The Battle Begins! John Riccitiello (EA) Declares War on Call Of Duty!

It was a battle that we have all acknowledged after the announcement that Battlefield 3 will be released around the same time as the annual Call Of Duty. Now it has only just begun....

It all started on September of 2010 with the release of Black Ops on the horizon when Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision) revealed what he truly thought of EA saying: 

"We have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA - that's their biggest challenge: its stock options have no value. It's lost its way, and until it has success, and hits, and gets that enthusiasm back for the company, it's going to have a struggle getting really talented people, which is going to translate into less-than-great games."

"Lost its way.." has it? Interesting to consider but EA's VP Jeff Brown had some slightly cruel things to say also: 

"His (Bobby) company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."  

Things went dead after a while, with the release of Battlefield 3's gameplay footage at GDC. EA must be holding their heads high, considering the amount of positive feedback journalists and gamers alike all love the jaw dropping graphics they showcased.

It got people talking about the road ahead and if Battlefield 3 had the potential to take Call Of Duty off the number one spot.  The general conclusion everyone was getting, was that Battlefield 3 is going to be a far more impressive game than Call Of Duty but Battlefield 3 still wouldn't have the potential to knock out Call Of Duty. Its harsh, but sadly true.

Flash forward to today and oh my! Another statement from EA's CEO John Riccitiello has a few more to say about Call Of Duty:

"This November, we're launching Battlefield 3. It's going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the #1 game in the game industry," he said. "A game that last year did $400 million dollars in revenue on day one. [Battlefield 3] is designed to take that game down." 

He is a very confident man, I can give him that. Even though journalists will doubt him to the end, the man refuses to acknowledge that his game was born to be second. But was it really? I mean lets face it I would love nothing more than for Activision and the Call Of Duty franchise to shrink in sales. But it has already established itself to the average gamers or non-hardcore gamers. The guys who will pick up 2 games a year, those guys are still going to buy Call Of Duty and don't give a rats arse whats behind the scenes. Hell I may even pick up this years Call Of Duty instalment if it looks good enough. 

Its nice that EA are trying but it is an inevitable battle. But still....we could dream.

This is only round one folks and more shit is going to go down eventually with the release of whatever the next Call Of Duty is, so stay tuned. 

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A serious lack of life for me right now

Well recently I suffered a bit of a setback as my kneecap dislocated confining me to a life with little movement and life, Hence my 3 posts today. But 15 minutes before-hand in a music class, when I was fine and dandy, a friend of mine showed me how to make origami swans and since I just did a review on Heavy Rain, I think a pic of my work would go well with it (It's the Heavy Rain bird from the front of the box).

In this case the Lol tag = Lack of life

Pics were taken with a 3DS hence the bad quality

Original is found below

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Heavy Rain Review

Minor spoilers concerning the first half hour of game.

Hey everyone. The other day I got a lend of a game from a friend (the friend I usually mention whenever I say he gives me a lend of them). This game was "Heavy Rain". When I first heard about the concept of it being like a movie and using mainly motion controls, I gotta say I wasn't 100% on board with the idea. It seemed interesting but there could be WAY too many holes and problems. However here's my take of it, the day after I completed it once.

Heavy Rains story.... Where to begin. One of the things i'd liked the idea of is the ever changing possible story. Something that they could've done much better in Fallout and something we only got an itty bitty glimpse of in GTA IV. The tagline for the story of "Everything you do or don't do has a consequence", They weren't lying. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING has a consequence. For example at a very early bit of the game I forgot to feed my sons bird. When he came back home it was dead. Therefore the son was upset and changed the story a small bit and depending what you do, it can effect the ending in the long run. The general story is that you're in a city, children are dissapearing and are found dead, from drowning in rain water in a strectch of wasteland. A man called the "Origami Killer" is found to be behind all this and is called such as he leaves and Orchid and Origami figurine on each corpse. His method of drowning is that he leaves them in a well and water rises because of the near constant rain. When the rain hits six inches, the person dies. Another unique bit is that you take turns in playing as 4 different characters; Ethan Mars, a man whose second son (First killed in a car crash very early on) is kidnapped by the "Origami Killer", Scot Shelby, A private detective hired by the families of missing/ dead children, Norman Jayden, An F.B.I investigator from Washington trying to catch the Origami Killer and Madison Paige a woman who gets caught up in the hulaballo with Ethan. So far I've done one playthrough and just started my second. In my first playthrough I tried to be as good and as smart as possible however the games, mindfuck are mindfuck story ended making me accuse an innocent man of being the killer. Thus ruining one of my characters lives as he was fired. Another characters life was ruined by me too. However Madison and Ethan lived happily ever after as they got Shaun ,Ethans son, Back alive. Now I plan to be a dick/dumbass and ruin everything >:D.

The Music and Graphics are satisfactory. The Music has a great piano score and a few other random tunes however very little set lists are without faults in games and a lot of songs in this ruined the mood for me. The Graphics are incredibly varying. I know games can't have constantly good graphics, most of the time, But this game has a huge gap in the quality of graphics in places. While the main 4 characters were shown to me as the credits rolled talking about what happened to them afterwards. A news reporter appeared on my TV screen who looked like he hitch hiked from the PS2. It just seems to be a spot of lazyness on the developers part. The voice acting is some of the worse i've seen in years. I haven't seen voice acting this bad since Final Fantasy 10 where they sped up whatever the voice actor said in order to make it fit with the face movement in the Japanese version.

An example although the guy dosen't hammer the X button like I did to make it even funnier.^

Now as most games and products usually have this game has a great USP ( No not the pistol Snake uses in MGS (Unique Selling Point)). The thing about the controls is that they are most of the time motion controlled/ using your controller in different ways than usual. For instance if you're passing out china plates you must slide your controller slowly to the side. If you're trying to knock someone out, you swing it downwards quickly and so on. There's scenes where this works amazingly. A scene where you have to drive 5 minutes against traffic on the motorway makes for hectic swinging around of your controller and all round adrenaline fest. I haven't been interested at all with the Playstation move but this is prompting me to get the Heavy Rain edition

If you're into puzzle like detective games or just interested in something new check out what I like / dislike below and see if it appeals to you;

What I liked:

• Ingenious story line with endless possiblities
• Tense/ hectic motion control scenes
• Graphics for half the time
• Length of game (most games nowadays are ridiculously short (CALL OF DUTY HACK COUGH COUGH COUGH PHLEGM COUGH COUGH)

What I disliked

• Apparent lack of ability to maintain good graphics
• Slow scenes where very little happens

Overall I really enjoyed this game and Highly Recommended it

8/10

(The pic above is my original impression, Didn't like it at first, love it now)

Also you should watch this if you have completed it, VERY good parody and it further highlights for the first minute the shitty voice acting

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Elizabeth Taylor take's the secret that James Dean was molested by his minister to her grave!

I guess this doesn't necessarily fit in with the usual posts here at the Bl4rG since it isn't really up to date movie related news. And it isn't necessarily the type of nerdism we like to discuss here at the Bl4rG. But it does go under Old Move Nerdism, which I suffer from greatly, but my definition of a nerd is one who is obsessive and/ or knowledgeable about a certain topic/subject. Example's: History nerd, gaming nerd, comic book nerd etc. So I felt it was relevant to post about a subject that is personally my favourite type of nerdism, old movies. 

Now you may or may not be accepted by the fact that I call anyone who watches old movies a nerd. But, lets face it, it isn't widely accepted by young people (god I feel old) today. If you asked an average teenager if he has watched Breakfast at Tiffany's or Rebel Without a Cause the answer is a straight no, which is a shame.

But would these topics be relevant to gaming? Well, yes many game such as BioShock, Fallout and the upcoming L.A Noire takes a tone of influence from old films obviously due to there setting. And in L.A. Noire's sake the visual representation of these noir movies must be taken into account. These games are some of my favourites and any game that has a pre 1970 setting is, more than likely, going to be my favourite. 

So now that I have justified and established that talking about old movies is okay here, id like to talk about vintage Hollywood gossip. 

On March 23 , 2011, Elizabeth Taylor died of heart failure ending an era of some of Hollywood's greatest movies. She was a goddess of here time that would even make Aphrodite jealous. And is one, of the very few, who survived Hollywood during her time and lived to the tell the tale for many years. Her time in Hollywood lead her to become friends of some of Hollywood's greatest. One, of many, was James Dean. 

James Dean is my favourite actor, ever. He is iconic, talented and remains to be one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries. He is my hero if you want to put it that way, I have read a biography on him detailing his life as a young boy and the three movies he made in his career. His characteristic's fascinate me and I plan to read another biography written by his best friend. 

On the set of Giant, James Dean's last film, he plays alongside Elizabeth Taylor where James Dean had finally reached the big time. Elizabeth and James became great friends on the set of Giant. Which I am only comprehending now since we had to rely on Elizabeth's word that they were "close friend" in Hollywood definitive terms, at least that is the impression I got. 

It turns out that James and Elizabeth were even closer than I thought telling her a secret she took to the grave. But before she did, she told one journalist, Kevin Sessums, in 1997 one secret Jimmy told no-one else! 

"I loved Jimmy. I’m going to tell you something, but it’s off the record until I die. OK? When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister. I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During Giant we’d stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me."

This does make sense, and it just adds to the many tragedy's Jimmy faced in his young life. But it is surprising that James revealed this to Elizabeth and no-one else. Its saddening and I even have more respect for my idol.  But to anyone who knows a minister in the small town of Fairmount, Indiana who served in 1942 should go out, buy a pistol and shoot him. 

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The Silver Surfer is BACK! And Better Than Ever!

God I love the Silver Surfer! The comics, cartoon's and I gained a slight satisfaction of his appearance  in that abomination of a movie that shall never be named here. His powers and how it supersede's and supplant's  him from the man he once was, Norrin Radd, has a beautiful story behind it. It makes for some truly emotional storylines behind an alien who cant even feel, both physically and emotionally.

The Silver Surfer has once again returned to earth waiting while Galactus feeds on the earth's sun (this wont destroy earth it will only shorten the sun by a billions years). As the Surfer waits and remembers the days when he could feel, he witness's a couple being murdered and realises he still has one feeling, compassion for the human race. As he takes down the culprit's of the murder and resuscitates the women with his cosmic power he gets captured by High Evolutionary, who drains and steals the Surfers power. For the first time in years Norrin truly remembers how to feel. 

I have to say this is an awesome comic book series that everyone should purchase! Surfer and non Surfer fans alike! We (Surfer fans) may not get another story arc like this for years to come, so if you yourself are at least interested, you must pick up this book! 

Im looking forward to these next issue's coming up in the coming weeks, its everything I have ever wanted in a Silver Surfer book and more! 

Check back later for more reports on these issues! 

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We're Back Bitches!

The Bl4rG was down for a couple of days due to the amazing template we were constructing and changing. The glorious background was made by our own TheUsualType, who constructed a nice image of all the shit we like to talk about on the Bl4rG. 

We will be posting back again about all the shit we want to talk about, but with this time a better layout and not only that, a better slider! 

Cheers for sticking with us 

- Tim Tim

Due to the cheesiness of this post and the epicness of this song: Thin Lizzy! 

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All New Year, All New Venom

Now, readers, I know we here at GameBl4rg haven't talked about comics for some time, but what better time to start again than with the unveiling(or unleashing) of the next Venom...

Flash Thompson, high school bully and Spidey fanboy turned American war hero, has been an integral in the Marvel family for years, changing constantly. But now he has been given a new lease of life. Declared a hero for his actions in Iraq, saving his squad even after losing the use of his legs, Flash was recommended fo a very special project. Rebirth2.0 to be precise. Flash has been made the latest host for the alien symbiote venom by the U.S. government and is immediately kitted out and dropped (literally) into Nrosvekistan to kick some ass. This is where we first see this new Venom in action, as he makes his way through the warzone, killin' fools and eating grenades, nothing getting in his way. Well, At least until this happy chappy shows up.

Jack O'Lantern is Thompson's first real challenge, well if you could call it that. you see, after a brief scuffle, Flash loses control of Venom and 'feeds' Jack the aforementioned grenade. I know, awesome.But its not all good for Flash though, as he realizes when he is purged of Venom and returns to his wheelchair. His partner Betty thinks he has gone back to alcohol and confronts him in tears leaving him roaming the darkened streets, reflecting. This combination of pure awesomeness and Flash's dramatic life, definitely make this new Venom one to follow and I hope you'll join me in doing so.  

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Excuse me readers, I'd like to talk about something serious for a while...

THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A JOKE AND A FUNNY VIDEO I THOUGHT I'D SHARE.

There's a lot of "Bad things" on the internet and I think you should hear about it.

REMEMBER!

YOU SHOULD NEVER INSTANT MESSAGE WITH SOMEONE ON MICROSOFT WORD!

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Nintendo 3DS Review!

It's something i've been hopping off the walls for these past months since it was first announced. Yesterday I went out to get it and boy was I excited. I may have skipped off 2 hours of school to get it but I don't regret it. It might seem odd that i'm already writing a review after getting it yesterday but I haven't put it down for the 24 hours i've had it and took a small break for food and 7 hours for sleep. So where to start...

The 3D:

Everyone has been curious about the 3D this machine is supposed to have. Well it does work and very well I might add. A lot of sites have been spurting out nonsense saying the 3D is awful and a waste of money and it's better to have it off. This couldn't be further from the truth. If you've seen the ads of the 3DS with a bunch of randomers going crazy over seeing 3D for the first time you essentially saw my first reaction to the 3D. There was one thing these sites got right. The "Safe Area" of 3D. To get the 3D effect you must look at the screen head on. If it shifts about 10 degrees to the left or right it makes the screen go blurry. It's not really an error on Nintendos part, more on human genetics. Human eyes aren't meant to see 3D for too long. However the slight shaking that everybody has (although it may not seem like it) no effect. There was one problem I had and that's when I was trying to play it in the car. Didn't work that well at all because of the shaking. As I said humans aren't meant to view 3D. After a while I did get minor head aches. This was after 3-4 hours of 100% 3D so Nintendo and IGN may have exagerated on that part. Thankfully the 3D can be turned down easily and the console can still be enjoyed in 2D. I'll speak on the various games and apps 3D as I get to them.

The Physical Aspect:

The DS has improved vastly since the silver block that was originally released. So how has it improved from the previous DS, The DSI. The Dsi I found was too rectangular and uncomfartable. Also I found that it showed moisture easily. The first DS didn't have any problems and the DS lite have the fingerprint issue. The 3DS... has repaired these issues. It's off a simaler glossy and comfartable material simaler to the DS lite but without the Fingerprints. The new stylus is also more comfartable and a cross between the orignal and the DSi XL, by that I mean it's extendable. I find that it's easier to use at full length but you do what you want. The Analog stick is next. This is something I was sceptical of. Now there's 2 methods of moving around, On a Playstation controller it worked but this I wasn't sure. Now I am sure that it is brilliant. It's really responsive and smooth. It's also compatiable with the original DS games. What I also love is the 3D camera. There's 3 Cameras on this, 1 on the inside for 2d and 2 on the outside for 3D. It works well in the 3D aspect but the camera hasn't increased in the aspect of the quality it can produce. Pics end up being blurry sometimes but it's still nice to have 3D pics of my Dog, Figurines etc. The Buttons themselves too have been improved. They now properly click giving a real response and very little of the mushy feeling that came with a few of the DS forms. There's also a Wireless switch on the side which can be turned off or on in order to save power. There's a FREE 2 GIG SD CARD with all purchases so that's handy and nice of them.

The Digital Side:

The first thing I'd like to talk about is the Battery. As a lot of sites say there's a very small amount of juice in this machine. With all the power at max your battery is drained in about 2 and a half hours. The menu has yet again been improved and has a lot of customizable features. Various built in apps such as the Activity Log are welcome. The Activity Log is constantly recording what you do and ranks games out of things like "Time Played", "Amount Of Times turned on" and keeps a chart of what you do. There's a reward scheme in the 3DS that encourages you to go for a walk. There's a pedometer inside your 3DS, while in stand-by mode, that detects how much you walk and for every 100 steps you get 1 play coin. Then you can spend you play coins on mini games or add ons in game. I've walked 5000 steps with mine from walking my dog twice. I did try, at first, to just shake the 3DS in stand-by mode and it was infrequent so I do recomend going out side and walk about 250 meters or so so that you get close to 1000 steps. Another amazing feature is the one use friend codes. Now you don't need one friend code a game and you can see what your pals are playing when your in the friend menu. Trouble is there's no way to talk to them but it's been hinted at in future updates along with 3D movies, and Classic game store.

Apps and Games:

The first i'll talk about is the "Mii Maker". For those who are unfamiliar with the nintedo Wii, Mii's are essentially avatars, simaler to the ones from the Xbox in every aspect apart from clothes. This works for the 3DS with it being a handheld console but not for the Wii, which shall not be ranted about now. There's actually more stuff on the 3DS version than the Wii which only makes the Wii look worse. With these Mii's you can play little games or take fun pictures with them. The Mii picture app as part of the AR Card games (Which i'll speak more of soon) where you can make artistic or just plain silly pictures with your Mii's. The AR games are another really interesting bit about the 3ds. The gist of it is you place down some cards you get with your 3Ds and you can play games with them. 1 of them is filled with games then there's 5 well known Nintendo characters that can be used in other games. The AR games are really ingenious. In some you can go fishing where ever you put the card down. Another opens up caves, islands, jungles and the occasional dragon statue so that you can shoot targets. Another is a large of pool then there's making 3D pics and there's more you can buy and so many more!. It's truly magnificent these cards. As I said in a recent 3DS update, "Even If I don't like the games i'm sure I can enjoy all the minigames" and boy was I right.

The Dsi Sound returns with better file compatibility and 3D animations of course and so does the picture editing in the photo viewer except with just different layout and features. There's also the Streetpass feature where when your 3DS is in standby it automatically trades data with any nearby 3Ds's such as your Mii, Friend Data and Play log data. Sadly I haven't met anyone while walking my dog who had a 3Ds but there is a solution. Around the world Streetpass events are being held so you can just look them up to see if there's one in your city/ town... or you could start your own ^_^.

DS Download play is still here just without it's old pal pictochat and the myth about region locking is a lie. I turned on my American Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and it ran fine. There certainly is a lot of features and more are to be arriving in the coming months such as 3D movies, and Classic games.

TIME FOR SOME OF MY PICS :p!

5 hero cards in action

My dog in Sepia

My Dog in Sepia 2

The Dragon Boss in AR: Shooting

Ar Shooting Level 1, Played on my floor.

AR card Main Menu

Sony VS. Nintendo!

Normally when people dig behind my sofa they find pennies, Link here found 20 ruppes...

KILL THE NON BELIEVER!
Hero Card line up

AR Card Game Loading

AR Game Main Menu

Geronimoooo!

Cosy by the fireplace

Scaling my fireplace

Suicide off my coffee table

IN CONCLUSION:

The 3DS should you get it? In my humble opinion I suggest you do. It's worth the €250 to get and it's only going to get better and with no 3DS lite or an equivelant of that announced, I suggest you don't wait around for something that may not be coming out for another year.

THINGS I LIKE

• The 3D
• Huge amount of apps and minigames
• Improved style of console AND stylus.
• WAY better online and soon to be better!
• 3D movies (Short clips come out with the latest update)

THINGS I DISLIKE

• Launch titles (Although I have been enjoying my Lego Star Wars III despite my earlier scepticism)
• Safe area to get the 3D effect
• Stylus location (Hard to get out and awkward area)

AND THE RESULT IS:

 9.5 /10

It's not perfect, nothing is, but the half mark is removed for the general failing of the 3D safe area and the lack of some of the big launch titles announced at E3.

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3DS IS HERE!!!!!

This isn't a review, just a quick announcement that I got my 3DS today on european launch day. Samurai Warrior Chronicles (Game I was planning to get) dosen't appear to be here in Ireland so I got Lego Star wars3. Review will be up in a number of days... And yes... The 3D DOES work!

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