Gaming is a part of life. If anyone from our generation tries to deny that, they are living a lie. We have many new and exciting things on the horizon this summer and early fall. So as we all gear up for the Dark Knight premier, I will give you info on what you should be playing right now.
If you own a Playstation 3, and as I will explain later, you cannot afford not to, you must play Metal Gear Solid 4. I know I have mentioned this title in past articles, but due to work restrictions, I have only just recently completed the one player campaign. I am a follower of this franchise and have been with it since its inception in 1988. I have been a gamer since just slightly before that time and can say that after twenty years, this game has more epic moments and by far the greatest final boss battle I have ever experienced. I know these are bold statements to make, but I assure you, they are justified. If you don’t own a PS3, this may be a reason to get one.
The Playstation 3 is a piece of hardware far ahead of its time and as the years go by, it will be more and more appreciated. To give you more reasons to buy a PS3, Batman Begins and Batman: Gotham Knight have been released on Blu-Ray this week. Batman Begins is stunning in High Definition, but also the new release uses the Blu-Ray technology to its full extent. As you may remember, the DVD uses tech which allows for the possibility of audio commentary during viewing. What this allows is for the user to watch the film in its original theatrical release, then watch it again with the voice of the director cutting in and letting him or her know about interesting little tidbits involving the production. What Blu-Ray does is take this to the next level. Because of its high density and multiple layers, Blu-Ray discs can do roughly the same thing except, instead of audio, it is video. It works much like a pop up video where you hear what the director has to say and also things like, storyboards and deleted scenes. It is a nice feature in the Batman Begins release. Pick it up.
Most Blu-Ray disc players will cost you around $500 and that is quite steep for a video player. Again, my recommendation is a PS3. The PS3, with your internet service, can browse the internet, buy games and download movie trailers from the Playstation store, pair up any Bluetooth device, use your SD card from a camera to view and email images, or just hook up your camera via the USB 2.0 interface. Oh yeah, did I mention it was also a Blu-Ray player? All for as low as $400. Now come on? How can you pass it up? Oh sorry, it also plays the most up to date and premier video games.
To switch gears for awhile, for those of you who do not have a PS3, but are an XBOX man, there has been some interesting developments on XBOX live. Just released to XBOX Live arcade is a classic arcade title and for a measly 800 Microsoft Points, you can have Wolf of the Battlefield Commando 3. That isn’t the best part. Attached with the download is a beta version of Street Fighter 2: HD Remix. This beta only allows you to play as Ryu and Ken, but it is Street Fighter in high definition! It is brilliant visually and physically. I cannot wait for the official release. Get it today and lets meet up and play!
Finally, this week celebrated Bungie Day. It is a day celebrating the company that brought us the highly successful Halo franchise. On this day they provide us with some free gamer pics and a theme to download, but not only that, a new map! Yes a free map! The map titled, ‘Cold Storage’ is a remake of the map, ‘Chill Out’, which gained much popularity from its splitscreen multiplayer version in Halo: Combat Evolved. It is a remake of a classic and a great play. Get on live and let the bandwidth roll!
That is all I have for now. Get to the theaters this weekend to watch Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, and Journey To The Center of The Earth. These should keep you going until the Dark Knight premier next week. Keep on chewing!
-T