GamingConviction.com

Microsoft’s Press Conference started off with a bang by showing gameplay for Call of Duty: MW3. I thought the graphics looked pretty well, but I really expected more. Then again this will sell more copies than any other video game in history, so I guess they really don’t have anything to prove.

I liked the fact that they are making lots more games that are Kinect supported. It seems like Microsoft’s problem is that developers aren’t coming out with games fast enough. I mean the thing has been out since November, and I can’t even name 10 games for it.

That Star Wars Kinect game looks like crap. I was really expecting lots more from it. The most exciting part was when you could enter the races like in Star Wars Episode 1.

Can somebody please explain to me why Disney needs to make a Disneyland Adventure game? The game looks like it would get boring after 5 minutes. Although it was funny seeing that little kid say “This game is fun” and could clearly tell it was scripted cause he thought the game was stupid as well. Then again, Disney will still sell several thousands of copies to little kids, so I guess the money will be great.

Binary Domain will be Kinect supported… Thank God!!! End of story

Lionhead Studios still needs to convince me a bit more that Fable: The Journey is going to be worthwhile. They have me intrigued, but I still want to find out more.

Minecraft is coming to Xbox 360. Dear lord, what has this world come to. What’s next Angry Birds? Actually Angry Birds would be awesome.

Ubisoft definitely took me by surprise when they announced that you will actually be able to get out of your car in Need for Speed: The Run. That along with the fact that Autolog is in the story so I can race all of my friends across the country sounds great. Which reminds me, I need to go pre-order this game now.

Battlefield 3 Looks absolutely amazing. The gameplay footage they showed was real intense. The whole driving a tank and whenever a missile would land right next to you, you would get a warning was awesome. I will now go on record and say this… BATTLEFIELD 3 WILL BE THE CALL OF DUTY KILLER. End of story.

Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary looks pretty good as well. I like how I have the choice of playing the game with the original graphics, or the new enhanced graphics. Very nice touch. Online Co-Op is great. Only thing I’m not liking is that they are making it like Halo 3: ODST. 2 Disc game, one being the actually campaign, the other with maps for Halo Reach.

I want the game Ryse. Something about being able to be in first-person view and be a Spartan looks epically awesome. I already know that whenever I kick an opponent I will be yelling “THIS IS SPARTA!!!”

Halo 4 is finally announced. Like nobody really saw this coming, especially those who never beat Halo 3 on Legendary and went around telling everyone that Master Chief was dead. Still, it was insane.

Thanks of Ubisoft and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, I now know how to play a shooting game using a Kinect…and quite frankly, I really don’t like it. I guess I’ll just have to wait until I pick of the game to try it out.

Can somebody tell me what that “major” titled fighting game that was set to return was? If it was the fact that King of Fighters XIII will be shipped to the U.S. I’m gonna be so mad. Whatever happened to Killer Instinct, or Virtua Fighter, or Rival Schools… and where is my Double Dragon sequel?

Finally I’m gonna go on record and say this as well…Nintendo’s press conference totally destroyed Microsoft and Sonys. Wii U looks and sounds amazing. Note to Nintendo…please hurry up and release the damn thing already; I want it now!!!

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As I sit here listening to last fm, it has come to my attention that there are lots of creative people out there in the music world. When I am not playing video games, people can usually find me listening to Last Fm while I report the news or help support the site in some way, shape, or form. One station that I listen to in particular is Video Game Tag Radio. That station is mostly just full of over-clocked remixes (OC Remix), but you also find songs that are actually on game soundtracks. These songs are the ones that have made me come to this conclusion, video game composers deserve way more credit than they receive. The only composer that I can name that most video game fans know is Nobuo Uematsu. This is the guy who made the entire soundtrack to the Final Fantasy series for those who didn’t know the answer. While you may know him, I ask you this question. How many of you have heard of Koji Kondo or Masato Nakamura? I guarantee that 98% of you don’t know the answer. What makes this even more embarrassing is the fact that I we all know some of the music by heart, especially Koji Kondo. We are going to first start with Masato Nakamura.
Masato Nakamura owns a record company called DCT Records and formed a band called Dreams Come True. Despite both of those accomplishments, we know him best as the composer to Sonic the Hedgehog. That’s right everyone, this guy created the infamous opening song, Green Hill Zone, etc. He composed the music for first 2 Sonic games ever created. If you’re embarrassed, don’t feel bad just yet, now comes the fun part.
Koji Kondo is by far the most famous video game composer of all time. Everyone that has ever played a video game knows at least one song he has composed. This man was hired by Nintendo way back in 1984 without ever having to send in a demo tape. His first game he ever composed was a Nintendo game simply titled “Golf”. One year later, he composed a game that we all grew up with. You, your mother, and your grandmother know this game and song. He composed the most famous video game of all time, Super Mario Bros. That’s right everybody, he composed that opening song to level 1 that your singing to yourself right now. To makes things even better, he has also composed music for the Legend of Zelda, and Star Fox series.
Now that we have finished with that part, let me finish on a lighter note. For those who were paying attention, at the beginning of this editorial I mentioned OC Remixes. While most people think that remixes are simply done in an actual music studio with an addition singer, OC Remixes are very different. OC Remixes are actually done by ordinary people just like you and me who go out and edit old video game songs (usually from NES games), and make them sound more modern by using new software. One of these guys who I am personally a huge fan of is Star Salzman. Salzman is a 28-year-old Network Engineer by day, but at night, he is a remix composer. This guy has done remixes from video games such as Duck Tales, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man 2, and Final Fantasy VII. I highly recommend everyone to youtube or google his name and listen to some of his work.
Hopefully you all believe that composers should be credited more. These guys in my opinion deserve to not only be featured in the ending credits, but also in the back of the game cases as well. Until next time everyone.

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While I haven’t really herd of any kinds of trouble regarding the new update. I started to discover first hand the problems that seem to have unfolded recently with the new Xbox update. My Halo Reach Special Edition console recently started freezing up on me randomly about 2 weeks ago. Well finally last night, after 12 freezes in less then 10 minutes, my xbox finally got a red light in the middle. I took a picture of it using my phone and sent it into Andrew. This morning, I called Xbox customer service and went through their list of troubleshooting. They first told me to go to memory and reset my cache list 3 times. After about 5 minutes, the console froze up yet again. This time when I restarted my console, I got a red light and my screen said I had the E71 error. So I called Customer Support yet again and explained to them what just happened. After about 40 minutes of troubleshooting, they finally told me that I was going to have to send my console in. That’s right everyone, my Halo Reach console that’s only 2 MONTHS OLD has to be sent in. So I decided to try and do some research and see if anyone else has had this problem. I instantly noticed that many people on the official xbox forums, as well as other gaming forums around the internet have been bombarded with questions about their consoles receiving the Red Ring of Death. Many players who are currently using the old Xbox 360 who didn’t have issues with the RRoD previously are now starting to have problems with it. One man on the forums even said that both his Halo 3 and Resident Evil consoles experiences the RRod in the same day. When I told them that my Halo Reach console received the E71 error, everyone was shocked to here what I had to say. It has come to my realization and many other gamers around the world that the cause of all of these problems in the last month have been caused by the new dashboard update. Microsoft hasn’t even released any kind of statement regarding this issue that is causing many headaches. Many gamers who have experienced this issue before have sworn to never buy another console again from Microsoft. We here at Gaming Conviction have decided to do our own investigation into this issue. We have already sent some e-mails to people within Microsoft for any kind of statement but as of this time have yet to receive any kind of reply from anyone. So we ask you, the loyal readers to comment down below and tell us your Xbox horror stories. We will use your comments in our investigation to have what we here are referring to as the “Second coming of the RRoD” finally solved.

The recent XBox LIVE update that enabled using USB drives as save devices, just opened up a whole new clientel of modders.  Until now, only those willing to purchase special devices were able to modify their console, save games, etc.  With this update, it is estimated that hundereds, if not thousands of users will begin to modify game content, including save games, map files, gamer profiles, etc.

An investigation by GamingConviction.com showed that using the USB drive to modify save games was relatively easy.  We also discovered that it is relatively easy to download a save game, and replace the system IDs and gamer IDs to unlock achievements, or to modify game performance (player speed, auto aim (aimbots), environment settings, etc.).  We also discovered that it is also possible to manualy modify unlocked achievements, gamerscore, and several otehr profile factors.  On top of this, it’s been found that it is relatively easy to download gamerpictures, themes, and add-on content for free.
(Disclaimer:  Modified data was NEVER imported to ANY console, whether connected to XBox LIVE or not.  This investigation was simply conducted to see the possibilites that the USB update has opened.  GamingConviction.com, or any of its staff endorses, or encourage cheating or console/profile/game modification in ANY way, for ANY reason.  In addition, GamingConviction.com, or its staff did not download any stolen/pirated content.)

While there has been a small part of the XBox community that has used these sorts of mods before this update, the fact that you can now access all the required components for little or nothing will likely increase the size of this small group.  As usual, the XBox LIVE Policy Enforcement Team will continue to ban users who decide to cheat, or modify hardware or content.  As a reminder, if you feel that any cheating has occured, please file a complaint on the gamer.  All complaints are reviewed, and acted upon if needed.

I was skeptical of online gaming when I purchased my Xbox 360 nearly a year ago. After all, I had gone it alone with the original Xbox and felt that me, myself and I alone in a room with diet pepsi and a bag of pork rinds was the pinnacle of fun. Man, was I wrong. There was a whole world out there that I had never realized was going on, the return of fun that was long missing from the malaise of the common internet experience the rest of the world was experiencing.

I started with Project Gotham Racing 4, an easy enough racing game to cut your teeth on, and found that the world was more competitive racing than anything else. After being away from serious gaming for a stretch, my skills were rusty, my trash talk mediocre… I was behind the curve and had some catching up to do. Always in “A” class and always racing the harcore tracks, I began to improve also began to notice the differences in play among the different nationalities represented.

The British, by far, were the Zen masters of trash talk and dirty racing; Their talents pertaining to smashing their opponents into the wall were the stuff of legend. Their accents giving their derision weight and punch… oh how I hated racing with the British lads. However, my own skills were much getting better because of it. I suppose that was cold comfort after being smashed into a wall by a bloke in a lightweight Ariel Atom… oh you bastard you!

I moved on, of course, did my time in the Grand Theft Auto IV realm, finding out that children have a far meaner streak than adults. Is it no wonder that Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies” hit a nerve. There is nothing so unsettling as hearing “BOOM! HEADSHOT, bitch!” come through your headset as a child dispatches you with ease. Needless to say that I did not last long in that world. I was just lacking that killer instinct needed.

Recently, I found a niche with Midnight Club: Los Angeles, a racing game put out by Rockstar. Granted, the game does have its highs and lows, most notably the superhuman AI, but the online play is where the game does truly shine. The game has its bugs, mostly when one is showing off and cycling through their cars while someone else is cycling through their cars. You’ll see their handle disappear from the playing list and you know that somewhere, an Xbox just locked up. Always gives me a little smile having gone through the same song and dance so many times before.

What’s really excellent about Midnight Club: LA is the socializing… If you want to race all night long, there are more than enough folks to take you up on it. If you just want to chill in a digital parking lot and talk about cars or whatever until the wee hours of the AM, well that’s cool too. This is why you got Xbox Live. That fact is what brings me back to the halcyon days of the internet; that comraderie of knowing that you were in on something the average weenie knew nothing about.

So, if you haven’t gotten this game yet, please do. Just don’t expect Forza 3… this is a cartoon, a caracature of the Fast & Furious lifestyle that allows anyone to be those guys for a couple of hours, complete with cheesy dialog and over the top cars.

Have fun. More to come.

I’ve been an Xbox LIVE member for over 7 years now, and have paid $50/year every year to be so, since the original launch.  Back when Xbox LIVE started, especially in racing games, you saw logos of companies that regularly sponsored racing.  In some shooters, you occasionally saw a fictional advertisement.  This is becoming more prominent every day.

The other evening, I was playing Splinter Cell: Double Agent with my fellow staff members Matt and Evan.  I couldn’t help but noticing as we played on the Black Wing map, the advertisements for the Section 8 DVD.  I was shocked that there were actually current ads in the game, but the news section hadn’t been updated since 2006.

Later that night, I hopped over to play Midnight Club: LA with fellow ZoomerX.com columnist Scott.  I’d seen ads before in that game, but thought they were fictional.  I decided to do a Google search, and found that the ads in that game are indeed for a legitimate company.  I viewed their website, and later found out they were a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles, California.  While viewing the website, I did find some racy pictures, and advertising that would definitely not be appropriate for minors, yet the link to the website is clearly displayed in an “E” rated game.

But when I backed out to my dashboard, and saw nearly a half-dozen panels that were advertisements for non-Xbox products, then I got concerned.  Advertising has been taking over the internet, especially as other advertising mediums such as TV and radio are falling out of popularity with the younger generations over the last few years.  Most websites have more ads than content now, however, when advertisements start spilling in to my games, that’s really crossing the line.

Every year, I pay Microsoft $50 to be an Xbox LIVE “Gold” member.  On top of that, I pay $60+ for games, and even more on downloadable content for my games.  I could understand the dashboard ads if I were a “silver” member, but not as a veteran paid-member.  Being forced to see these ads on my dashboard just makes me feel as if my money just isn’t good enough for “Microsoft.”  This is especially true when I see advertisements for products that aren’t even related to the Xbox, or Microsoft.  I pay to be a member of Xbox LIVE.  I paid my dues, but yet I am still treated like I’ve paid nothing.  I want to see my console’s information, and be able to navigate around the menus on my $400 console (not counting the 2 times I’ve been charged for repairs, or my memberships).

Advertisements are understandable in 1 vs. 100, seeing as that is a high-cost, high-maintenance game that we are getting for free.  But when I start seeing ads in games I’ve paid full price for, then I start to feel ripped off.  I bought a game to play the game, not see advertisements.  After looking closer at several other games, I’ve noticed ads in them, but only in the newer games.

Without some control to all this advertising every time we load our own music, pictures, or even games, we may have to watch a “sponsored message” first.  It shouldn’t come to this, but I feel that it may, with out even a little bit of control.  Let’s not let it come to this.

These days, countless Xbox and Xbox 360 games are making there way on to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and on to user’s hard drives. There are people that support this method of game distribution, and those who don’t.  I personally believe that it takes more away from the gamer, than it gives back. Read the rest of this entry »

As many of you know, there have been numerous leaks of MW2 this week.  A new leak today takes the cake.  A full XBox 360 disk image was released on numerous popular torrent websites earlier today.  Now, there are hundreds of new videos popping up, and even more spoilers. Read the rest of this entry »