Newest Xbox Live Dashboard Video Leaked.

Set to release this fall, Xbox's newest dashboard update has made it's way to Youtube. 

Blog Written by : Joe The Gamer ; Gaming Blog

The New layout features  " Tiles " Much Windows Phone 7. It seems much more fluent and hopefully will fix the lag that is present with the current dashboard. 


Although the video is in French, the new dashboard looks much nicer  that the current one, and will be fully controllable with Kinect. 
It also features  Bing, voice control, and Live Streaming Television. 


The update is set to release officially later this fall. 
Blog Written by : Joe The Gamer ; Gaming Blog
Source : IGN

Battlefield 3 on PS3 is the better game on Consoles.

The team at Dice push the limits of the PS3 while still staying within their budget.


When Developing games, game companies will normally just port the assets to the other consoles. In this case with the Xbox is the weaker console therefore game companies develop for Xbox 360 and port to the PS3. Sometimes those ports will look worst on the PS3 than the Xbox because companies don't want to spend the extra cash on development but when a company does everything right the PS3 version can far succeed the 360.

That is the case with the latest Battlefield 3. While they may not match the power of a PC the developers are definitely doing everything they can in order  maximize the users experience.

In a recent interview with PSB Dice producer Patrick Liu talks about the game on the PS3 and how they are pushing the console to its limits.

PSB:That level you showed on the PS3 was huge, but it was also highly detailed — I saw mirrored floors, reflective surfaces, tons of special effects and physics with a smooth frame rate. Are you confident that PS3 players are going to get a great experience?

Patrick Liu: Oh yeah. We’re very confident – we’re pushing the hardware big-time. Of course, we have a performance budget that we have to hit. Everything counts into that: the scale costs performance, destruction, animation, special effects…those are all the things we cram in there. I feel really good about where we ended up with on the PS3.

On top of pushing the console, it has also been confirmed that the first Battlefield DLC will be a PS3 times exclusive for one week. It appears that the PS3 is going to be the place to be when Battlefield 3 is released.


Source

Mass Effect 3 Will / Will Not Have Multiplayer

Multiplayer or No Multiplayer ? That's the question.

Blog Written by : Joe The Gamer ; Blog 

The Latest update in the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Saga, a pamphlet from the South African Games retailer, BT Games, advertises the ME3 Collectors Edition, which includes a " Online Multiplayer Pass "

Now before jumping to any conclusions, this could be another way of saying it will include a code for the Cerberus Network, like ME2 had, though, why not just say " Cerberus Network Code " ? Although we cannot confirm either way, it will interesting to see what exactly this code will be used for. 

Remember, ME3 was delayed from Holiday Season, 2011 Until Q1 of 2012. BioWare claimed that it needed longer to work on ME3, because it wanted it to be the best in the series, begging the question, Is BioWare working on making the Campaign better, or making a Multiplayer Mode Better ? 

We may not be sure for a while, but one thing we do know, is that on March 6th 2012, we will be able to play the newest game, in one of the best Series of all time, Mass Effect 3. 

Blog Written by : Joe The Gamer ; Blog 

Via : joystiq

Source :  BioWare Forums

Battlefield 3 Beta Review

The Battlefield 3 Beta Opened today for owners of Medal Of Honor, Limited Edition, and i was one of the happy owners.

Battlefield 3 Beta Review. By Joe The Gamer.

The first thing i noticed when i started playing, was the sounds. Guns firing, Grenades exploding, footsteps running, and that's just the start of it. It all sounds so, fresh, crisp, and real. Although i haven't heard a grenade explode in real life, i imagine it sounds more like it does in BFBC3 than in previous games. 

Map size was an issue for me in BF2, and so far, BF3 seems no different. What i mean is, you don't feel in the game while your playing. In MW2, for example, you always feel like your in the game, just a few seconds away from your next kill, death, kill streak, or capture. Battlefield just doesn't give me that same feeling.

It took me a good minute or two to actually find an enemy, where i then got snipped. By the end of a couple games i was starting to get to double digits in kills, but i still never got that feeling, that i could get into the zone. 

The overall feel of the game didn't impress me too much. When i was running it felt choppy, and the gun animations didn't seem up to par with what i expect from a top tier FPS. You get virtually no warning that your getting shot at, until your dead, which was also a problem in Medal Of Honor. As for the glitches that are seen in the beta, including falling below the map ( as seen in the pic. ), the Dice Community manager had this to say : A lot of what you are seeing in the BETA doesn’t exist in the main game already. 1st Party submissions mean we couldn’t give a version of the latest code in the BETA but the retail game is well ahead of what you are seeing now with a lot more bug fixes already in place.


This beta didn't impress me too much, but this isn't the full, polished game, so i won't read too much into it. 
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Toxic Venom Studios Logo

Today I unveil the logo for my studio.


It's not easy to come up with a name for a company as practically everything today has already been used. But needless to say I am happy with the name that I chose and the logo that was drawn out thanks to an artist I found on Craigslist. Anyway I've had this logo for a while and I thought that I should share it with you today and here it is.


I think the cobra works great for this logo and while it may not be fancy like other Logo's, I think it gets the message out there.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Steam: Free Game for the Weekend

Get your game on with a Free game from Steam.


Let's face it the economy sucks and most of us don't want to spend any money because were broke. So if you're not doing anything special this weekend you might want to consider heading on over to Steam for their Free title for the weekend.

This weeks free title is called PAM or Post Apocalyptic Mayhem.

Here is the titles description:

Post Apocalyptic Mayhem lets you race and battle heavily-modified vehicles through numerous breathtaking tracks and lay waste to other racers in over-the-top vehicular mayhem. You can use special vehicle abilities to cause spectacular destruction to enemy cars as you fight and speed to victory. You’ll experience remarkable speeds, hilarious and violent weapons, reinforced vehicles and various exhilarating tracks.

The game offers various intense race modes to allow you to showcase both your driving and battling skills. PAM features an accessible physics-based driving model that allows you to sense the immense speed of all the post apocalyptic vehicles as well as feel every bone-jarring impact from both weapons and the tracks. Play single-player or battle up to five friends in online multiplayer mode.

Key Features:

• Vehicles – PAM offers numerous post apocalyptic vehicles. All the Vehicles are heavily-modified and extremely menacing. All Vehicles are heavy-duty, reinforced and are able to take and give a lot abuse. The vehicles all look like they can quickly and easily travel over the newly scorched wasteland while effortlessly smashing other vehicle along the way.
• Weapons – All of the vehicles have three unique and powerful abilities that they can use to severely damage opposition vehicles: one front attack, a side attack and a rear attack. A Player can receive these special abilities by picking up Special Ability Barrels that are placed throughout all of the tracks. When a vehicle runs over a Special Ability Barrel, the vehicle will gain that specific ability and the Player will be able to use it whenever they prefer.
• Multiplayer – Intense Online Multiplayer racing for up to 6 players.
• Environments – The PAM tracks will be able to give players numerous options while racing as well as create intense areas for the all important collisions. All Tracks will contain:
• Awe-inspiring apocalyptic environments.
• Various paths around certain areas of the tracks.
• Funnel areas were players are forced to drive in close quarters with other vehicles.
• Huge Jumps.
• Numerous compelling and completely unique tracks.
• Achievements – 35 Steam achievements to be earned and displayed proudly.
• Online Leader Boards – Every kill, every race and every result will be recorded and uploaded to online leader boards for bragging rights and fueled competition.

 System Requirements

• OS: Windows® XP/Vista™/7
• Processor: Intel P4 3.0GHz or similar AMD
• Memory: 1GB RAM
• Hard Disk Space: 1GB available space
• Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, ATi Radeon X1800 XT or better
• DirectX®: 9.0c, June 2010 update
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c support
•  
• PAM is free to play until Sunday at 1pm.

Battlefield 3 Beta Available for Download

I'm currently downloading it as we speak.


So it's finally time to see what Battlefield 3 is all about. Whether the game is well worth the wait or if we should all go back to the junk known as Modern Warfare. The beta for Battlefield 3 is currently available on PS3. XBox 360 and PC with the PC version being on EA's newest Download Service, Origin.

In order to get the PC version of the Beta you must download Origin and log in with your EA account. The PS3 and XBox Live versions both can be downloaded via the PSN and Xbox Live Marketplace.

For PC Users here are the system requirements:

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-Bit
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ or Althon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card (AMD): DirectX 10.1 compatible with 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 series, with ATI RADEON 3870 or higher performance)
Graphics Card (NVIDIA): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 series with NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT or higher performance)
Sound card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows 7 64-Bit
Processor: Quad-Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card: DirectX 11 compatible with 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 or ATI RADEON 6950)
Sound Card: DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse

I am so excited for this day and can't wait for play this game on my PC.