I used to do that! I’ve been incredibly busy working a project that’s been sucking a lot of my time away. I’ve still been able to start a new homebrewing blog (New York Home Brew!) and get a bunch of reviews written, though…

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

I unabashadly love this game. I just picked up the first book from the series that inspired the game and am doubly impressed by how faithful a translation it is. Fully plan on going back through it on the harder difficulty, and I barely ever do that.
Review on Guyspeed

The Walking Dead

I’m loving that this game is finally getting some attention with mainstream press, including a massive article in the New York Times this week. It really is a great game, and both that increasingly middling tv show and Telltale’s Jurassic Park disaster seem to be convincing people not to bother with it. Their mistake- it’s one of the most exciting zombie properties in years.

Review on Badass Digest

Death Worm

Fun little game, even if there isn’t much to it. The Lite version was fun enough to earn my buck- I was just sad to find out that I’d already experienced all it had to offer. But hey, closest to a Tremors videogame we’ll ever get.

Review on Tapsauce

Sniper Elite V2

The most brutal Nazi destruction since Inglourious Basterds. I ain’t kidding when I say this one is pure, violent catharsis. I really, really need that DLC that lets you assassinate Hitler.

Review on Guyspeed.

When I got a review copy of Fallout 3 they sent it to me the day of release. I didn’t get the review up for almost two months. Thankfully they sent me Skyrim a couple of weeks ago and while I still have so much more to do in the game (so, so much more to do) I was able to get up a Skyrim review on launch day. Tried something a little different with this one, trying to demonstrate what it’s like to play it rather than tick off bullet points like THE GRAPHICS, THE REPLAY, etc. 

I really love this game, but now I’ve got to hold off on it to play some lesser games for work. Ah well… it ain’t going anywhere. I just can’t wait to sink another 100 hours into it.

For me, at least. I’d already cancelled my service a couple years ago but now there’s really no reason to go back. They’ve just announced a ton of new TV and content providers that will be available on the Xbox 360 later this year. Also, as someone who loves barking at his TV to let it know when to pause Mad Men, the Kinect functionality is greatly appreciated. Here’s the full list-

•    ABC iView – Australia 

•    AlloCiné – France, Germany, Spain, U.K.  

•    Antena 3 – Spain 

•    Astral Media’s Disney XD – Canada 

•    AT&T** – U.S. 

•    BBC – U.K. 

•    blinkbox – U.K. 

•    Bravo – U.S. 

•    BSkyB** – U.K. 

•    Canal+* – France, Spain 

•    Channel 4 – U.K. 

•    Channel 5 – U.K. 

•    CinemaNow (Best Buy) – U.S. 

•    Comcast – U.S. 

•    Crackle – Australia, Canada, U.K., U.S. 

•    Dailymotion – Available in 32 markets   

•    EPIX – U.S. 

•    ESPN** – U.S. 

•    Facebook** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets 

•    FOXTEL** – Australia 

•    GolTV – Spain 

•    HBO GO – U.S. 

•    Hulu – Japan 

•    Hulu +**– U.S. 

•    iHeartRadio (Clear Channel) – U.S. 

•    Last.fm** – U.K., U.S. 

•    LOVEFiLM – Germany, U.K.  

•    Manga Entertainment – U.S. 

•    Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment/Real Sports – Canada 

•    Mediaset – Italy 

•    MSN with MSNBC.com – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, U.K.    

•    MUZU.TV – France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K. 

•    Netflix**– Canada, U.S. 

•    Rogers On Demand Online (RODO) – Canada 

•    RTVE – Spain 

•    SBS On Demand – Australia 

•    Syfy – U.S. 

•    Telefonica – Spain 

•    Televisa – Mexico   

•    “The Today Show” – U.S. 

•    TELUS** – Canada 

•    TMZ – U.S. 

•    Twitter** – Available in all 35 Xbox LIVE markets 

•    UFC – Canada, U.S. 

•    Verizon – U.S. 

•    VEVO – Canada, U.K., U.S. 

•    VimpelCom** – Russia 

•    Vodafone Portugal** – Portugal 

•    YouTube – Available in 22 markets 

•    ZDF – Germany 

•    Zune** – Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain

* Xbox LIVE Gold membership and/or other subscriptions/fees required. Kinect functionality varies by feature, provider and region. 

** Denotes existing partners on Xbox LIVE available today.

The one thing that drives me nuts? HBO Go, instead of just HBO. If I could subscribe to the channel I’d do it in a second. I still haven’t seen Game of Thrones or Boardwalk Empire… (grumble)

The full press release after the jump-

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Capcom just sent along codes for Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Code Veronica X, both prettied up in their new HD versions for Xbox 360 and PS3. Resident Evil 4 looks absolutely beautiful and still plays quite well, even though games have made big advances since this one standardized the over-the-shoulder cam for third person games. 

More than this I’m excited to play through Code Veronica again, since I haven’t played it since it first hit the Dreamcast eleven (!) years ago. I’m sure it hasn’t aged too well (since I found it a little hard to get back into Resident Evil 2 recently) but that one was my favorite for quite a while.

So I’m actually glad to see these new versions, with all the extra modes from all the various versions. The price for these is a little unsettling, though. 20 bucks a pop? C’mon, Capcom… these should should have been half that price.

Absolutely loved this game, can’t wait to play through it again.

I forgot how many games are coming out in the next few months. Dead Island is the next, hitting next Tuesday. The game would have sold me just with that first cinematic trailer (really one of my favorite gaming trailers ever) but from what I’ve been hearing, the co-op is aces. Can’t wait to try it out.

If you’re interested in the backstory behind these characters, Deep Silver released a short comic through Marvel that you can read online here- https://subscriptions.marvel.com/digitalcomics/view_white.htm?iid=22757

Speaking of great Namco Bandai games…

Demon’s Souls was quite nearly my favorite PS3 games of 2009 (if only that little Uncharted game hadn’t come out!) so you can damn sure bet that I’m excited for Dark Souls, the spiritual successor. The graphics look amazing and there seems to be even more giant enemies that will ruthlessly kill you, just like all us sadomasochists that love Demon’s Souls like it.

Stricken by the curse of undead, gamers are abolished to the northern realms and must battle hideous demons and unimaginable monsters to collect souls and find the Eternal Flame of Life, which is losing its light, to survive and cure the curse of undead.

With tense dungeon crawling and fearsome enemy encounters, the seamlessly intertwined world of Dark Souls is full of extreme battles, rewarding challenges, nuanced weaponry and magic, and the flexibility to customize each character to suit any desired play style.  The innovative online component allows gamers to draw from the collective experience of the Dark Souls community as they either help or sabotage each other on the journey through the Northern Realms to save the land from darkness.  With a massive, seamless open world design, Dark Souls encourages deep exploration and an adaptable gameplay experience.

They’re going to be releasing a collector’s edition for 60 bucks (yep, same price) that comes with an art book, strategy guide and soundtrack download. Pretty great offer for fans, and nice of them not to gouge us for another 20 bucks like every other collector’s edition out there.

Dark Souls will hit stores in October, and Xbox 360 gamers will get to see what all the fuss was about this time as well.