This week the Crew returns from PAX East 2012 with special guest OneStopToGlory. We discuss all the big PAX games including Borderlands 2, Ghost Recon Future Soldier, Aliens Colonial Marines, many, many upcoming XBLA games, upcoming MMOs and our thoughts on last Fridays release FEZ!

Direct Download: Episode 82

Miss out on some of the games released over the past year? Looking to spend the cash/gift cards you received for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus? Here’s a list of all the great gaming deals to bring with you when you venture out into the chaos that is Boxing Day:

Best Buy

• Sony 24″ PlayStation 3D LED Display Package – $299.99
• Battlefield 3, Gears 3, Saints Row 3, Madden 12 for Xbox 360 – $39.99
• NHL 12, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Batman Arkham City for PS3 – $39.99
• Dead Island, Deus Ex Human Revolution for Xbox 360 – $29.99
• Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, Disney Universe, SC 2 – $29.99
• Kinect Sensor Gunstringer Bundle with 3 Games – $99.99
• Kinect Sports, Kinect Sports Two, Dance Central, Dance Central 2 $29.99
• Xbox 360 New Wireless Controller – $54.99 Online Only
• PS3 Wireless Keypad – $29.99 Online Only

Future Shop

• 320GB Playstation 3 and 4-Game Bundle – $299.99 – Online only
• Xbox 360 4GB Console – $129.99
• Modern Warfare 3 – $49.99
• Gears 3, Arkham City, Madden 12, NHL 12, Battlefield 3 Xbox 360 – $39.99
• Dark Souls, Saints Row The Third, Rage, Madden 12 for PS3 – $39.99
• Kinect Sports Season 2 – $19.99
• Mortal Kombat, Killzone 3, Socom 4, LA Noire, Ratchet and Clank – $29.99
• Bioshock 2, Halo Reach for Xbox 360 – $9.99 each
• World of Warcraft Battle Chest for PC – $9.99
• Duke Nukem Forever for PS3 – $9.99
• Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect – $199.99

EB Games

• Assassin’s Creed Revelations – $19.99 (Dec 26 only)
• Batman Arkham City – $39.99
• Forza Motorsport 4 – $39.99
• Battlefield 3 – $39.99
• NHL 12 – $39.99
• Infamous 2 – $29.99
• Modern Warfare 3 – $49.99
• Xbox 360 4GB Console – $129.99
• Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect – $199.99
• Kinect Sensor with Gunstringer, Fruit Ninja – $99.99
• Select Kinect Titles for $29.99/each
• Starcraft 2 – $34.99
• World of Warcraft Battlechest – $14.99
• Playstation 3 160GB Hardware – $199.99
• Save 10% on purchases when you buy any 2 used games(Dec 26 only)
• Save 20% on purchases when you buy any 3 used games (Dec 26 only)
• Save 30% on purchases when you buy any 4 used games (Dec 26 only)
• Save 50% on purchases when you buy any 5 or more used games (Dec 26 only)
• Refurbished Nintendo DSi XL – $99.99
• Refurbished Nintendo DSi – $79.99
• Refurbished Nintendo DS Lite – $59.99
• 2 for $5 on all used games $4.99 or less (Dec 27-31 only)
• 2 for $20 on all used games $14.99 or less (Dec 27-31 only)
• 2 for $30 on all used games priced $19.99 or less (Dec 27-31 only)

Real Canadian Superstore

•Playstation 3 Dualshock 3 + Software Bundles – $49.99
•Xbox 360 4GB + Kinect Bundle – $199.99
•Xbox 360 Kinect Camera – $99.99

Shopper’s Drug Mart

•XBOX 360 4GB Console – $129.99 (Dec 26 only)
•Nintendo Wii Console – $119

Staples

• Xbox 360 4GB Console – $99.99

The Source

• Xbox 360 4GB Kinect Bundle – $199.99
• Xbox 360 4GB Console – $129.97 (Only Valid Until Dec 27)
• Sony PlayStation 3 160GB Console – $199.99

Toysrus

• PlayStation 3D Display – $299.97
• Select Ubisoft Videogames are Buy One, Get One Free
• Kinect Sensor – $99.99
• PlayStation 3 160GB Console – $199.97

Walmart

• 160GB Playstation 3 – $199
• Nintendo 3DS Hardware – $138.00
• Kinect Sensor with The Gunstrunger, Kinect Adventures and Fruit Ninja – $98
• Xbox 360 4GB Kinect Bundle – $199
• Battlefield 3 – $39.83
• NHL 12 – $39.83
• Madden NFL 12 – $39.83
• PlayStation Move Software Bundle – $79

This week we discuss what we’re playing including Batman, ForTza, a terrifying look into the world of Amnesia and more! Also, scary games to play for Halloween, the Spooky Steam sale and an indepth look at BATTLEFIELD 3!

Direct Download: Episode 65

Battlefield 3′s launch has not been without its share of speed bumps. They have seen everything from server outages, to the lack of promised copies of Battlefield 1943 codes in new copies of the PS3 version. This is by no means a shock for any gamer that has purchased and attempted to play an online focused EA published game on launch day.

My biggest problem with Battlefield 3 though is squarely centered on the “High Definition Textures” the game “recommends” you install when booting up the game on an Xbox 360.

I have three Xbox 360s in my home and I actively hop from console to console depending on which TV is not occupied by children’s shows or the wife watching Netflix. I accomplish this with my handy 16gb thumb drive. This set up has worked flawlessly until now. I regularly install my current game of choice to the stick, which I promptly did with my brand new copy of Battlefield 3. All 7.3gb of the multiplayer disc to be specific. Upon booting up the game on the 360 slim in the bedroom I was prompted to install and additional 1.5gb for the HD textures. I find this odd but not as odd as the message I got when I try to oblige the request. I received another message stating the content cannot be saved to anything but the hard drive.

So I back out to the dashboard to clear some space from the internal storage and try to repeat the texture install only to get the same message from the game. And, then I realized. My 4gb slim model has flash memory! Without a physical hard drive YOU CAN’T PLAY THE GAME IN HIGH DEFINITION!

In this day and age I do not understand how these practices are acceptable for what is to be considered a triple A game.

IGN just posted this quick clip with gameplay in the new Azura map that’s part of the upcoming DLC coming on November 1st. I have yet to buy my season pass, it’ll be tough to keep playing this game with Uncharted3 coming out on the same day. Have you bought your GoW3 season pass yet?

Not to be undone, Steve Ballmer also spoke soon after Jack Trenton‘s talk at the Web 2.0 Summit yesterday (October 18th). Steve talked a lot about BING and the Windows Phone as well as a little about Windows 8 but what interested me where his comments about Xbox and Kinect. Asked about Microsoft’s move or lack of move in the social scene (apart from from being investors in Facebook), Steve said that Xbox Live was very social, sort of saying that Xbox Live was a pioneer in the social scene of which I can somewhat agree. LIVE was one of the first online communities I joined but other than the dashboard updates that have kept things fresh I would argue that the 100 friend limit on LIVE feeling really limiting and OLD! The subject of Kinect was brought up and Steve hinted and new things coming down the pipeline.

Jack Tretton (Sony Computer Entertainment of America/SCEA) spoke at the Web 2.0 summit that’s going on right now in San Francisco. During the event he announced the official release date for the PlayStation Vita on February 22nd, 2012. Jack also spoke about what Sony’s been going to bring gaming forward the innovations that they are pushing forward.

As a Kinect owner and a mom, I was pretty excited to hear about some great family gaming news from Microsoft today.

My daughter was a huge fan of Kinect Sports, and she was thrilled to have the chance to try out Kinect Sports: Season Two demo today. Golf and Tennis are available in the demo, but the full retail game (available on Oct 25), will also include Baseball, Skiing, Football, and Darts. This one will definitely be on her Christmas list this year!

As well, for those who were fans of the first Dance Central, the Dance Central 2 demo is also available on the Xbox Marketplace today, giving gamers a chance to try out simultaneous multiplayer, the Free 4 All minigame, voice commands, a revamped Break It Down mode and more. The entire song list was also released, with song choices ranging from Lady Gaga – Bad Romance to Willow – Whip My Hair.

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Among the half a dozen must get titles that are coming out in the next few weeks. Microsoft decided that it wasn’t enough to have GoW3 this year and is offering us a a new Halo game, well to be precise its not exactly a new game but a remake of the now classic 2001 Xbox game.

This past weekend, 343 Industries released a bunch of information including its obviously necessary Kinect functionality about the game at the New York Comic-Con.

First off the game now has a re-imagined Hang ‘Em High map that was a favourite in the original game.

Also, a new Waypoint design called “ATLAS” companion experience, and CustomChallenges.

Here’s a little more in depth info on all the news that was announced.

High Noon (also known as Hang ‘Em High in classic mode) combines a decade of poignant nostalgia with the adrenaline-pumping thrill of classic “Halo” multiplayer combat, to round out the cavalcade of seven fan-favorite multiplayer maps.

HIGH NOON – High Noon returns players to the familiar canyons and catwalks of Hang ‘Em High, the “Halo: Combat Evolved” classic multiplayer map, now reimagined for “Halo: Anniversary” with unprecedented detail. The vast generator complexes, which power this enormous slipspace portal, allow it to connect with an unknown number of locations across the galaxy. High Noon is a densely-packed arena of platforms, corridors and cover, best suited for team- based combat in both Slayer and Objective game types (4 – 12 players).

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These days its all about TDRC giving back. This weekend Neil & Mark are participating in the Extra-Life gaming marathon for the Chirldren’s Miracle Network and next week I will be participating in the annual Fight Like a Girl ”FLAG” Tournament event with Rory from GameFocus on the weekend of Oct 22 – Oct 24.

I can assure you I am certainly not an expert Halo Reach player. But I couldn’t resist such a good cause. Fight Like a Girl, or FLAG for short, is an annual Halo tournament that raises money for breast and cervical cancer research.

Organizers Kari Toyama (@TheDonWan) and Tasha Pettengill (@zoomdemon) have organized this tournament since 2006.

FLAG is played every October during breast cancer awareness month. 100% of all entry fees and donations are sent directly to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Cervical Cancer Coalition. To date, they have have raised over $22,000 for breast and cervical cancer research.

Want to participate? Here’s some information regarding the tournament:

Friday
12:01AM PDT
(This event is starting at 3:01 AM your time.)
Firefight Score Attack Events Start
[beat the best score] Solo and 4 Player Score Attack
Begin submitting your best score for Firefight Score Attack
Entry Fee: $10 Solo Event / $40 Team Event

Saturday
9:00AM PDT-3:00PM PDT
(This event is starting at 12:00 PM your time.)
2v2 Slayer Tournament
[bracketed, double elimination]
Saturday’s carnage entails a 2v2, double-elimination tournament.
Length of time subject to change due to tournament conditions.
Entry Fee: $20 Team

Sunday
9:00AM PDT-12:00PM PDT
(This event is starting at 12:00 PM your time.)
4v4 Team Tournament
[bracketed, single elimination]
Sunday begins with the return of a classic event.
Length of time subject to change due to tournament conditions.
Entry Fee: $40 Team
2:00PM PDT-5:30PM PDT
(This event is starting at 5:00 PM your time.)

FFA Slayer Tournament
[bracketed, single elimination]
FLAG ends with a bang with our Free-For-All Tournament
Entry Fee: $10 Per Person
11:59PM PDT
(This event is ending at 2:59 AM your time.)
Firefight Score Attack Events End
Your best score must be submitted by 11:59PM PDT.

I’m really looking forward to having fun and doing something I love for such a good cause.

If you’re curious on how you could participate or just give to the cause please visit FLAG’s official page http://www.flagtournament.com/

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