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If you haven’t heard the rumors yet, well your about to hear it now. There are talks about Hulu coming to PS3. Rumors have been going around for a while about Hulu coming to Xbox Live, and everyone pretty much figured it would be announced at E3. So, when there was no word about it everyone was kinda like, ooooookkkkkk??? Now, with this talk about possibly PS3 it all makes sense. There is even rumors of it coming as soon as next week!!! I mean this is a surprise but not really. Xbox has a lot going for them with their Live, but Sony is quickly catching up. Sony is adding so many features at such a quick rate. Adding Hulu adds another big advantage. I guess we will all have to see.

Whats up Gamers. Ya, I know. It has been a long time. Well, we made some changes in our roster and I have been coming up with some big plans for our future. Anyways, now I am back and to give you a report on what is new. UFC Undisputed is now out and a great addition to this new line of games. It seems to me THQ has this down packed. The moves are very smooth, graphics are sharp, the create a character is in depth, and the roster list is huge. 2010 seems to be a good year for Undisputed.
If you have played Undisputed 2009 everything is pretty much the same as far as how grabs punches and your basic movement works. The few things they did had was the dodge. It is a great addition to the game. I must say it was a little pain for me to get use to but I was never a huge into the UFC games so it took me a little while and I had it down. It also took me a little while for my first time playing to get use to what grabs did what. With the help of my little brother and tutorial, I already feel like I am a pro. Of course I wouldn’t play online yet but hey, I think I am ready for the campaign.

The graphics are mind blowing. I love how detailed they got in this one. I mean how far can we go with graphics that we haven’t reached yet? But, still the area’s are beautiful, the crowds are awesome and the fighters are amazing. Without a doubt this game is candy for the eyes.
If you like getting into detail with creating characters this is the game for you. The first thing you will notice that they have added is the nick names. Its always cool to call your guy by the name “The Destroyer”. The list may not be that huge but it isn’t too bad. From creating your guy starting with the hair, to the face, to the body all the way to touching gloves you can change so much more then what you could last year and allows you to get a true feel for your guy.

So I would say all and all, this game is not too bad. It is without a doubt an improvement from last year but as a fighting game it just still seems like it is missing a little something. It is still very new to the video game world, so for how they are starting out I see the UFC world becoming very large and getting much better in the future.

The trumpet sounds, and the soldiers stand around. The guns rise and the gun salute begins. We have a fallen hero, and it was one of the mightiest heroes of our time. LMAO. WHO CARES?!?!? Ok Xbox live on the “ORIGINAL XBOX” is historic. Big freakin deal. If you are at home and playing on a regular xbox, well guess what…….it is time to switch. Cut it out. I see it is this, it was a great time in history and it was a big change in the gaming world. But nobody plays it anymore. And if people are still using it, it is the smallest group of people in the world. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even know it was still going. I am sure that I am not the only person that didn’t know that ether. In there letter to the fans they did mention that this will effect the older games that can play on the 360. That is the only thing I can see becoming a problem or even suck a little. But, I guess it is time to get off Halo 2 and move to 3. Sorry all you old fans of the Halo franchise. But, we must all move on. This Shut down happened on April 15. Think of it this way, if they are doing this, they must have some big plans that doing this will allow them to improve on. So, with that said, dry those eyes and put those nice smiles on your face. Sunny days will come again

With the continued development of technology, we as gamers have seen changes within the industry to bring the level of visual depth into the realm of 3D but sadly with previous limitations we have seen so many failed attempts *cough Virtual Boy. For the most part 3D has been a novelty, with red and blue lense glasses we have merely been able to layer the picture so that the feel of 3D was there and yet the experience was always lacking, as you have read with Showtime’s post, Nvidia has spent time and money to develop the technology to bring this pipe dream into reality.

Coming in June Sony has developed tvs special made for 3D, Bravia LX900 and HX900/800 series will be their flagship line, with LX900 boasting 240 Hz refresh rates while their latter will have 120 Hz respectively. The hertz are important because the glasses whether from Nvidia or Sony uses active shutter technology which individually refreshes each lens at 60 hz, while it is possible to have the experience with displays at 75hz, there have been issues of flickering and shadowing with the images. Using the min. 120Hz ensures you a stable and crisp picture and allows for complete immersion into the 3D experience, I have experienced the 120 Hz both in 3D and without and find the picture to be breathtaking. 240 Hz is about as close to window quality as you can get from the reviews I have seen, all of these tvs will be 1080P to give you the consistant resolution needed to maintain crisp and clear picture.

Sony is gearing this launch in conjunction with FIFA to present their games in 3D, few Blu Ray dvds will be available during launch which include Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the PS3 will have a firmware upgrade to allow for 3D games to be played which will have some titles available on the PSN at launch plus already released title Avatar which utilized the 3D technology in the movie in the game to be the first next gen game to be created using 3D technology.

Being the 13th installment in the franchise, FF13 sets the bar once again with the intergration of cutscene quality graphics that seemlessly blend from either cinematics or battle sequences into actual gameplay, like we have seen prior with FF7 utilizing a 3D evironment and FF10 which incorporated speech and stunning visuals to now FF13 which brings the series into HD. With so few games out on the market right now with the ability to play in full 1080P, Square Enix wanted to push the envelope even more and further emerse the player not only with their ability to tell epic fictional stories with engaging characters but to visually captivate the players in a world that only HD can bring.  

For me however this is where the fantasy ends…..

Having played the game’s 30+ hours of main story line I am left feeling neglected, the first 10 chapters made me feel as if I was playing a digital soap opera with bouncing from party to party and once I began to make a connection with the characters I am yanked once again back to the other ones who for the first couple minutes I am trying to figure out where I left off with them. I can see how Square Enix either tried to make you feel more emotionally connected to each one or wanted to tie in everyone’s “fate” by having different storylines eventually converge, this for me however made the main story dissolve into this emotional net of…..well emotions.

The battle system has been stream lined and simplified by having the other two party members be controlled by the computer which pending on their roles would cast spells or heal when certain requirements were met, for instance ravagers (mages) would focus fire on whomever the commando (warrior) was attacking. Square Enix brought in the Paradigm system which lets you switch roles of the party mid battle and refreshes the ATB meter making the new spells and abilities immediately available to use, this is new to the series in while no one character is locked into a certain role for the remainder of the game. This adds a new dynamic to the battle sequences that forces the player to adapt and change fighting styles in order to over come certain fights. One downfall of the Paradigm system is that if you switch any of your three characters with new people, all your paradigms reset…. /wirst Square Enix.

Leveling is also solely dependant your progression through the Crystarium (Sphere Grid ~ FF10)  which means that numeric levels are no longer displayed but your attributes and abilities come from gathering Crystal Points (CP) after battle and making your way through 10 levels of this rather pleasant looking, multi tiered grid. For the first 9 chapters your characters are only allowed access to their primary roles, then when you get to chapter 10 every role becomes unlocked for every character, they tied this into the story which was a nice change of pace instead of just saying “ok here’s everything now grind it out”. Once you have sufficiently leveled your characters enough the real game begins, meaning that you can develop more paradigms and approach battles in different ways.

One thing that needs to be brought up is the learning curve, from chapter 11 on fighting monsters has become less of a encounter/autofight/rewards to now paying attention to what your fighting and how your party is setup. Gran Pulse is brutal, Fang and Vanille make mention of this and Square Enix makes you remember it with every death from almost every encounter you have when you first touch down, this is a nice break from the repetitious grind you did on Cocoon. The scoring system after the end of each fight adds to the many hostilities you will find on the planet below, the higher the rating the more likely you will have of aquiring better drops from mobs, but in order to get a better rating you need to fight better. This cycle is viscious and unrelenting but once you get further into your Crystarium there is a innate pleasure of having your battles go from 2+ min down to 10+ sec.

The summons in the game are well put together and their backstory is beautifully laid out but you can only summon the Eidolon of whoever you have control of, so in order to see each one, there will be alot of switching. Aquiring each summon is much like in FF10 where you had to fight them, but each one had a different set of attributes that filled their “Gestalt” meter which initially allows you to take control of them and then form there on will allow for a seperate set of actions and abilities in combat.  

Final Fantasy 13 delivered on what it promised, a beautiful experience with characters that had more emotion to them, if the story wasn’t so broken initially then I would have enjoyed the game more but for the most part this is what I have come to expect from Square Enix, 30+ hours for straight play through to finish the main story line, the side quests and missions along with the trophies will have your playtime maxed out in no time.

Hello “ha!” community, this is “The-Problem” here with my first post ever for Host-Advantage. In today’s topic we will be taking a step into the game development world discussing the UDK (Unreal Development Kit). The Unreal Engine 3.0 is a game engine developed by epic games and is currently regarded as one of the top game engines available. Now thanks to the easily accessible UDK, anyone can take advantage of the Unreal Technology to do almost virtually anything they please. In today’s post I want to inform all you gamers out there about what the UDK has to offer, so you can start making your own games! Also I currently have an Associate’s Degree in “Video Game Simulation & Development” and I am currently pursing my Bachelor’s Degree at New England Institute of Technology. Therefore I have some personal experiences with the UDK that I would like to share as well.

Why UDK?
There are many game engines out there so some of you may be thinking, why UDK? Well aside from me telling you it’s the most “ballin” engine that I have ever encountered, I could hit you with some facts… Epic Games was awarded Game Developer Magazine Front Line Awards: Best Engine (2009), Develop: Best Engine (2009), Develop: Best Tools Provider (2008), NCTA: Top Industry Driven Technology of the Year (2008), Game Developer Magazine Front Line Awards: Hall of Fame (2008), and many more. I could be here all day listing all of the awards that the Unreal Engine has received, I just wanted to prove the point that the same tool that is used by many successful developers in the game industry is easily accessible by you… so why not take advantage? Due to its popularity, there are plenty of resources out there to get you started. So many resources in fact, that I will recommend to all of you who are interested to get started ASAP! Even if you aren’t familiar with programming code there are many things you can do in the editor itself. By going through tutorials and browsing the forums anyone is highly capable of creating a solid game using this state of the art technology.

Key Features Found In UDK

Multi-threaded rendering system – Gemini.
64-bit color High Dynamic Range rendering pipeline.

Animation.
Putting art assets into motion.

Audio.
Cross-platform support for sounds and music.

Physics.
Rigid bodies, ragdolls, vehicles, and physics-based animation.

Gameplay scripting – Kismet.
Designer-driven system for creating complex sequences of events and actions.

Cinematics – Matinee.
Track-based keyframing system for controlling movement and modifying properties.

Particle effects – Cascade.
Artist-driven system for creating particles and emitters.

Editing tools – UnrealEd.
Suite of tools for working with various aspects of the content creation pipeline.

Online – Networking and Multiplayer.
Cross-platform and platform-specific features for online experiences.

Integrated programming language – UnrealScript.
A fully object-oriented Java-like language with special game-specific features.

Big Titles Developed By The Unreal Engine

The Unreal Engine has been used to create many successful projects that I am sure you have heard of. These projects consist of titles such as “Unreal Tournament” (obviously), “Gears of War”, “BioShock”, “Batman Arkham Asylum”, and many more.

Here is a clip show casing a few big named titles developed with the Unreal Engine

How To Get It?

Now that you’ve seen some of the great things UDK has to offer your probably wondering, “How do I get it?”. Well luckily enough on November 2009, Epic Games decided to release the UDK to the general public. You can easily obtain this powerful engine by downloading it at http://www.udk.com/download. According to the current EULA, game makers can sell their games by paying Epic a fee of $99, and 25% of all revenue above $5000. Although it is very easy to obtain…. a downfall is that the UDK does require that you have a pretty decent machine to run it.

The spec requirements are as follows:

Minimum:
• Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
• 2.0+ GHz processor
• 2 GB system RAM
• SM3-compatible video card
• 3 GB Free hard drive space

Recommended for Content Development:
• Windows Vista 64 SP2
• 2.0+ GHz multi-core processor
• 8 GB System RAM
• NVIDIA 8000 series or higher graphics card
• Plenty of HDD space

UDK Resources

Once you get the UDK installed the first thing your going to need are resources to look at so that way you can learn the engine. The best way to start is by looking through the 177 video tutorials released by epic games located at http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/VideoTutorials.html.

What’s up people, ok well I’m goina just say it like this GoW3 (God Of War 3) is the nastiest game because of many reasons. One, game play is just crazy. I mean u have the first game with the story line ( I’m not goina say anything about story line jus incase people haven’t played the game) and it was great it really was.

Graphics where little crappy but all was well when GoW 1 came out. GoW 2 has another great story line and great game play.  With this god of war game, it was the first to be on the playstation 3 AND IT SHOWS, lol. I mean the story was just crazy, it picked up where the second one left off as it should’ve did, and it was great when it came to the story line. If the graphics don’t just blow you out of the water with this game then u shouldn’t b playing, lol.

I mean the only bad thing, THE ONLYYYYY bad thing about this game was that the length of this game or story was about the same length of the second game. And I know what everyone is like “Wait!! This disk was on Blueray. This game should be a lot longer.” Well it’s not. But if the f***ing  intro and outro  doesn’t blow your  f***ing  mind you won’t even care on how long the game is. I mean it’s not really short but it’s the perfect length of the GoW games. In conclusion, it is a well put together game, I fell in love with it when I played it, and  if your a GoW fan like me, then why haven’t you beat the game yet!!!!  I mean what game can you kill everyone, and be the GODD!!!! Of WARRR!!! , n f***b****** in it hahahahaa  FIVE STAR GAME!!!!

WOW!!! It has been too long since a post. I know I know it has only been a week, but a week too long people. I will never leave you out in woods again. Even in the tropical forest of Lost Planet 2.  Let me tell you this game is just as good as the first so far, if not better. I know it is hard to say that from a trial but, OMG. And I played it in 3D!!!!

The first thing I noticed was the nice controls. Now I am talking about the PC version so lets hope that the console, is just as smooth. Moving the guy around bushes and branches was nice and quick and didn’t have any problems at all aiming and getting around enemies.

The next thing I fell in love with was the graphics. If you played the first one you know that it wasn’t shy from doing details in what it had to do with the graphics. But with this one it seemed like they had a point to prove. The game is very detailed, smooth, and very fluid.  Walking through the forest and watching the leaves and grass move around your character and around your team is awesome.

If you wanna jam with some friends they have a few different modes you can choice from. You can play 4 player Co-Op and 16 player battle. In the 4 player Co-Op campaign, it is broken up into Episodes which are broken up into smaller chapters. Doing this allows more boss fights which they broke up into mini-bosses along with main stage big bosses.  As far as the 16 player competitive mode it will allow you to get into pretty much what they have already in the first Lost Planet.  There will be Team Elimination and Post match. There are newer modes that will be appearing like last-stand-style mode where you have to battle a huge boss. These modes will be fully customizable from maps, game modes, and weapons. The character customization is bananas. Everything is carrying over with an added ability to change clothes and skins.

With these carry overs along with the new additions; this game is going to be able to hold its own. If you are into very fast pace games with beautiful graphics, lots of customization and great game play Lost Planet 2 will be the game for you. Stay tuned for this game and it will be hitting the shelves May 11^th of 2010.

Official  Website:

http://www.lostplanet2game.com/index_us.html#/home

I like to say good evening gaming world!!!!! Let me tell you a little secret…..NVidia is amazing. They are bringing back 3d. This little kit they have for sale is nuts. Now I am a 3d hater but once I got my hands on the NVidia 3d Vision, it blew me away.

First thing you notice is that it is not your typically, old style 3d glasses. No more red and blue paper glasses. I mean I wouldn’t wear these babies out side or anything but they are pretty nice. They are comfortable and not a pain to look through. The glasses have an internal battery and lasts up to 40 hrs and take only a couple of hours to charge. It uses a usb cable (which comes with it). The nose piece is also changeable to help make the comfort more adjustable.

The main thing you need to run these great glasses is a 120Hz monitor. There are only two PC monitors you can by that have this which is sold by Samsung and Viewsonic. Along with the monitor you need a Dual-core processor, a NVidia card that is a 8800 series or higher, and your computer has to have some good powerful graphic power. This is important because just say you run at 30 frames per second already. Having this kit hooked up will cut that down. There are as of right now 350 games that will work great with the kit. As of right now the kit can support 2-way SLI and is looking to be able to support higher in the near future.

The complete kit which comes with a pair of glasses, the transmitter, dvi to hdmi cable two usb cables a cloth and glasses case, comes to a total cost of $199.99. If you want any additional glasses, they cost $149.99 ea. A little pricey? Well look at it this way, you get the 3D graphics from the IMAX in your home. The technology that is being used is called “Stereoscopic Vision”. Google it. Pretty cool technology. So, if you like things looking like it is going to come out your screen and blast you right in the face with a rocket, I suggest getting this kit. That is of course if your PC can handle it >_<.

What’s going on tonight fellow gamers? Well, I am here to talk to you about the new Nintendo DSi XL. Nintendo decided to take there famous Nintendo DSi and try to make it lager. The XL’s screen size is 4.2″ on both bottom and top with the old DSi only being 3.25″. So the screen size is a dramatic difference, what didn’t change was the screen resolution. What this causes is a loss in picture quality. It looks a little bit more blocky then the older DSi.

All the buttons on the XL is the exact same size as the older DSi. The only thing that changed was the size of the screen and the casing. Having the XL be larger makes it a little bit harder to hold compared to the DSi so it is more for someone that wants to game while at home. A good thing about the XL tho is the Pen size. They made it larger to make it easier to hold.

A few more things they added to the system is the 3 stop locations of the screen. This is good to help with glare and just makes it easier to make yourself a little bit more comfortable. There are also larger speakers, so the sounds does seem to come out a bit louder. Last but not least, is the glossy cover and matte bottom. I am a fan of glossy but the problem with it is that it is very hard to keep it free of finger prints. The matte bottom is great for helping it stay in your hands.

So over all, is it better the the smaller DSi? It all depends on how you game. If you like to travel and like to keep your stuff small and more compact, stick with the regular DSi. But, if size doesn’t matter and you would like to look at a larger screen the XL is a pretty good choice. This is Mr.Showtime filling you in with what is going on and what is hot. Stay tuned and check us out for more.