Some people might remember a little game that released during the holiday season called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Along with that game came the strategy guide, assisting some players on the ins-and-outs.

What some might not have realized was the Limited Edition of that strategy guide included a hands-free tri-fold laminated map guide with the multiplayer maps shown in an aerial view.

The creators of this guide is Inktree and the map peripheral is known as the Big FOLD.

I had a chance to ask CEO Eric Braun some questions about the Big FOLD, how Inktree had their first gaming-specific Big FOLD attached to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the future of Inktree in the video game industry.

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CES just ended this past weekend, and putting aside all the 3D movies, Blu-ray news, and Project Natal stories, Microsoft announced one more place where its Xbox Avatars will have something to do. The new Xbox Game Room will be a free virtual room for Live players to customize, decorate and deck out with Avatar-playable arcade cabinets of yesteryears.

What’s the big deal?

These older-gen retro arcade games will be preserved to play and look almost exactly as they did back in their hey-days. We will be charged Microsoft Points for plays beyond our second time, and more to “keep” the cabinet in our own virtual Game Rooms. Games for Windows will enable these to be played on PCs.

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The gift-receiving holiday of your choice has passed by this weekend. Being the gamer, some clueless soul has bestowed upon you most un-fun, WTF-were-they-thinking-when-they-made-it game to you as a sorry excuse for a present (or some other mediocrity of similar sentiment).

It is clearly not the game you wanted this season, but how could they have known? This does not enthuse you, but you grin and accept it. Now that this “thoughtful” person is gone, what do you do with this near AOL-disc coaster? (watch out, 90’s reference!) And how do you get started on the game you actually want? Read More »

During a recent trip to Japan, I encountered an arcade cabinet that many would call a gimmick: a rail-shooter with sliding doors, named Elevator Action Death Parade. Having read about the game earlier this year, and with it right there in front of me, I couldn’t resist but pop in a coin to try it out.

A pair of physical doors slide open and shut like an elevator, which blocks and exposes the play screen.  The doors get “stuck” and even shake at times in cue with the on-screen action behind it. Read More »

Ah Square Enix, you’ve given us some great times over the years. Your role playing games have drawn me into the greatest fantasy adventures. It’s fair to say, that you are the best and most dominant role-playing game developer in the world.

You have such a successful track record with what you do best, so why would you try to deviate from your path and team up with developer WarGaming.net to create a real time strategy game? You make RPGs, that’s it. You’re not a jack-of-all-trades, you’re not Activision or Electronic Arts. I’m almost offended that you made me waste my time on this title that I found so boring that I couldn’t even finish it! That’s right. On September 22nd, Square Enix and Wargaming.net released for the PC, Order of War, a World War 2 RTS, and let me tell you, it sucks!

Check out my video review for all of the details!

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Electronic Arts and IDW Publishing announced their partnership with two IPs: Army of Two and Dragon Age. Under this partnership, IDW will publish monthly comic series that will be released in print and online in the form of digital versions for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Essentially, EA will create the content and IDW will make sure it gets out to the public.

Army of Two will be written by Peter Mulligan with Chester Ocampo providing covers and Dexter Soy as the penciler. Army of Two will release in January 2010.

Dragon Age will be written by Orson Scott Card with Humberto Ramos providing covers.

It’s nice to see comics joining forces with video games again, maybe EA can produce some quality content that will supplement the video game.

Fresh from the start of the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix revealed two new trailers for their upcoming Final Fantasy MMO titles. These two trailers show a lot of info on the upcoming releases and gamers will want to take notice.

Check out the new trailers and more info.

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The Internet has a lot more utility than just porn…believe it or not. What started off as a great tool for communication has evolved into a Wal-Mart-esque center for, literally, everything. And while this convenience is great to us, to many businesses they’re forced to make drastic changes just to stay alive.

Many newspaper, magazine, and other printing-reliant industries have already made the switch from printing texts, to simply posting them online because readers have found it much easier to use their web browsers instead of their mail boxes.

So what’s next? My bet is on television, and to be honest, it’s about time.

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