Listen live below, get us on iTunes, Zune, or download the mp3 directly here

Show Notes | Topics | Related Links

Blockbuster Video sucks

Bioshock 2, Richard reviews

GameX is no more

NEWS:

-Neversoft Lays Off Much of Their Staff as Activision Rips Guitar Hero Away From Them

-Radical Entertainment Also Cuts 90+

-Final Fantasy XIII In 3D?!

-NBA Celebrity Game… Sponsored by Final Fantasy?!

-Final Fantasy XIII Will Have Special Edition Xbox 360 Deal

-Splinter Cell also gets an exclusive 360

-More Call of Duty Around Christmas

-Alan Wake Release Date Annoucned

-Perfect Dark, Game Room Coming in March

-Dead Rising 2 Comes on August 31st

-Molyneux Promises To Piss Off Fanbase With Fable III Announcements

-Fable III Coming This Fall

-NES, Five Games For A Paltry $13,105

-Sonic the Hedgehog Fans Petition SEGA For Classic Sonic

First of all, if you haven’t yet read our coverage of VGXPO, which was held in Philly earlier in October, please do so. GameX isn’t affiliated with VGXPO, except for the fact that a number of staff members now at GameX used to work there. It’s a long story, and one that isn’t really completely clear to me, but there’s definitely bad blood. Both sides have been accused of stealing resources, actively working to hurt the other con, and otherwise being douchey. The truth? Someone from GameX told me that he believes there’s enough consumer interest for both parties to have large gaming conventions, but I’m not really buying it. Someone will come out on top as the video game convention in Philly.

Here at Binge Gamer, we try not to take sides on any issue*, but I have to admit, it was general consensus among every one of us was that GameX is the place to be. Yes, there were problems. For a first-year con, though, it was an impressive show, and I’m looking forward to going back again next year.

The one thing that sets GameX apart from VGXPO? Organization. Really, the whole comparison comes down to that one point. Everything that was so very right about GameX can (and should) happen at any con in any city in the country. Here’s what a little organization gets you:

• Great Vendors: There were not only video games to play and dealers selling used games, but there were also artists, steampunk groups, bands, reps from upcoming festivals, the Army, Star Wars cosplay groups, arcade machines, table-top designers, casual and indy gaming companies, Bawls energy drink, robotics teams, and more. It was really varied, yet still cohesive because everything fell under the “interesting to a geek” category. Oh, and QVC did a live broadcast from the show to sell Wiis and other items. That’s pretty cool.
• Celebrities: For me, the most exciting celebrity there was my hero Brian O’Halloran (aka, Dante Hicks from Clerks), along with Marilyn Ghigliotti, who played Veronica. We also got a chance to meet the members of the guild, Yahtzee from The Escapist (see right), and Rake Yohn from JackAss and Viva La Bam.
• Press Perks: In general, you as a reader probably don’t care about our experiences as press, but let’s just say this – they went above and beyond. They had a nice press room, which is really crucial to make our jobs easier, and the PR staff was AMAZING. All weekend, they ran back and forth, setting up interviews and connecting us with vendors and celebrities so that we could bring you the best coverage possible.
• Staff: Along with amazing PR staff members, GameX had great staff and volunteers in general. They were on time with set-up, and if they didn’t know how to answer a question, they took you to someone who did. After the con, a number of staff members reached out to me, just to get some feedback and make themselves available for questions. I’m still bitter that nearly all of our emails to VGXPO (including one to volunteer our time) went unanswered.
• Games: Of course there were games…it was a video game convention. GameX brought attendees a number of recent releases, but more importantly, they had hands-on demos of games that haven’t been release yet including Bayonetta (see James playing below), Dante’s Inferno, Global Agenda, and Shaun White Snowboarding: World Tour.
• Night Life: The GameX floor shut down every evening, but on both Friday and Saturday, there were things to do if you wanted to keep hanging out. It was nice that there were options for people who weren’t yet ready to go back to their hotel rooms for the night.
• Competitions: Most video game cons have tournaments, so I wasn’t surprised to see that they were also offered at GameX. What was cool, though, was that they also had an art competition (this year with a steampunk theme) and a three-day non-stop game designing competition (yeah, it was intense – they even had a roped-off area where the competitors could take naps). All of this was organized really well to get people involved and give out thousands of dollars worth of prizes.
• There was always something going on. Bands playing, tournaments, panels, live art demos, table-top gaming…if you got board at GameX, that was your own damn fault.

GameX was not without problems. Here are some of the main ones we noted:

• The convention center sucked. I mean, personally, I was a fan of it having GREAT free parking, but it was slightly hard to find and being outside of the city, the traffic sucked. It was also far from most places to eat and hotels (by “far”, I mean that it wasn’t within walking distance). I’m told that they’re looking for a better venue (*cough*PAConventionCenter*cough*) for the 2010 show.
• Their ‘net went down. Ok, so this was really the convention center’s fault I guess, but ultimately, it was GameX who had to deal with the problem, which knocked out credit card machines and all other Internet connections.
• They didn’t deliver on traffic. I was told by one vendor that he was promised 20,000+ people. Heresay, maybe, but in any case, the show didn’t really get the attendance that I think they wanted. It wasn’t empty by any means, but it was awfully slow, especially for a Saturday. There weren’t even many cosplayers, but I did snap a picture of Carmen (see right).
• The food options sucked. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that they weren’t allowed to bring in outside food vendors, meaning that the only option was the convention center’s cafeteria. It was a nice area set up with food, but the options were VERY overpriced and made my stomach hurt. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the site was near fast food options.

As I’m writing this, I’m realizing that all of the problems come back to one main issue: the location. Just as GameX’s advantage was their organizational skills, VGXPO’s advantage was their great location. If you put those two things together, you’d have an amazing con.

Will GameX take over the Philly video game convention scene? This writer thinks that someone should shoot VGXPO and put it out of its misery, giving GameX the breathing space (and the location) to really flourish. Binge Gamer came to this show with an open mind, but we were a bit wary that it would be another ill-organized Philly convention. It turned out to be a fun weekend well worth the trip – and that’s keeping in mind that we had staff come from not just PA but also three other states. I can’t wait for next year.

*That’s an outright lie. Sorry.

Dante’s Inferno makes good use of a ‘combo’ system for those who wish to make this a button masher on the level of a Devil May Cry game, despite this is more of a slower paced, God of War type game. So it is cool you have that option on what pace you want to play. What Dante’s doesn’t share with the aforementioned games, is that the main character is slightly uninteresting.

Enemies and puzzles are all handled well, and I don’t think a lack of connection to the main character will be a huge turn off as long as people enjoy the gameplay enough. In my opinion, the gameplay coupled with the great creative enemy and level designs, more than makes up for a forgettable lead character. The puzzles I encountered in the demo were not too hard, however I expect the final product to display a larger range and depth to the puzzles.

The controls are very smooth. You can figure out various combos and figure the best ways to use spells to make sure the hacking and slashing doesn’t get boring. No lag or slow down I noticed when playing the demo with many enemies on screen. Also no screen tearing that I noticed.

A big part of this game is of course the story, which I felt was handled very well. Rather than thousands of cutscenes, various NPCs will be along your path, you can choose to follow along or you can just go right ahead and kick ass and solve puzzles for no reason. Kudos to whoever thought of handling the story that way, so you play through the game with no slow down.

Seeing past the e-hype the game is getting, wait until you actually try the game to form an opinion, as Dante’s Inferno is looking to be a classic for those who enjoy this genre.

Located in the Washinton D.C. area–Alexandria to be exact–MAGFest is a convention that’s all about the fans. Now, I haven’t been to MAGFest yet (this is its eighth year), but I’m told that some of what I’ll find there includes:

• Game Room: 24-hour console, arcade, portable, and table-top gaming, including tournaments throughout the weekend.
• LAN Room: BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) or jump on one of the public-use computers in the 24-hour LAN room, where you’ll find even more tournaments.
• Jamspace: A 24-hour space (are you starting to see a pattern here) with instruments that anyone can play. Relax and enjoy the music of gamers coming together from all over the country just to jam, or sign up to show off your mad skillz.
• Marketplace: If you want to buy video-game schtuff (retro games, t-shirts, art, etc), this is where you want to be. Vendors can come and go as they please during the entire convention, since the space never closes.
• Challenge Corner: Check out this area for NES, SNES, and Genesis competitions and walk away with prizes depending on how well you do.

The whole weekend, you can also check out the main stage to listen to some great music. They expect over a dozen bands and musicians this year, including A_Rival, Armcannon, Armadillo Tank, Metroid Metal, Rare Candy, The Smash Brothers, Temp Sound Solutions, This Place is Haunted, Jake “Virt” Kaufman, Overclocked Remix, and Renard.

Who else will you see there? So far, the guests announced for MAGFest 8 include Martin “LittleKuriboh” Billany, the creator, voice, and writer of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged series; Matt Mercer and Zach Grafton, creators of the hit web series There Will Be Brawl; and Jon St. John, the voice actor most notable for his role as Duke Nukem. You can also sell items at the end of the weekend at the MAGFest auction, dress up to participate in the cosplay contest, win prizes at the late-night trivia show, or take in one of the panels.

Here’s what attracts me most of MAGFest, though: This isn’t some giant con where this nameless, faceless corporation is trying to make as much money as possible. It’s a bunch of gamers who love what they do. Again, I haven’t been to a MAGFest yet, but to me, it sounds like a huge party with people who are inherently cool.

And where else in DC can you go to a New Year’s Eve party for so cheap? If you register in advance (tickets for the ENTIRE WEEKEND are just $40), you’re invited to the MAGFest New Year’s Eve party. Choose to stay in the hotel where it’s held (and you should – it doesn’t make sense not to) and you’ll pay just $99 per night. Find me a better deal. I dare you.

I can’t say enough about the guys running this event. Binge Gamer will be at MAGFest this year, and we hope to see you there too. You can even post on their website if you’re looking for someone to share a ride or room, so there’s really no excuse not to come out for the event.

Listen live below, get us on iTunes, or download the mp3 directly here

Show Notes | Topics | Related Links

GameX GameX GameX – The con, before, during, and after, feel as though you were there as we tell our tales.

NEWS:

-Leaked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Footage is Osama bin Laden Approved

-Nintendo Reveals Redesigned DSi

-Bayonetta Gets North American Release Date

-PS3 Owners Can Own Bayonetta Before Anyone Else

-Netflix Coming to PS3 (PS3 Disc Required For a Limited Time)

-DJ Hero Being Met with Resounding ‘Meh’

-Roger Daltrey Kinda, Sorta Confirms The Who: Rock Band

-Man Kills Son Over Video Game

-Hideo Kojima “Very Surprised”

-Shigeru Miyamoto Wishes You Liked Star Fox as Much as He Does

-Rumor: Assassin’s Creed III to be Set in Feudal Japan?

-Erik Estavillo Sues Sony Yet. Again.

I can tell you what I thought of the game, but instead, I thought you’d be interested to hear about it from someone who actually snowboards (as well as games). From Mike Ardoline, Binge Gamer’s special guest for the weekend:

Actions sports and video games have a tenuous relationship at best. Clearly there’s a balancing act between simulation and fantasy; think EA’s Skate versus Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage for the Wii is clearly in the vein of the latter. It has all the same complaints from the core rider’s standpoint: incorrect trick names, nonsense physics, etc. But these complaints fall away when you consider one thing: it’s actually pretty fun.

The balance board adds a great feel of real snowboarding to the game in a way that equals out the unrealistic gameplay. Once the board is calibrated to your weight distribution, it controls much like a real board. For the non-snowboarders in the audience, the majority of turning and control on a snowboard comes from the ankle and below which translates surprising well through the Wii balance board.

Sadly, the game only has a small selection of tricks and leaves out many that would have been really fun on the balance board. Basically, everything that makes this a snowboard game is greatly lacking, but the fun of the balance board aspect makes it fun enough for me to ignore that. Only play this game with a wii-mote alone if you want something to hate.

It’s nice for balance board owners to have another game to make use of that peripheral. Will it be something you play every day? Probably not. Will it be fun at parties? Absolutely. And that’s part of what the Wii is all about – getting together with friends and family to game together. I know that you Nintendo fanboys out there are cringing, but it is what it is. The Wii is finally beginning to successfully add titles to its library that satisfy its core fanbase on one level but still attract casual gamers on another level; Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage does just that.

You can pick up the game on November 8, 2009 or preorder it right now for $49.99.

Perry also tried out the game. Here are some pictures of him playing, along with screenshots:

Besides that, I had a great time talking with Hi-Rez Studios PR representative Michal Adam about the new PC MMO Global Agenda. Featuring unique character classes and several modes of play, a full write-up for the beta version that was on hand at GameX will be posted shortly.

For now, sit back and watch as I stumble through my first interview on Binge Gamer Dot Net. Thank you Perry and Mike for jumping in during the discussion.

PS – I get better at interviewing, I promise.

Even if it is World War II.

At it’s core, Making History II is a WWII strategy title, but not any ol’ run of the mill strategy game. While the typical strategy game will have you stockpiling resources to build your units, Making History II forces the player to look at the larger world picture with an economy system that takes into account everything from a nation’s wealth to trade routes and even the efficiency of one’s infrastructure. As your nation’s economy grows, you will be able to improve your military by building military bases and research facilities. Each building that you construct not only helps to improve your military, but gives your nation bonuses as well.

Trading between nations plays a large role in Making History II as well. Making allies with nations that have resources you need can bring down their prices, and you can interrupt enemy trade lanes by placing submarines in the waters to take out enemy supply freighters. Players can also disrupt other nations economies the old fashioned way: bombing cities into oblivion. By selecting particular targets in an enemy’s capital city, your air force can deal crippling blows to the adversary’s economy or military production.

Of course, warfare is no fun by yourself. Forming and maintaining alliances is key to victory, and while some alliances will come easy for your nation, the game takes into account everything from one’s common enemies and ideologies to the financial risks of going to war in determining whether or not to ally themselves with you. Likewise, alliances can be broken if you do one too many things that your allies disagree with. Your enemies will also form alliances against you.

While Making History II’s single-player is more than enough to keep players engaged for countless hours, Muzzy Lane has made an impressive push with it’s online campaign in an attempt to change the way strategy games are played online.

Let’s say that you have friends. These friends want to play with you in a game of Making History II online but you can’t sit down for a stategy game with your friends because you have to get ready for a date — just for the sake of argument! With Making History II, that is not a problem. By simply logging on to the Making History website and starting a new game, you and your friends can play through your browser and at your own leisure. When you complete a turn in your game, an email will be sent to your friend informing them that it is their turn and visa versa. While this isn’t the first video game to do this sort of thing, this is one of the first times it’s being done on a non-flash, fully-realized PC title.

Additionally, Muzzy Lane has gone out of their way to ensure that modders have as easy of a time with their custom creations as possible. A common problem for many PC mods is that once the game is given a new patch or has a new update, some features in older mods may no longer work. With Making History II, the game will draw on data from older builds to ensure the mod works properly.

The build of the game I saw was pre-Beta, with the game going into full beta sometime in November. As of now, the scheduled release date is February 2nd, 2010.

This past weekend, GameX was taken over by Steam Gear Lab and The League of S.T.E.A.M. for the Steampunk Fair. “Steampunk” mixes Victorian style with science fiction/science fantasy to create a futuristic world run by steam. That seems like a horrible clash of ideas, but somehow, it works. And it’s hot.

See? Hotness. Frankly, I think we should all dress like this all the time.

But I digress. I got the chance to hang out with the people from The League of S.T.E.A.M. on Saturday, and they made me smile. Especially when they whipped out this little contraption, which you can see the guy above (Mr. Crackitus Potts, aka Nick Baumann) wearing on his back:

That, my friends, is a cattle prod. A working cattle prod at that. Perhaps cattle isn’t the right word, though – it’s actually a zombie prod. You can’t see it in this picture, but it’s got a strobe light going and when you hold both ends, a pulse of electricity goes through you as someone cranks the other end. Yes, those are eels in a tank “powering” the contraption. Here’s another look at it, along with some pictures of James and Intern Richard getting zapped:

This zombie zapper brings up a really interesting point – steampunk is so versatile that it can crossover into multiple other genres really easily. We talked to the Steampunkers (I may have just made up that word. Is there an official word for people into steampunk?) about it, and they can fit in at so many different kinds of events. Steampunk can work at ren faires or with pirates. It can go more gothic or more “Old West” based. People extremely into LARP are interested in the weapons and armor; people who just like to cosplay are interested in the costumes. And of course, us gamers love ‘em.

Steampunk also changes how people think about role-playing in general. It isn’t just about running around with huge foam swords and costumes that are duct taped together. Once you get over the negative connotations that come with terms like “cosplay” and “LARP,” you can actually start to play with some really cool stuff. The weapons, costume pieces, and other hand-made items they showed me were incredibly detailed and took hours to create.

If you haven’t checked out any of this kind of stuff before, please do so. This isn’t a new revolution (hello, Final Fantasy fans, let’s take a walk down memory lane to FFIII), but it is one that I daresay is gaining steam. Har har.

Special thanks to all of the people in the Steampunk booth for humoring me as I brought person after person back to the table to be shocked.

…what?! We’re fans, dammit!

Of course, any audio issues are my own damn fault as I am a very quiet talker.

Keep an eye out for the rest of our GameX coverage, including previews, more interviews, hands-on impressions and a sit-down chat with Rusel DeMaria, arguably the smartest man at the entire expo.

But when Brian O’Halloran does a plug for your site, you simply can’t start anywhere else. You see, Mike spent the better part of the weekend having countless, consecutive nerdgasms every time O’Halloran walked by (you can understand why), so actually having him do this plug for this no-name gaming site is… well, it’s pretty damn awesome.

The rest of our GameX coverage, including previews, hands-on, interviews and “blog” posts from all of us there, will be coming in the next week or so. But for now… Dante.

Listen live below, get us on iTunes, or download the mp3 directly here

Show Notes | Topics | Related Links

Binge Gamer will be up at GameX !

Keep up with James Walker vs. Madden the Video Game!

RIP GamePro sites, Binge Gamer wishes you well

NEWS:

-Nintendo, 50+ Publishers Suing R4

-Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Ends, Organizers Claim False Victory

-In Our Weekly Activision Hit Piece, They’re Now Taking Kurt Cobain YouTube Videos Down

-God is Dead, Rumble Massage “developer” makes $60,000 Off Xbox LIVE Indie Game

-Fifteen Year-Old Set on Fire Over $40 Gaming Debt

-Man Steals Xbox, Drives Into Lake During Getaway, Returns Xbox and Apologizes

-StarCraft Player Loses Internet Connection, Zerg-Rushes 15-year-old Girl

-No Shit, Sherlock: Bayonetta Developer Isn’t Gay

-The Elder Scrolls Gets a Novel in November; JW Weeps in Joy

-Failed Game Designer Says DLC is Akin to “Raping the Customer”

-Mill o’ Rumour: Forza 3 Leaked?!

-Get a USB SEGA Saturn Controller For $15 (Comes with PlaySEGA Service)

-Magna Carta 2 DLC Includes Cutscenes. Fucking CUTSCENES!

-Sony Announces 250GB PS3 Slim for $350

-GameInformer FAILS! Compares Call of Duty: Reflex to Call of Duty 4

-Xbox LIVE Twitter, Facebook Preview Sign-Ups Underway

-R.I.P. Captain Lou Albano

Listen live below, get us on iTunes, or Download the mp3 here

Show Notes | Topics | Related Links

Binge Gamer will be at GameX!

NEWS:

-Bloggers Have to Disclose Free Products

-Left 4 Dead 2 Resubmitted to Austrailian Ratings Board, Not Left 4 Dead 2

-Activision Kills Shaba Games

-Conservative Publication Condemns Modern Warfare 2 for Striking Imagery

-Activision Fought Moden Warfare Idea Kicking and Screaming

-Rumor Has It that Medal of Honor is Going Modern

-UK Retail Giant sez… PSPgo will Fail. Miserably.

-PSPgo a Tremendous Success… For PSP-3000

-Fake PSPgo is More Useful than Real PSPgo

-PSPgo vs PSP-3000 vs DSi

-Forza 3 to have Launch Day DLC

-Also, Forza 3 is the “Only Racing Sim” Shipping This Console Generation

-Alpha Protocol Officially Delayed, JW weeps.

-U2 < Led Zepplin: Wants to Be in Music Games

-IGN has gone mad

-… no.. seriously