Unreal Engine, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

- Juthan via Kotaku

Its MGS4 week, for many fans (yours truly included) we have been waiting with great anticipation what could be the greatest game in the series that created the stealth genre. Yet with metacritics already reviewing it at 95% with 10 early reviews, people have been going around now complaining about the mandatory installs that may take up to 15 minutes in games like Devil May Cry 4, GT5P and now MGS4. Its become such an issue in fact, that Konami went as far as as listing the mandatory install as forbidden to be spoken about in the press’ reviews. In all fairness to Konami, they have taken back that ridiuculous restriction, but what I want to know is why on earth is this an issue?!!?

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When first I heard that Yoda and Darth Vader were going to be in Soul Calibur IV, I was more peeved that I was going to have to decide which version to get since Yoda was to be on the 360 version, and Vader on the PS3. Although the choice was easy (Vader > Yoda), I was still peeved that I wouldn’t get both. That’s how I felt when Soul Calibur 2 came out and I had to play with Link when Spawn was the character I really wanted (forget Heihachi, he was useless anyway).

I loved Link and, although I agree he didn’t fully fit-in because his bomb move and other similar moves, I still had fun playing with him. And Spawn has had many incarnations, one of which was Medieval Spawn. Having those two in the Soul Calibur world was a bit of a stretch, but not NEARLY as big of one as having Star Wars characters.

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With the announcements that the PS3 versions of Alone in the Dark and Red Alert both being delayed (or possibly canceled), I can’t help but wonder if this is going to be a sign of things to come. Are we often going to be given an early X-Box 360 version of a game and then a PS3 version around the horizon? Or are both versions going to take the GTA IV route and be delayed simultaneously while devs try to figure out how to code for the PS3 version?

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When Kotaku first revealed that Capcom wanted to “do to video games what Marvel did to comics”, I have to admit I was disappointed. Overall, the Marvel movies sucked. The only good ones that come to mind are the first 2 X-Men and Iron Man. I mean, come on, all the Spider-Man’s were bad and the Hulk was awful and those were pretty much the runner ups too. Besides, Capcom already has a bunch of Resident Evils and Street Fighter: the Movie which I have not seen to this day (and will never see despite being a former die-hard Street Fighter fanatic).

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Great news from Capcom! What seems to be the last boss in Street Fighter IV is finally revealed! I’m really happy about this announcement because I’m just that much closer to not caring about Street Fighter IV at all. His name is Seth and he’s a Urien clone that seems to have vertebrae on the front of his body as well … not to mention he’s naked.

I loved Street Fighter 3, the game played very well, but we could have done without the likes of Twelve and Q. Necro and Urien were not horrible but were also not very good either. Still, they managed to introduce Dudley, Alex, Ibuki, and Makoto. So why is Street Fighter IV only copying the bad and forgetting about all the good new innovations Street Fighter III had?

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I don’t get Capcom these days. Don’t they care what their fan-base wants? I understand it might have been too late to switch Street Fighter 4 back to its 2D roots even though many of its loyal fan-base pretty much gave up on the game, but if they’re going to announce yet another Capcom vs game, wouldn’t you think they would learn their lesson?

Apparently not. According to Famitsu, the newest VS game will be in 3D that a co-worker of mine said looked straight outta the Dreamcast era. I can’t help but agree. I guess this gives me even more of a reason to convert to SNK… For shame Capcom, for shame!

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I just heard the great news that the new Prince of Persia is going to be cell-shaded! Not that I’m especially fond of cell-shading, or that I’m a huge fan of the Prince of Persia series (I’ve only played the original and the first Sands of Time for GameCube and loved both), but Ubisoft seems to really be on to something with this new style.

Cell-shaded characters + realistic background = pure awesomeness! If I hadn’t seen the screenshots myself I probably would not have believed it! Good job Ubisoft! I’ll be watching this one closely, that’s for sure.

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On Saturday, my little brother (age 15) and I went to the EB Games near his house. While there I saw an inexpensive second-hand copy of Bioshock and proceeded to the cash register to pay. I was refused.

You read right, the teller behind the cash register refused to sell me the copy because I was with a minor who was not my child. He said I couldn’t prove that I wasn’t buying the game for my brother. If he were my son, then they would explain what the rating system was and let me decide, but since he was just my brother I couldn’t buy anything rated Mature.

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I just found out that Sony is now selling to Canadian in their own currency! So what does that mean? Initially, the Playstation Store’s prices didn’t reflect the newer, much higher, value of the Canadian Dollar. Now, Canadians will no longer overpay for downloadable content (well not more than their American counter-parts at least)! In my opinion this should have been a given from day one, but since the XBox Marketplace has been around much longer and is still using the misleading Microsoft Points currency, I have to hand it to Sony for having made this move.

Now, all that’s left is a decent exclusive title…