was pleasantly surprised with Nintendo's showing. Great games coming from them and we shall see how this Amiibo line plays out.

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So it's time to crown a winner in all this. Who wins E3 and reigns supreme?

Drumroll please.....

The winner is....

US!

For the first time in a long time, all 3 companies showed up and said the right things and gave us consumers some great things to look forward to.

Sure, EA and Ubisoft had their conferences and hit upon other games I haven't mentioned here, but the point of this is that it's great to see all 3 companies come through and present strong shows.

Hear that? It's the sound of hype. Soak it in.

What's coming up in June?

Well, here we are, the biggest month in the world of video games. June marks the month of E3, so we are bound to get news and announcements on an almost overwhelming basis, including the announcement of Mortal Kombat X, coming in 2015 for Current and last-gen consoles (I am kind of freaking excited).

At any rate, games are still being released during this time. While it may be a light release month due to the fact that developers don't want their games to get lost in the shuffle, releases still happen, so here is what you should be looking for:

June 3rd:

Worms: Battlegrounds - (PS4, Xbox One)

Team 17's long running Worms franchise comes to the current-gen consoles. Always a good time.

June 6th:

Tomodachi Life - (3DS)

The much anticipated (/talked about/controversial) life simulation game finally comes out in North America and Europe, you might want to start adding Mii's to your 3DS like NOW!

June 17th:

EA Sports UFC - (PS4, Xbox One)

One of the most talked about games coming out of last year's E3, and after a much-publicized feud between EA and Dana White, we finally get the next-gen "Knock him the F*** out" experience. Also, Bruce Lee.

June 24th:

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare - (PC)

The surprisingly good 3rd person shooter finally comes out for PC, in case you don't own an Xbox 360 or Xbox One.

June 27th:

Grid Autosport - (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

The next entry in the Grid series is released and marks the return of the in-car view which was absent in Grid 2.

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Again, this list is subject to change and probably will, games may even sneak in and be awesome, but I figured I would just highlight a few. Chances are high that I may post several reaction blogs during E3, let the media storm begin.

What I Think Of: Mario Kart 8

With every new Nintendo console, we are guaranteed a few games: A new Zelda title, a new Smash Bros title (N64 and forwards), and a new Mario Kart game. It's kind of surprising that there are ONLY 8 games in the series that dates back to 1992, considering how well they have sold, but maybe THAT'S why they sell well; consumers aren't bombarded with these games and it helps that they are all different levels of great.

So how does the new entry stack up? Is this finally the reason people should go buy a WiiU? Well...

3...

2... (hit and hold the A button)

1...

LET'S GO!

The structure of the game modes in MKart 8 is exactly like the rest of the series; there is the Grand Prix (4 races) mode, VS Mode, Time Trials, and Battle Mode (I will get into the online later). There are 32 tracks in the game, 16 new and 16 classic tracks. If you have played a MKart game ever, you know what to expect here.

What sets Mario Kart 8 apart from the rest in the series, besides being the most HD game in the series, is the ability to drive on walls and ceilings, which leads to really interesting track designs, even being incorporated into the retro tracks. A few tracks (such as Twisted Mansion, Bowser's Castle, and Shy Guy Falls) really stand out to me as nailing this crazy idea of driving on the previously undrivable.

Speaking of the tracks, many of the new tracks found in MKart 8 can easily be considered the best in any MKart game. There are way too many to name here but the variation in the tracks, the anti-gravity portions, the visual look, and the awesome music in Bowser's Castle, help make these new tracks enjoyable and instant classics.

The retro track selection for 8, I find, is a bit underwhelming though. There are a few gems (Music Park from Mario Kart 7 remains one of my all time favorites), and sure, after bringing back retro tracks in several games prior, their pool of tracks may be limited now, but I am pretty sure gamers just want their favorite tracks, even if they have seen it in a recent game.

The game features 30 racers (the most in the series) plus the ability to choose from any Mii on your console, not just the primary one. You don't know what awesome is until you have a Mii version of Geordi La Forge driving around on a Jet Bike. As I previously stated in an earlier post, some choices for characters seem odd (I'm looking at you Pink Gold Peach), but overall, it's pretty par for the course.

Now on to the actual playing of the game. I'll get this out of the way now, this is the best looking WiiU game out there. The characters look great, you get a real sense of speed, the track designs are eye-catching and the attention to detail is impeccable. Also, as long as it's just one person driving on the TV, it's a smooth 60 frames per second. This is the bar future WiiU games should be held to, and it makes me extra excited to see how the new Smash Bros will look later this year.

It is worth mentioning that if you start adding players and split the screen, the frames dip to 30 frames per second. Understandable, sure, but still sort of a bummer since you do lose that sense of speed.

As with most things Nintendo does, it's the little things in the visual department that help add to the overall experience. It's the head turning when players are getting passed, it's the facial expressions, it's the tire tracks left on the course through the duration of the race, the Nintendo references surrounding the tracks, Nintendo knows how to add flavor around the core game and it is beautifully shown off here.

The online portion allows up to 12 people to race against each other. Also, taking a cue from Mario Golf: World Tour, you can race and create tournaments. In the cup that I am currently taking part in, you race on 8 tracks and your overall score (depending on how you finish) is added up and becomes your tournament score. Being able to create your own tournament with custom parameters will definitely increase the longevity here.

All the players in the lobby vote on a track from 4 available options, the game randomly picks one, and you are off and racing. The wait time was basically non-existant and I didn't notice any severe hiccups or hitches in the gameplay.

Mario Kart 8 may seem like just another game in the series, and from a feature standpoint, you would be mostly right (apart from the online portion). However, the fact is that Mario Kart 8 sports the best looks in the series, the craziest track designs in the series, some of the best tracks in the series period, and the ability to finally counter the damn Blue Shell (one of the most satisfying feelings ever, every time), it all adds up to what's making a strong case to being my favorite Mario Kart game. While I need to spend more time with this to make the full-on "favorite" claim, those looking for a reason to buy a WiiU need look no further, and those who have a WiiU, this game is a perfect reason to dust it off and get racing.

TEAM LUIGI!!