I love being a Canadian! Though I have many reasons for this, today’s particular cause for celebration at being a Canuck was brought on by the X-Box 360′s new live game show “1 vs 100″ being open to all Canadian Gold members for the beta on Microsoft’s experimental X-Box LIVE Primetime.

I hadn’t actually heard about this and so was pleasantly surprised when I turned on my 360 the other day and was met with a “1 vs 100 – Play Now” message.

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Everyone pretty much already knows that both Dee Jay and T Hawk or on the way as DLC for Street Fighter 4, but Seth Killian has hinted at 2 other characters would be added as well from Street Fighter’s other franchises. At first everyone assumed we would get some Street Fighter 3 love (God forbid) but apparently Capcom decided to make the 3D experience complete by going EX on us.

You’re seeing it here first folks, enter Skullomania! He’s definitely not my first choice to be added to the roster but he’s also not my last. At least we didn’t get some more crappy Alpha characters like Cody or R. Mika! Well enjoy folks, anyone has any ideas who the fourth character will be?

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Yup, that’s another year and another birthday for me. This time it’s the big 3-0. To be honest, people around me are making a way bigger deal about my age than I am. Yesterday I was 29 and today I am thirty, so what? I don’t feel any different. Fine, I’ve packed on a few extra pounds and lost some hair in the last 10 years, but that doesn’t mean I’m any different on the inside! I still read comics, I still watch movies, I still play video games, I still play card games, I still play basketball, I still listen to music, I still read novels, and I still got love for the streets!

Then it got me thinking, sure I still do all those wonderful things and more, but have the years changed the way I go about them? Does reading a Spider-Man book still make me fantasize about climbing buildings and peeping into bedroom windows? Do I still watch movies thinking I’ll be a movie star one day? Part of living is growing, learning, changing, adapting… so how is Osama version 3.0 any better than his version 2.0 equivalent? Read on …

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So, after nearly a decade since the last Street Fighter and almost 2 years since it’s announcement, Street Fighter 4 has been released. Being a hardcore Street Fighter fan, I took the day off of work and bought it on day 1. So, was it worth the wait? Did it live up to all of the hype?

Honestly, I hated it for the first 1-2 hours and almost gave up on it then and there. The only thing that kept me playing was the 60$ I had just dropped on it. I was determined to find some enjoyment out of the game, and surprisingly it did grow on me. Yes, the game is fun and, yes, that’s the most important thing in a game, but what irks me is this game could have been epic! Instead, it’s a sloppy but fun fighter that is hard to take seriously. What’s so wrong with it? Read on: (more…)

It’s been a month and a half now of mowing down zombie after zombie in Valve’s spectacular coop extravaganza: Left 4 Dead.

I have to admit, Left 4 Dead disappointed me on day one. I beat all of the campaigns on the normal difficulty setting in 5 hours on the first day. I played them alone since my wife didn’t want to try it and I didn’t know anyone else who had it on the 360. In general, I don’t like playing online with people I don’t know so I went solo. When it was all over, I felt somewhat unsatisfied. It was short and didn’t feel very different from a regular FPS.

Then I finally convinced my wife to try Versus Mode with me online and that was the end of my social life. Now we’re both addicted and play it daily yelling at each other to get the Hunter off or freaking out at the sight of the dreaded Witch! Valve, you’ve got a winner in Left 4 Dead and I hope you don’t take too long to come out with some DLC!

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Here we are, more than 2 weeks after my initial review and I had a lot more time to find the ups and downs of this game.

In my previous posts, I said I could not find many downsides to this game. I unfortunately found several now but I also found some new good sides.

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A couple of months ago a music executive said that royalty rates for songs used in video games are “paltry” and a game executive replied by saying that really, the music companies ought to be paying the gaming companies for promoting their songs.

This argument could really be applied to any license, music or not. It used to be that a game could profit enormously by having a connection to an established license. But now that media consumption patterns have shifted, those licenses profit just as much by being featured in a game.

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Only two days ago did I procure the Grand Theft Auto clone Saints Row 2, but I already feel the need to write about it.

Yes Saints Row is a GTA clone, but that does not mean its creators should be ashamed of it. Clone just mean someone took a good idea and build on it. That’s called innovation and if people refrained from cloning and improving good ideas then we would still be driving around in Ford model T’s.

Now, let’s take a look at this game from the perspective of its most likely user: a GTA IV player who’s looking for even more goodies from a sandbox game.

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It’s been two weeks since I unwrapped SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation and rushed home excited to frag.  14 days of lag, disconnections, and other online server-related annoyances. Over 330 hours of patiently waiting for the patch that will justify my day one purchase. I believe that’s almost 20,000 minutes too many.

I’m now looking to sell my copy of SOCOM but sadly there are too many people out there trying to do the same. I would trade it in but that would most likely turn my purchase into a ridiculously expensive rental. No, I think I’ll keep waiting for the inevitable patch.

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