Mr. Zurkon is bored.I have an opinion, look, don't roll your eyes at me

Gearbox have finally announced the last and biggest downloadable content pack for Borderlands, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. The biggest news in the level cap raise to 61, so we all get another 11 skill points to spend. Expected to be around 800 .

• Continuation after completion of the original Borderlands story arc
• Can be played on 1st and 2nd playthrough
• Increased level cap to 61
• A new skill point for each level up (11 new skill points)
• Level 60 Weapons
• New environment with several new areas
• More animated NPCs
• New enemies
• Three new vehicles: the Monster, the Racer, and the Lancer
• 40+ brand new missions
• New weapons and items, including new, larger, treasure chests
• “More Scooter” (Vehicles and Character)
• Pearlescent rarity weapons

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Update: It would appear that the content was waiting for the title update to pass certification, so the content is due up on xbox live today along with the content.

Pies, pies and more pies. I was drawn to this XBLA game by the silent movie-esque art style and the fact its a 2D puzzle platformer. Having downloaded the demo and taken it for a spin, I am sorely tempted to convert to a sale. Closest comparison I can think of is Braid with Clanks time puzzles from Ratchet and Clank’s: A Crack in Time. Whilst this game doesn’t have the refinement of Braid, it certainly works well given the art style.

You play a Ebenezer Scrooge type character, who must have and eat all pies, till he happens across 1 pie that is alive. Your quest for this most elusive pie sees you tearing apart the fabric of time and hence why you can time clone yourself, this aids in the completing of the puzzles. The only thing that has me worried, is just how insanely complex I could imagine the puzzles getting. I shall certainly be going back to take the demo for another spin, before I see if its worth the 800 .

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Came across a shaky cam video of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 gameplay. All I can say is I want very much NOW! The comments over at Joystiq definitely had me going with a feeling of nostalgia. According to the all knowing wiki, Sega has had this in production for the last 16 years, or at least that when we got the last official (read: not shit) version.

Leaked Footage video after the break

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Heavy Rain or the demo at least gave rise to something I haven’t felt in a long time whilst gaming and it took me awhile to place it, Alone in the Dark from the old PC days. Both titles have the same dark sinister environments, lighting effects and slow movements. What did immediately strike me was the parallels with Blade Runner the film. Lots of rain, dark apartment environments, main characters all seem to be detectives of one sort or another, even down to the use of origami as a clear identifier or symbol (I could go on).

Right from the opening credits you get a very clear impression that this is going to be a visually engrossing high-def experience. It plays more as a interactive movie than a third person platformer. You have to do all the movements for the character you are controlling (of which there are two in the demo). You have to move the right thumb stick in certain directions, a common one is sideways, then downwards in a circular motion. There is even swirling dialogue choices, designed to make it seems like there is loads of ideas swimming around in your brain. It’s certainly a unique control scheme, during game play you get an idea of the complexity of what Quantic Dream has tried to do and for large part I think they have succeeded. This all helps to draw you into the roll of your character and even worry about them, like the fight scene between the asthmatic private eye you are controlling and the thug beating on a prostitute. During the scene you have to be quick on the buttons and sticks as the indicators flash on screen, your obviously not supposed to get them all just like a real fight, but I very quickly became worried as the fight started to drag out that my man was going to have an asthmatic attack.

This game has the full potential to be a genre defining game on console market, I think it will have to go into my collection as one of those must haves, even just purely on the experience aspect of the game. Whilst it could be said to not be everyone’s cup of tea, there is a demo and yes you should try it, I eagerly await its release.

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It’s somewhat sad that I never finished Fallout 3. I really enjoyed it, but the amount of time required to get anything accomplished in the game usually ran into a couple of hours, so whenever I was wanting to play something, it tended to stay on the shelf because I couldn’t guarantee the hours required at any one sitting. So the question remains, where is my new Elders Scroll game? I mean what gives Bethesda.

I was lucky enough to attend a press preview and interview for the up coming game: Just Cause 2. I never played the first title so the obvious playability of the title was an immediate draw. I happened upon the above video, the game has just gone from a probability to an instant pre-order. Note to developers: Gain an extra sale, include flyable Harriers. It’s now a question of how quickly I can get my hands on the Harrier. The open world, do what you want appeals to the Crackdown addict in me, if they had included orbs, I might not play another game, EVER!

Ubisoft’s recent announcement of the next iteration in the Ghost Recon Series, has left me somewhat perplexed. The die hard Ghost Recon community has been screaming to return to the old ways and to drop the advanced warfighter gimmickry. Ubisoft tried to allay the fears of the community by telling us that development was back in the hands of the original developers: Redstorm. So it comes as something of a surprise that the announcement states that Ubisoft Paris Studios is developing the pc, 360 and ps3 versions. They said

A big title like Ghost Recon: Future soldier requires a multi-talented team. By bringing in Red Storm to work with our Paris studio we will combine a mix of talents, cultures, and experiences to GRFS. Also, Red Storm’s experience with previous Tom Clancy games will prove to be a valuable addition to the project. Source

So why two totally different teams are involved in the development is beyond me, Ubisoft Paris were responsible for the deviation from the realistic shooter into the arcadey style that the community eventually grew to loathe. Advanced Warfighter was one of the first shooters on the new generation consoles that wasn’t a hash job, a community rallied around it, but once COD: Modern Warfare launched it was only the die hard community left playing, this brought the lack of realism and longevity to the forefront and even the numerous DLC packs weren’t enough to bride the community to stay.

So then we have to pull apart the announcement, obviously Redstorm were involved in the start of the development. I have to wonder if Ubisoft executives decided that development was main stream enough and wanted to head towards the futuristic modern warefare gameplay style of run and gun, the instant appeal gaming that goes against grain of the Ghost Recon community desire for realism.

Disappointed.

Been taking a look at the open video standard and the various encoder tools, here is a little demo encoded using the command line tool from ffmpeg2theora.

Took me awhile to figure out that Firefox wants the extension to be ogg rather than ogv, but rather impressed with the quality for a tiny utility, shame there isn’t a GUI for it, but I’m sure someone will build one in time, the above file was converted from a 720p source. And for those safari users out there that can’t view the video, go download a secure browser that doesn’t shit all over open standards.

Firefox 3.6 is out, everyone update and stick a picture in the background of your browser, I am using the brushed metal one, its rather nice.

I have also just pre-orders Darksiders, I was lucky enough to be invited to the press preview of the title and well, thats how much it rubbed off on me, that the pre-order is in.