I was doing my daily surf around the news sites when I came across a game called Race Driver: GRID on Voodoo Extreme. Why I haven’t seen this game before I don’t know but I am glad I found out about it now because it looks awesome.

I don’t buy that many games because of two reasons. One is that I hate to pay $60 just to play it once since I am not a big multiplayer person. The other is replay value. In order for me to buy a game new it has to have a good amount of replay value and that is one of the biggest reasons I love racing games. But this game, from the footage below, gave me some more reasons that I might buy this new.

First is the damage. Forza 2 had damage but not like this. Wheel flying off, parts going everywhere. Now thats cool. Another, and one I have been waiting for, is you can really roll your car. This something that you can’t do in PGR, Forza or Gran Turismo. Add to that open wheel cars and you got me hooked.

Just watch the video below. You looking forward to this?

I was sent this video that showed how you can play on Xbox Live for free. What this does is give you 48 hour passes that you can use and some times you get Microsoft points. This won’t give you a gold account and everything that gos with it but at least you get to play online for free.

So what you do is go to here and bookmark it. You should see a register page to win a trip to Xbox headquarters. When you fill in the info all you need is two characters for the screen name and password and put in some fake email address. Make sure the year in the DOB is before 1994. Now click submit.

On the next page it will ask for a access code. Just click on “I don’t have an access code” and it will give you one. Be sure to copy that somewhere because you will be using it a lot. Go back now and put in the access code it gave you. Below that is the crappy word verification. If you can’t read it just click below the image and get a new one. Once that is done click Lets Play.

On the next page its going to say that your not a winner but you really are. So you don’t go away mad after all that crap you have to type in they give you a 48-hour trial code. Copy it down and go back to the page that you bookmarked. Log out and go back to the bookmarked page again. Now just do it over to get another 48-hour trial code. Just change the user name and email address and keep using the access code from the first time. You can keep doing this over and over.

This is the fastest way to get past Chamber 14 in Portal. And Happy New Year!

There is this game coming out and I think its name is Halo. From what I can tell it has this guy in a green armor and it take place in space. Not sure what its about but dam if it isn’t everywhere.

Ya, we get it Bungie. Halo 3 is about to be released. And like Gears of War it is going to be the best game ever. Problem is that I don’t care anymore. You have Master Chief everywhere. Its just a game. We buy it, we play it and then me more on. Look at BioShock. Pretty good game but I am done with it. Not going to play it again. Now for you multi player people this might just be the game your looking for.

And if your a Halo collecter, man you got your work cut out for you so let me help. You can get the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Headset. Its green. Maybe the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controller Brute or the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controller Spartan. By the way they are $20 then the normal wireless controller. Better yet you can your the Limited Edition Halo 3 Wireless Controller on your Special Edition Xbox 360™ Halo 3 Console. Its green too. And when your not using all your special Xbox 360 stuff you can use your Special Edition Halo Zune. Rock out to the sounds of Halo when reading all the Halo news with the Halo 3 RSS Reader and drinking your special Halo Mountain Dew.

Its not that I don’t want to play Halo 3 because I do. My point is that you don’t need to do all this needless ads. This is the Medal Gear Solid for Xbox. You could of cut the ads by 3/4 and still have it be the huge hit its going to be. The thing that I am looking forward to seeing is if its going to be as good as say BioShock. Its been hyped more that anything be is it going to pay off. Let me say this now, just because you sold more copy’s that any other game in no way means that it way a good game.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the BioShock Demo and how cool it was. I wrote about how I was not really into it till the demo came out how it hooked me but the problem now is that I can’t find it. Really its no where to be found. I was at the mall today and went into GameStop and not one copy to be seen anywhere. Its unreal. Even with the messed up release of Gears of War there were still copies everywhere.

The part that sucks the most is that I was ready to pay the $60 for the game, something that I never do for a single player game, and nobody has it. I even went into a place I hate (Blockbuster) to see if it was there and of course it wasn’t. But the good part is that since I can’t find it I just saved $60 because now I will just wait till I can rent it for a few days and it will only cost me $5. On the other hand I am still going to spend the $60 when The Orange Box comes out.

I have been gaming for as long as I can remember. There are thing in real life that are never apart of games. You know the small things like it takes a full clip to kill someone. Health pack always have the red X on them and are everywhere. Lets not forget that every city in the world has far to many wooden crates so they must be left in the streets.

But lets say that it didn’t take a clip to kill someone. One or two shots and your dead. Health pack or a medic are nowhere to be seen and there isn’t a wooden crate for hundreds of miles. Now you must use tactics. Run and gun is going to get you killed quick. Thats tactical gaming and the best known for this is the Rainbow Six games (ok maybe not all the Rainbow Six games). But Rainbow Six isn’t the only tactical game out there. The list is huge ranging from First Person Shooters to flight simulators. Some do it better than others and some get it all wrong.

Thats where dslyecxi.com comes in. Dslyecxi has put together what I think is the best overview of tactical games out there. He covers everything from the impact of goggles on your vision to what effects obstructions should have on your weapon handling. Everything is covered here and there are many videos so you can clearly understand the points he is trying to get across. So if your into tactical gaming be sure to read his article Tactical Gaming Done Right and the follow up Best of Tactical Gaming: Infiltration.

The game Pray has a history almost as good as Duke Nukem Forever. What started in 1995 and was released 2006 has seen many different versions. In 95 the story was you are abducted from Earth, and wake up with a biotech suit on and the suit is apart of you (something like the Borg from Star Trek: TNG). By 2006 it was on the Doom 3 engine and you a Cherokee named Domasi Tawodi (aka Tommy) trying to save his girlfriend Jen after being abducted from a bar in Oklahoma. Over at apogeegames.com there is a full history of this game with quotes from the many people that worked on it over the years.

From the beginning, Prey was designed multiplayer, user modification, and scalability in mind. Prey even included a C like scripting language, much like Quake and Unreal have. The 3D engine started off as software only, but later added hardware support for 3D cards. Also dynamic lighting was a big feature of the early engine. The online portion included a feature where the player is able to seamlessly jump from one server to another. This might not sound like much today, but in early 1996 this was huge.

If you have played the game or you are thinking about getting it on Steam you will want to read this.

The BioShock Demo came out last night so I let it download over night. Not a small demo at over a gig in size. I got home to night and wanted to check it out. Now up intill tonight I wasn’t really looking forward to this one. I’ve seen all the movies and read all the hype but not till I try something out will I get into it. And man am I into it now.

I check out Major Nelson’s podcast last night were he had an interview with Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games, creators of BioShock. He describes the demo as something of a directors cut were you start at the beginning of the game. You just lived through a plane crash and there just one tall building for you to swim to. From there everything pretty much is trying to kill you but the guy your talking to on a radio. Hes trying to get you to help him save his wife and kid.

The thing that really got me was the level of detail all over. From the 50′s posters and rugs to the music that plays almost everywhere. The architecture fells right. The lighting fells right. To me it just felt like everything comes together just right. The only thing that I didn’t like was the guy on the radio. My 360 is setup with optical out so I have 5.1 but for some reason he was really hard to understand at times. I don’t know if thats the way it is for everyone or just my setup. Other than that I can’t wait to check out more of Rapture.

There is no reason that I can see why anyone would pay $60 for any game. Much less $70. But thats just me, I could be wrong.

I’m looking at all the games for the 360 that are coming out in November and it looks like there going to be a lot of good ones. I say looks like cause I have been fooled before (Doom 3). So lets look at the list and the prices for each.

Gears of War $59.99 Limited Collector’s Edition $69.99 Release Date 11/8/2006

There is no question that this is the biggest games coming out this month. With all the hype around it you would that that its the second coming of Jizzy Crizzy. So there has to be a Limited Collector’s Edition, for $70. Now who would get that I have no idea being that there is no demo and as far as anyone knows theres not going to be one before it comes out. It comes with, and let me get this right from Xbox.com, “a highly collectible embossed metal box” – “a hardbound, coffee-table style book on the art and history of Gears of War” – “bonus disc loaded with special features including a behind the scenes look at the making of Gears of War, a trailer for The Art of Gears of War, and the short documentary Gears of War: The Race to E3″. The way I see it your paying $10 for a book because the “metal box” is just going to sit next to your 360 doing nothing in a few months and the dvd if going to be on all torrent sites and YouTube. Like everyone else I will end up getting this game but not for $60. At least not until Epic puts a demo on Xbox Live.

F.E.A.R. $59.99 Release Date 11/8/2006

Coming out the same day as Gears of War. Not to smart to start with and this is the best part. There is a demo you can get but this game has been out for the PC for months. Now I am betting that if you have a 360 you have a PC and if so you are better off getting the PC version for just one reason. Its $30. Thats right it only $30 at CompUSA. You can get the Director’s Edition of F.E.A.R. for the PC and the just released expansion pack Extraction Point ($30) for the same price as the game alone for the 360. What more needs to be said.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas $59.99 Release Date Nov. ?

I have no idea when this game is coming out. CompUSA says November 15, IGN has it as November 7 and November 17 for Europe and Xbox.com has idea. Not that it matter anyway because I won’t be getting it. This is one of those times when the demo hurt the game, at least for me. I was looking forward to getting this one because I like the Rainbow Six games and then the demo came out on Xbox Live for everyone but Canada, Mexico or the U.S. Well shit! So I go get a copy of OXM because they have it for the month. That was a bad idea. Turns out that Vegas is nothing more than Ghost Recon in drag. Seems like all they did was give you some new moves and move it to Vegas. Not saying that Ghost Recon was bad but Vegas doesn’t fell like a Rainbow Six game at all. You lower that price to $40 Ubi Soft and I will run right out and pick it up.

Call of Duty 3 $59.99 Release Date Nov/7/2006

Put it out a day before Gears. Someone was thinking. Other than that, this one is hard to argue the price for two major reasons. This game has a solid history behind it. Call of Duty set the standard for WW2 shooters. Call of Duty 2 did it even better and add on top of that the multi player. Even with that $60 is still kind of high. I would of loved it if it was $50. I would be waiting in line.

Need for Speed Carbon $59.99 Collector’s Edition $69.99 Release Date Nov/1/2006

Does any part of this game take place during the day? Again its the $60 game and $70 Collector’s Edition. Whats in the Collector’s Edition you might ask (since all the people I have talk to didn’t even know there was a Collector’s Edition). It has three new cars, ten specially tuned cars, six new races, ten exclusive vinyl kits, and a bonus DVD containing behind-the-scenes footage on the making of the game. The strange thing is that the Collector’s Edition for the PC is only $40.

Its not that I don’t have the money to buy these games at $60, its just that I can’t get them at that price when there is limited replay to them or there just expansion packs sold as full games like NFS Carbon. I understand that it takes along time to make a game like Gears of War and in turn that takes tons of money but I would rather pay $50 for a somewhat short game that is great then $60 for a long game that I wish I could return (Doom 3).