UT3 and COD4 PC Demos Available Now!!

The single player demo for Call of Duty 4 and the Unreal Tournament 3 demo are now available for download. UT3 is available through fileplanet, and COD4 is available here.

If you want to know if your system will run UT3, check out this in-depth benchmarking story from PC Perspective.

According to Fileplanet, UT3 is still scheduled for a November release. COD4 is definitely releasing on November 6th.

Enjoy!

Halo 3 - All skulls and Marathon Man

This is an additional Halo 3 Video showing the location of ALL skulls (Gold and Silver) and the terminals for acquiring the Marathon Man achievement.

If you want to find these on your own, then DO NOT WATCH THIS!

Have fun!!

Halo 3 Matchmaking Patch Available Now!

Bungie has released a patch today on Xbox Live for Halo 3's matchmaking system. The big fixes are listed below. Glad to see less Shotty Sniper!!

Big Team Battle matches are now 16-player affairs.
In the Team Slayer playlist, the appearance of Shotty Snipers has been greatly reduced.
Now, when players veto Shotty Snipers, the game that results from the veto will not be Shotty Snipers.
In one-sided VIP matches, the attacking team will now see a waypoint for the VIP they are hunting.
In Lone Wolves, Slayer gametypes will appear more frequently.

Always good to see a developer respond quickly to player feedback. Thanks Bungie!

What It Means To Be A UK Gamer

I like the rain. I like the steady drumming on the window as I sit inside, warm and dry, with a warm cup of coffee. After looking out for a while, I turn to my TV. “Shaun of the Dead” I think, and I pop in Simon Pegg’s comedy classic. Some of our films are pretty good. And, on the way to university, I actually quite enjoy having time to think as the bus waits in traffic.

I deal with a lot living in the UK, and I’m happy to do it. I’m not nationalistic, but I like living here and I am happy to put up with a few relatively small issues to continue doing so. Constantly, though, I’m pained and frustrated by the raw deal that our island receives from the videogame industry.

Today, you readers from the other side of the ocean can peek into my life. Here is a small glimpse of “what it means to be a UK gamer…”

…you are hated by Nintendo (and pretty much everybody else). Whenever they can, Nintendo likes to slyly kick the European markets. The virtual console is a disgrace; we are refused access to all the games of other markets and are instead drip-fed the same damaged goods you bought years ago (see point 3). Sony think of us as simple, suggestible idiots as demonstrated by such comments as “Europeans…they don’t mind [delays],” as said by Sony VP Jamie MacDonald. America’s Xbox Live has much more to offer then the UK’s equivalent. Yeah, cheers for that Microsoft.

…you will tolerate getting things late. If you thought waiting for a Japanese game to make it to the US was bad, you should try waiting months more on top of that. Heck, Super Paper Mario was released in the US (in a language the UK could read) and then it went to Japan. Finally, six months later, the game arrives on our shores after taking the long way around the world.

…when you finally get the game you see no effort has been made to get it working on your PAL television. Big intrusive borders are the weapon of choice to tear apart what was a perfectly good game. Sonic the Hedgehog, rather ironically, is an example of impaired speed in video games – the second sin of rushed PAL ports. There was a video on Youtube which compared the two with shocking effect. You may not think this is much of an issue, but you will begin to understand when you read the last point:

…you are treated like this and you pay more for the “privilege”. Nintendo DS games are double the price of those games sitting on shelves in the US. 30%, 40%, or 50% extra added to the bill for a game’s bastardised form?! This is seriously wrong.

Sadly, not all the blame must go to developers. Sony’s entertaining misreading of the UK audience as quoted in the first paragraph only comes from an analysis of sales figures. In the business world, the pound (or the dollar) is all that counts. We keep buying these games with silent hopes that things will change. If you really want things to change for the better, though, then these hopes cannot remain silent. We need to raise our voices! The customer is always right, after all. If you don’t like to shout, then you can make a massive noise by keeping your money in your pocket.

Don't buy and they will stop selling.

Adam Montgomery

SPOILER Alert!! - Halo 3 "Believe" Campaign Concludes

If you have not finished the campaign in Halo 3, DO NOT WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW. However, if you have finished the final fight (including watching the entire credits) then this is pretty much required viewing.

This video is a true postcript to the game's finale. The "Believe" campaign has been a very good one and has actually offered some powerful moments worthy of a feature film's marketing campaign.

Now, do you "Believe" in Halo 4?

Assassin's Creed Collector's Set Unveiled

The Assassin's Creed Collector's Set has been revealed, and it includes a beautiful 12 inch tall figure of the game's lead character, Altair. My wife would never go for having this thing placed anywhere in our home. Unless I could possibly convince her that Altair is a veiled allusion to the founding of her favorite company...Apple Computers. Rent "Pirates of Silicon Valley" if you're lost.

I must admit, the thing does look supercool, but I am kind of getting sick of developers throwing in useless extras to pry another twenty, thirty or seventy dollars from our pockets. Just give me a great game that lasts longer than 10 hours and I'm cool.

Adam Montgomery joins the GameJonez Blog staff.

I'd like to take this opportunbity to welcome a new addition to the GameJonez Blog writing staff. Adam Montgomery has written articles for UK magazines and websites on the subjects of Interactive Entertainment and film.

Adam will provide us with his views on gaming and film and whatever else he feels the urge to explore on a weekly basis starting tomorrow. Being born and raised in Britain, he offers North American readers a view from the perspective of a UK gamer.

Below is a sample of Adam's work for you to enjoy. It is a "review" of Gears of War. Tomorrow, he will offer his thoughts on "What It Means To Be A UK Gamer".

Welcome aboard Adam!

Tiberius Jonez

Gears of War Review

Your feet step across the blood-stained floor. Cover is needed. You duck your head and slam your shoulder into the base of a statue. Even in the heat of battle, fate affords you a show of irony; this stone figure of mankind’s civilised age now standing as refuge to the regiments of man’s armies. War can make you smile, sometimes.

Smiling is just for the living though, so stay alive. In Gears of War, staying alive is all about taking cover, an action natural after a moments practice. Your soldier’s desperate jog towards cover is a reckless thrill with enemy fire sweeping toward your location, missing by a thin margin as you successfully drop behind the defence of a small wall. Sheltered, the game’s satisfying tactical element comes to life as you must quickly grasp the layout of the area and the location of your adversaries and assailants. Knowing this, you can move productively. It’s not one-hit kills here, but dashing blindly into a pack of enemies will end only in death. If you come under fire then quickly get covered and get your bearings; cut that sod to pieces later.

Carving up the enemy, possible only in close quarters, is a rather detailed, graphic affair. More disturbing is the pleasure of these murders; chainsaw killing is one of gaming’s great joys. Technically, the visuals are an achievement. Detailed and weighty to an impressive level, Gears of War may be the pinnacle of apocalyptic, gritty renditions of earth in game history.

The world you battle on is torn to pieces. You’re fighting in a war here, not waging a one man assault, and you see your team live and die on your flanks -- often in one of the game’s spectacular set pieces. It is a shame that same effort could not be spent crafting a world which felt new, rather than what here feels slightly stale. Marcus Fenix, protagonist-at-work, is similarly lacking: another generic space marine for gaming, seen again and again.

With a dull plot which comes to a rather abrupt end, it is fortunate Gears has such an enjoyable multiplayer aspect. The artificial intelligence is no substitute for the tactical possibilities when playing with friends, which truly puts a feeling of teamwork and support into the gameplay. As the high profile release of the year, Gears does a good job in promoting the strengths of the Xbox 360 as a console, particularly the online capabilities of the machine.

Enjoyable though it may be, Gears of War may be worrying to some. With narrative and characters as shallow as they are here, some will question whether the new generation of consoles can offer anything above another step towards ‘Hollywood realism’? Asking such questions here is pointless, Gears is clearly without care for such matters and does offer more than just a visual appeal. However, an audience of both sexes exists that wants more than just blood ‘n’ guts gameplay, and a march towards only bigger and better graphics seems to be a march away from them, and this issue should be put into the spotlight.

Criticising elements such as this is criticising but a small part of Gears, which remains a fantastic action game. ‘War can make you smile’ was the point this prose began with. Gears of War will give you the brightest smile of all.

Adam Montgomery

Writers Guild to recognize Video Game Writers

The Writer's Guild of America announced last week that they will honor the top writers from the world of video games during their annual awards ceremony beginning with their next award presentations in February 2008.

While in the public consciousness this is not the Academy Awards, it is the equivalent in terms of stature for writers. Recognition of writing excellence in video games from such an organization is a tremendously positive sign that interactive media is indeed breaking new ground in terms of broad recognition as a legitimate art form.

For more information or to learn how to present someone for award consideration, see the full story from the WGA here.

Halo 3 - Job Well Done!

For those of you in a hurry I'm not going to waste a lot of words giving you my opinions of Halo 3. No, instead, I am going to sum up the best way I know. Simply put, Halo 3 has surpassed almost every high expectation I had for it before release.

Graphically, it is a stunning game, especially in terms of set pieces. Many of the areas in which you find yourself cause you to take pause, in slack- jawed awe. Your first experience in Mombasa is a glorious gaming moment to be sure. Other times, you'll be joyfully going along laying waste to countless enemies, when you'll unintentionally look up into the sky only to be caught up in the splendor of an aerial battle taking place many miles above the planet's surface.

Halo 3 does a great job of offering a tailored experience as well. If you are a shooter noob who has never touched a controller, you can still beat the game on the "Easy" difficulty level. And if you are a well-worn veteran of countless fragfests you will still find a mighty challenge in the "Legendary" difficulty level.

My only complaints about Halo 3 are pretty nitpicky things. Some of the level design (I'm looking at you Cortana) is a little confusing and some of the faces of your human allies aren't exactly up to par with the rest of game's graphics. But really, other than that, there is not a whole lot to complain about with Halo 3.

Multiplayer is an absolute blast. 4 Player cooperative play through the campaign is fantastic fun. Matchmaking is everything gamers have come to expect from the Halo franchise...in other words, it is unparallelled. The new theater options allow for after-the-fact viewing of complete play sessions, repleat with options for fast forwarding, rewinding, viewing from any angle and editing and saving for later sharing with friends via Xbox Live. It truly is a feature that should find it's way to all online multiplayer games.

As a fan of the original Halo who was sorely disappointed with Halo 2, I can tell you that Halo 3 has been a thrilling ride and I am impressed with the job Bungie has done delivering an engrossing story, fabulous settings, excellent gameplay and options galore. If this truly is the end for Master Chief, I don't think he could have wished for a much better send off.

Why The $&#@ Do You Read This Blog?

I have been away for the better part of the past 6 weeks. I won't get into a lot of details, but I've had some health concerns (I am going to be fine) and I live in Minneapolis, where people's minds have been on the tragic bridge collapse of last week. Best wishes to anyone affected by this shocking incident.

First, a recap of what has happened in the world of gaming since I last posted a meaningful story.

GTA4 was delayed, the PS3 price was dropped (sorta), and now the Xbox 360 price has been dropped (see the picture above). It looks like MGS4 will be coming to the XBox360 5 to 6 months after the PS3 release. See here. And COD4 and Fallout 3 look like games to own. The former very soon, and the latter sometime next year. Recap done.

Now that I am back, I (more accurately, my wife) made an interesting discovery. It seems I've had more visits to this blog during the 6 weeks I've been M.I.A. than in the 6 weeks previous to that time.

3...

2...

1...

OK, now that you're done laughing, I have to ask the question? Why? Why are you here? Why did you come here? Do you plan to come back? Did your search for Viagra somehow send you here? Do you like the blog? Is it informative, opinionated or interesting to you? Does it suck? I really must know!

You see, I have no desire to rule the world or even to be famous but what I would like to do is carve out my own little niche in this internet thing and be able to at least support my love of games and continue to be able to share my opinions with you fine people. In order to do that, I have to get some kind of handle on what draws visitors here, what makes them stay, and what makes them use the limited advertising we employ.

What do you think of our ads? Should we have more? Should we have less? We can't have none unless you're going to start sending us cash, so let me know what kind of ads you do like or dislike if you wish. Would you be inclined to buy from merchants we advertised, and if so, why?

One thing I do try to do is only advertise companies I actually use or that I have used in the past with good results. So, while you might see ads for companies like GameFly, TigerDirect and Netflix (love 'em), you won't normally see ads for Gamestop or Blockbuster (loathe 'em).

One last thing, do you enjoy Blogger? Should I use a different hosting service? If so, why? I like Blogger, and it's free. It's not perfect, but what is?

I'm not going to go much more into this now. I want to hear from you, the readers.