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Nov29

"I Left My Heart in Med Lab 3" - 'Dead Space' Soundtrack Review

christophe leportier

That is but one of the more cleverly named titles of the music included on the official soundtrack for EA’s Dead Space. Available for download from both Amazon and iTunes, the game’s official soundtrack album packs in a frightening amount of music from the space-based horror shoot-em-up. But how does it hold up when listened to away from the game? Fast forward through the jump for more.

Composer Jason Graves has succeeded in creating a truly original soundtrack for Dead Space. The music, whether atmospheric and calm, or as a full fledged discordian assault upon your ear drums, is expertly crafted, which should place this album near the tops of year end Best Of lists and nominations for the myriad of game awards. If you aren’t familiar with Jason Graves, you really should be. This is the man behind the music of over three dozen games including Rise of the Kasai, Blazing Angels and Sega’s upcoming Aliens RPG. His impressive TV credits count music from The Amazing Race and Inside the NFL among them. Oh and he also created music for G4’s Cheat!, Icons and Cinematech (and no we didn’t let that affect our review, so there!)

You can’t put too fine a point on the fact this is some intense music. Not the kind of thing to spin idly in the background whilst studying or pretending to be busy inside your cubicle. This soundtrack is purely for fans of the game, the composer or those who enjoy truly frightening music. There are some stand-out pieces that play well on their own, as evidenced by the top download listing for the album on iTunes. In classic fashion, Graves’ takes direct inspiration from the on-screen action in the naming of the pieces, which also shows his sense of humor, because “Severed Limbs are Hazardous Waste” and “I’ve Got You Devolving Under My Skin” are not titles one simply whips out of thin air.

Admittedly, I have not yet played Dead Space. Not because I haven’t had the time (in case you didn’t know, there are ton of great games out recently!) but I’ve just never been into the survival-horror genre. I am not exaggerating when I say, that listening to this soundtrack album, and the powerful music within, has actually increased my interest in picking up and playing Dead Space, if only to experience these sounds and how they play out with the game. For those of you who have played it, adding the music from the game to your iPod comes highly recommended.

Rick “Plasma Cutters Are My Friend” Damigella

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Nov29

PC 'Grand Theft Auto IV' Will Get 32 Player Multiplayer

christophe leportier

The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV, which releases next week on December 2nd, will bump the player count in multiplayer up to 32. The console versions were limited to 16 players online.

There is, however, talk that this increase in players will only be for certain modes including Team Deathmatch and GTA Race.

The PC version is currently available for pre-loading on Valve's Steam service.

Are you getting the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV?

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Nov29

"Jasper" Xbox 360 Spotted

christophe leportier

The latest version of the Xbox 360, codenamed Jasper, is apparently circulating. A user on the Xbox-Scene forums posted photos of his new system, that is allegedly of the Jasper variety. Jasper uses a new motherboard and a new version of the 360 GPU, which is fabricated from a 65-nanomater process. The previous iteration of the Xbox 360 used a 90nm GPU. The 65nm GPU allows the system to run cooler and use less power.

The photos look legit. The power supply is the strongest piece of evidence here. The previous version of the Xbox 360 required 175 watts and higher. As you can see from the photo, Jasper runs just dandy with 150 watts.

The user's system is dated October 23, 2008, which is inline with Jasper's supposed manufacture date. Do any of you guys have Jasper systems? Leave a comment and let me know. If you've had an older version, does your Jasper system run noticeably cooler? And also, color me and my 360 Elite ("Falcon", I believe) jealous.

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Nov29

'Gears of War 2' Gets First Update, Matchmaking Fixes

christophe leportier

In a post on the official Gears of War 2 forums, Rod Fergusson, has posted details about the games new title update.

He says:

I’m happy to announce that this morning, at 3:40 AM PST, we released a title update that should help with the current matchmaking issues. In order to get the update out as quickly as possible, we focused just on immediate infrastructure issues and have left any potential gameplay issues for a future update. Here’s what’s in today’s title update:

Adjustments to make Public matchmaking faster, especially in the single player party and the four player party case. Some of these adjustments should be felt immediately and some will play out over several days as our update enables us to reduce player segmentation by reducing the number of servers required to do matchmaking. This will increase the number of possible matches available for you to join.

A tweak that should prevent us from losing some of our additional detailed stats data that we gather for gearsofwar.com. Due to the large number of concurrent matches, our stats gathering servers were not able to collect data for every single match played. The Xbox LIVE leaderboards are 100% accurate but our existing stats web pages may have some missing data prior to the update.

A fix to address the issue where some players were unable to start the story-based campaign if Xbox LIVE was down or unavailable.

As noted, they are saving any "gameplay issues for a future update," but I hope they get to them soon. I don't want to count the amount of times the broken chainsaw has angered me. If they would only make it drop when someone gets shot while revving the thing...

Got the update yet? Feel like you've gotten a better matchmaking experience?

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Nov29

Some iPhone Apps Go Free For Black Friday

christophe leportier

It seems that some iPhone developers are getting in on the spirit of Black Friday by slashing the prices of their apps to "FREE"!

A list of apps that are free for a limited time can be found on AppShopper. The site looks shady, but the "Buy Now" links launch the iTunes App Store.

Check them out!

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Nov29

'CoD: World at War' Gets Double XP For Collectors Only

christophe leportier

Call of Duty: World at War will be going Double XP for an entire week... for Collector's Edition owners only. This also means that PS3 gamers aren't eligible as the game was only released as a standard edition on Sony's console.

The week will run from December 5th to the 12th. On the PC, collectors will just need to play on servers marked for Double XP.

If you 360 owners think you'll just need to logon to get your Double XP... prepare to be disappointed. In order to validate a person's ownership of the more expensive package, you'll need to do the following things before you get your Double XP:

Register your Collector's Edition on the official website.
Download the token that becomes available.
Play in the "Officer's Club" playlist for Double XP.

I'm growing tired of making Infinity Ward vs. Treyarch comparisons so I'll let you guys do the honors in the comments section. How do you feel about this Double XP strategy vs. Infinity Ward's "Double XP Weekends", which were available to all players?

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Nov27

NIMF's "Games To Avoid For Children" Full Of Awesome Games

christophe leportier

The National Institute on Media and the Family has released their 2008 Video Game Buying Guide, which includes a section on games to absolutely avoid buying for children. The only problem is: the list is full of amazing games! The games are all on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 with the Wii avoiding the no-no list.

While I tend to agree that some games are too mature for young children, I also believe that each parent should decide if their child is ready to play an M-rated game. Some kids are mature enough to handle virtual violence and bloodshed.

Here's some highlights from the list:

"Fallout 3 is set in a post-nuclear world. The survivors must navigate their way through a world with giant insects, raiders, slavers and super mutants. Player’s kill whatever is in their path with guns and explosives. This game is rated M for blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language and drug use. Available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360."

"Gears of War 2 finds Marcus Fenix and the Delta Squad battling the Locust Horde for the survival of humanity. The game’s main weapon is the Lancer Assault Rifle, which combines a rifle with a chain saw. The game is rated M for blood and gore, intense violence and strong language. Available on Xbox 360."

"Resistance 2 finds Nathan Hale fighting the same Chimera alien race he did in the original Resistance game. This version is set in the United States instead of Europe. The Chimera obliterates cities and kills civilians by the thousands. The game is rated M for blood and gore, intense violence and strong language. Available on PlayStation 3."

The full list can be read here.

Do you think that no kids should play M-rated games? What was your first M-rated game and how old were you when you first played one? My parents got me Mortal Kombat when I was 9 and now I work at G4.

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Nov27

'Resident Evil 5' Demo Coming Soon, Game On Track For Release

christophe leportier

Capcom has announced that they will be releasing a 2-level co-op demo for Resident Evil 5 in Japan on December 3rd for the Xbox 360. They hope to announce the date of the US demo, which would hit both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, "soon".

Sadly, if you were thinking about making a Japanese Xbox LIVE account to snag the demo next week, you'll need to fork over some yen to make that account Gold as the demo will be released to Gold members only.

The two levels in the demo are most likely the two levels that Capcom has been showing off at events like E3 and Tokyo Game Show, but we're totally cool with that. Why? Co-op!

Resident Evil 5 Direct-Feed Gameplay