Lots of DLC

A new gears of war map pack will be released on March 31. The Snowblind map pack will cost a pretty much standard 800 Points ($10). The pack contains 4 maps with a snowey/winter theme. They include Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and a version of the the Gears 1 map Fuel depot. Epic has also stated what fixes will be in title update 3 as well as some new achievements. Check out the full list here, and it should be released by the time the map pack it released.

On April 9th the Mythic map pack for halo 3 will be released for 800 MP. This collection contains 3 maps: Orbital, Assembly, and Sandbox. I will have some map impressions sometime before they are released. There will also be some new forge items as well.

And Finally Left 4 Dead is getting a new mode (survival) plus all 4 campains becoming playable in versus. Valve said that the DLC will be out on April 21 and the best part is that it will be free.

Follow The Site On Twitter!

The blog has a twitter now! Follow at www.twitter.com/GamesInANutshell .Also follow me at www.twitter.com/corgon67 (I dont post too much).

The New E74 Hardware Error, and is This the Real RROD?

With the Red Rings of Death still hitting hard throughout the gaming community, nobody can afford anything else that can go wrong. But alas a new hardware failure called the E74 error has been spreading throughout the masses.When asked about it, Microsoft says that they really don't know the source of the error. The error has been popping up more frequently since the NXE update, and, on top of getting the failure, it's not covered in the warranty. This raises the question of "Did Microsoft change some type of code during the NXE update to change the, what we used to know as the red rings, to this new E74, so it wouldn't be covered in the warranty?" Who knows, but Microsoft should really start fixing this problem or stop making consoles that will break indefinitely. The only information that we know is that it causes 1 red light to flash and it also may be a problem with chips melting or not being connected. The only thing people can do if they get this error is to buy a new Xbox, unless Microsoft turns around and starts fixing the problem. And I highly doubt that, because Microsoft has already lost a ton of money fixing the original problem, the RRODs.

Max Payne 3 announced for 360/PS3

Rockstar has just announced their latest game Max Payne 3. The game is scheduled to be released 4th quarter this year on both the xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.

"We're starting a new chapter of Max's life with this game," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation."

To see the full press release click here.

When more information becomes avaible we will let you know.

Name change

We are going to change the name of the blog to Games in a Nutshell, the new address will be www.gamesinanutshell.blogspot.com.

IPhone Games- MGSTouch, Jelly Car, Heavy Mach

Okay, for those of you who don't know, I own an iPod Touch 2G(Jailbroken). So I'm going to review some apps. The first is Metal Gear Solid Touch. The game follows the story of MGS4, and you play as Snake. You don't move- instead you hide behind cover, and when you see an enemy, you move your finger across the screen to aim. Then you tap the screen to fire. You can "zoom in" by pulling two fingers apart on the screen. It's pretty fun, but it does get repetitive. One aspect I liked about the game is that when you kill people, you get Drebin Points. You use these points to buy wallpapers for your lock screen. I thought this was a cool feature and should appear more often.

My next game is Jelly Car. You control a 2-D car on the screen, and drive across the level. If your car flips over, you can tilt the screen to flip it upright again. The level are varied, and often require some problem solving. It's very addictive to beat your previous best time, and I have wasted many hours in this game.

Heavy Mach is a 2-D sidescroller, in which you play a tank-like vehicle, and shoot enemies shooting at you. Pretty basic. It's fun. There's no story. It looks good. The end.

Peggle on the iPod Touch- Nonexistent. I might die.

New game from the Behemoth

The Behemoth, developers of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers has just released a trailer for their newest game. It does not a have a title yet but does feature gameplay. Behemoth has also said the game is still in early development.

Here is the video:

The Behemoth - Game #3 Trailer from The Behemoth on Vimeo.

New name

The writers and I have decided to change the name of the blog, because none of us is going to stay teens forever. So, we are having a contest where you submit names for a video game blog, and if you win you will receive Half Life 2 via steam. Note: You have to have steam to win, it's free download it. Send you're submissions into corgon67, in the subject line put ATG contest. Good luck.

New on the Playstation Store!

Red Baron Arcade
Engage in the ultamate World War 1 arcade flight shooter, Red Baron Arcade. Grab the flight stick of 20 historic WWI planes and battlecountless enemies in over 36 varied levels. This will cost $9.99 and is rated T for Teen.

Qore Episode 10: March 2009
Episode 10 of Qore™: Presented by thePlayStation®Network visits the Big Surf Islandexpansion to Burnout Paradise and visits Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena developer StarbreezeStudios. Also as a thank you to annual subscribers, you will get a free code for high velocity bowling, now you have a reson not to play Wii Bowling anymore. This episode will cost the usual of $2.99, Rated RP-M


MILK
Universal Pictures
Based on the true story, Academy Award® - winner Sean Penn stars in this stirring celebration of Harvey Milk. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone proclaims it "an American classic -- 4 stars!"
To buy in SD $14.99
To rent in SD $3.99 HD $5.99
Rated R

Battlestar Galactica Season 4
NBC/Universal
Battlestar is Back! As season 4 opens, the last remnants of humanity continue their search for a new home, and the thin line that separates them from the rapidly evolving Cylons is being redrawn. Galactica's crew, rocked by Starbuck's sudden and mysterious return from the dead -- and her claims that she has been to Earth and can lead them there -- attempts to make sense of the inexplicable...
Purchase
$1.99 SD
$2.99 HD
Rated TV-14

Game / Game Add on downloads

Watchmen: TheEnd is Nigh
Rated M:Blood, Violence,Strong Language $19.99

NOBY NOBY BOY™
Rated E:Comic Mischief $9.99

Flower™
Rated E $9.99

Savage Moon™
Rated T:Blood and Gore,Fantasy Violence $9.99

Bejeweled® 2
Rated E $9.99

3 on 3 NHL®Arcade
Rated E:Comic Mischief $9.99

G TI Club+
Rated E $9.99

Magic Ball™
Rated E:Alcohol Reference,Mild CartoonViolence $9.99

Street Fighter®IV ShoryukenPack
Rated T:Alcohol Reference,Mild SuggestiveThemes, Violence $3.99

Call of Duty® 4:Modern Warfare™Variety Map Pack
Rated M:Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Strong Language $9.99

Street Fighter®IV Femme Fatale Pack
Rated T:Alcohol Reference,Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence $3.99

Prince of Persia®Epilogue
Rated T:Alcohol Reference,Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence $9.99

BUZZ!™Junior: Jungle Party
Rated E10+:Crude Humor, Comic Mischief$4.99

The Chronicles of Riddick: Demo
Rated M:Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language

BUZZ!™ Quiz TV National Geographic™:Prehistoric Pack
Rated T:Alcohol Reference, Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Mild Violence$7.99

Rock Band:All I Want -Offspring
Rated T:Lyrics, Suggestive Themes $1.99

Astro Tripper
Rated E:Mild Fantasy Violence$4.99

Wheelman Demo
Rated T:Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence

Hot Shots GolfOut of Bounds:Playable Sackboy™
Rated E:Mild Suggestive Themes $1.99

Street Fighter IV: Shadaloo Pack
Rated T:Alcohol Reference, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence $3.99

Resistance:Retribution Demo
Rated M:Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violance $Free!

Mercury Meltdown™
Guide your shimmering blob of liquid metal through acrazy cartoon world full of tricky traps and devious devices.The aim is simple: Progress through a series of wacky labs, avoid the dangers and escape without spilling your precious mercury.
$9.99View Details Rated E

italics=interesting/worth it

This week in XBLA

This week in XBLA is the stellar PC game Peggle and the Iphone App Crystal Defenders.

Peggle

Peggle is a casual puzzle/skill based game made by Popcap. The object of the game is to eliminate different colored pegs with a ball. The game somewhat of a cross between Plinko from the Price is Right and a Pachinko machine. Its very addictive and you will never want to stop playing. There is even online multiplayer as well as Leaderboards in the XBLA version. The full version is 800 Microsoft Points($10). As always there is a free trial version that you can download. Compared to the PC version, the XBLA port is even better with the multiplayer and is actually cheaper than the PC version (although its on sale now). I defintly recommend everyone to try this game. Because of its casual nature and cuteness its great for kids and mother as well.
9 pegs out of 10


Crystal Defenders

The second game out this week is Crystal Defenders. This a port of a cell phone/iphone game of the same name. It's a tower defense game made by Square Enix. If you have every played a TD game before then there is nothing special that makes this one stand out. Its very standard, place people, wave comes, kill wave, repeat. There is no multiplayer besides leaderboards. Although the price is a bit high, (800 MS points/ $10) its a good game that you can't go wrong with.
7.5 waves out of 10

Demos with Vin Diesel

In the past 2 week or so there have been lots of demo to come out on XBLM. Some good, Some bad and not 1 but 2 of them with Vin Diesel. While I suggest you check out all of the ones that interest you here is my opinion on them.

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena

First up is Riddick. This is a remake of the stellar Xbox 1 title "Escape from Butcher Bay" Now stealth games are not really my favorite but from the demo its looks like it is a great game. The graphics are great the demo is a good length and most of all its fun. It took me a bit to get used to the controls as they are not quite as similar as most FPS games. But once I got ahold of the controls its a was good time killing with the blades that Riddick carries around with him. Overall its a fun demo that you should check out if you like FPS or stealth games.

Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Second is the game demo from the hit movie Wanted. Its a 3rd person action game with a gears of wars style cover system that works really well. The demo just throws you right into the game with no introduction to the controls. After playing the demo I found out that there was a tutorial in the options menu so watch out for that. Overall the demo made me more interested in the game and was very fun. This game is definitely on my radar now. Check out the demo

Legends of Wrestlemania

The demo has only 1 match type that is single player where you play as either hogan or Andre the giant. The wrestlers themselves look great but the crowd as well as other details have awful graphics. The controls are unintuitive and slow, and are very difficult to actually use them. Most of the grapple moves consits of quick time events that leave the game very boring. I'd pass on this.

Wheelman

The second demo with Vin Diesel is Wheelman. This demo is based off of his upcoming movie of the same name. It's a driving game with really bad driving physics but for some reason its fun to play. Its a very arcade like game and has some cool idea's It does not seem like its triple A game but check out the demo for yourself.

Ninja Blade

This game is basically Microsoft's version of Ninja Gaiden. Nuff Said, Play the demo, Its awesome. For those of you who have never played Ninja Gaiden its a 3rd person hack and slash game.

Rabid's Rants- Gamestop

For those of you hailing from Sarcastic Gamer, you may see the title of this article and remember Sarcastic Gamer's feature, Rothbart's rants. Yes, I stole the name. Now shaddup.


My rant today is on Gamestop. If you're familiar with Gamestop's used game policy, you will probably understand my point of view here. So, when you buy a used game from Gamestop, if it war released, say, within the last 3 months, the used price is usually $55. $5 less than retail.

My problem with their system when you sell them a game. Say you sold them CoD: World at War today. They would be willing to pay $20-30 for it. Has it's value gone down at all since you played it? The game still works. It still has a case. The only reason I can think of for them to buy at such low prices are if the case, cover art, or manual is missing. And if any components are missing, I can't see them taking more than $10 off retail price. Yes, they need to make money to to sustain the company. But they don't need this much money. They're selling used games at a 200-275% markup from the price they bought the game at. But hey, they're the only store of their kind. So you have to buy and sell games there. So they can screw the consumer.

That is all.

Hello.

Greetings, denizens of the internet! I'm the new blogger here at ATG. Some of you might know me from the Sarcastic Gamer Forums, and other sites. For those of you who don't know me, here's some stuff about me.

I live in Atlanta, GA. Some of my interests include playing Tennis, shooting the occasional zombie, listening to music and podcasts, and posting on the Sarcastic Gamer Forums.

Here's my gamercard:

Here's my Twitter:

I recently picked up Rock Band 2 on Ebay, but it's still on it's way and therefore not on my gamercard.

That is all.

Testing...testing...

This is a test, to test the test of what I am trying to test. Please stand by...

WiiWare and Virtual Console: Gradius Rebirth, and Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

Out this week for WiiWare and the Virtual Console on the Wii. Both are side-scrollers, but Gradius rebirth is a shoot em' up, and Alex Kidd is a platformer.

Gradius Rebirth(made by Konami) will be 1000 points or $10.The game features two modes: a standard game with unlimited credits and a Score Attack mode where players are only given a single credit to beat the game. Score Attack also supports online leaderboards.The game features 5 different types of ships to choose from, and five stages in total, with each (except the first stage) having its own original boss at the end.
Gradius Rebirth plays very similarly to Gradius Galaxies. The game features enemies and artwork similar to previous titles. The power meter and text display have also been updated. The music was composed by Manabu Namaki and consists of remixed music from previous Gradius games.

Alex Kidd:The lost Stars(by SEGA) will also be 1000 points or $10. Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars features Alex Kidd and Stella searching for the twelve Zodiac signs.The game uses recycled stages, making the player go through all the stages again with increased difficulty, with bonuses in different positions.

These games do not interest me due to the fact that they are on the Wii and they are retro type games.

XBLA this Week

According to Major Nelson, The Highly anticipated game Peggle and Square Enix's Crystal Defenders is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this wednesday March 11. Both of them for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).

Watch out for a review of both games on wednesday.

New Writer

Hello, Corgon has allowed me to help write some articles on the site. Since this is my first post I just wanted to introduce myself to the readers out there (all 12 of you). I currently only own an xbox360 so most of my articles will be 360 focused. I also have an Ipod Touch so I will post any cool games or apps that I have gotten and review them. I'm 18 and finishing my senior year of high school now and then going to college for computer sciences. My gamertag is "Jordan the hobo". If you send me a friend request just tell me who you are. If you have any news tips or any question/comments whatever you may email me at Jordanthehobo@gmail.com

See you on Xbox Live.

By the way...

You won't be seeing any more of splogger666, because I fired him for being incompetent and lazy. That is all, just though you all should now.

Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack Review.

As I have told you in the last post I have gotten Halo Wars, and with Halo Wars I got the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3. And today I will review them for you.
First of all I would like to talk about the Achievements and skulls, they are way to easy to get, moving on. Texture -wise they look great, lots of detail and a huge line of sight. All the additions such as the scarabs being assembled overhead in Assembly, and the giant laser towers in Sandbox are some of the many things that make the maps entertaining.The very first map is Assembly, which is a symmetrical map and very Covenant tech tier looking. Assembly is a medium sized map that has some bad weapon spawns and regular player spawns. All the power weapons are basically in the middle and all the other team has to do to win is sit right outside the other team's base and spawn kill. Overall this map is good for almost all slayer game types, but not so much objective based games. Second is Orbital, which takes place on a UNSC space station. Orbital is an asymmetrical map that is great for CTF, Neutral bomb, and Team Swat. Orbital is not one of the great maps we were looking for, but it's good enough. Last but definitely not the least is Sandbox, the forge playground where you can delete and make anything. This is a map maker's heaven. There are 3 layers to this map, the main, the basement(or crypt), and the top which overlooks the main layer. The top layer really makes me mad, because obviously you have limited supplies, but to make a full platform that would allow you to make a proper level on this you would need more than what you have, way more. There are many new forge items with the map pack as well, such as kill balls and 7 woods. Overall the map pack is great for playing just about any game type. There are now a whole bunch of forged maps already being made, which extends the life even more than any other maps. The only let downs are the achievements, some weapon placements, and some spawn locations. But If you were on the edge of spending 10 bucks on this, then go out and buy it and support Bungie. After all, they gave out more map packs than just about any other game that is remotely good. So the final verdict is...8.5 out of 10

Expect More Soon!

I've sort of been busy in other work lately so I havnt posted alot. Expect that to change. I have recently finished Fallout 3, Fable 2, C&C Red Alert 3, Almost finished with Far Cry 2, and I recently picked up Halo Wars and the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3. And my other writer is working on COD:WaW, and Saints Row. So expect reviews and opinians for all those games and more such as DLC, like Mythic Maps, Operation Ancherage, Knotthole Island, and more.

New review scoring system for Avid Teen Gamer

If you have read my Gears of War 2 review you may see that I broke it down into subsections, that isn't going to change but I'm going to score it based on those subsections. EX:Gameplay=9 Graphics=8 and so on. Then I will average the scores and that will be the review score, I will also tell you if it should be a "Not Buy" a "Rent" a "Buy" or a "Day One confirmed"(which will be my opinion).
The subsections will be as followed: Story, Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, and Replay Value, And if it has multiplayer, then Multiplayer.
I hope this scoring system will be more In-Depth and more informational for your enjoyment, hope you like it. If you would like to say something, just post in the comments.

Hey

I just got recruited for this blog, mainly because I might get paid, I got Saints Row 2, the only thing I hate about it is that every time you try and start a mission you have to fill up a respect bar, which just closes up the plot until you beat the activities.