LANCOZA Blog

Infinity Award have spared no expense with no less than three flavours of CoD Modern Warfare 2 to satisfy your taste. There is the ordinary version in a standard disc case, the tin box version, also known as the Hardened version and the Prestige version. The Prestige could also be called the 'are-you-out-of-your-fucking-mind' version. The reccommended retail price is R1500 , granted it has a tin box and night vision goggles, but it still costs more than three copies of the game. I would like to know what kind of night vision goggles you can buy for a few hundred rand. If they are this cheap then we should be selling them to peaceful countries like Iraq.

I can see the attraction of a special edition that has a figurine, bobble head, or even a tin lunch box . But an over-priced children's toy is going a bit far. Will someone please ask the Activision marketing department to take the seeds out before they smoke.

My giant robot love know no bounds. In all honesty it started with a MechWarrior game trailer and simply veered out of control. As much as I love the idea of piloting a giant robot, MechWarrior's controls made it all too clunky. It was more robot simulator then arcade action. I want my Mech combat to be more Shogo than simulator.

I hope the new MechWarrior game that's in development allows me to simply run around and blow things up without having to worry too much about over-heating weapon systems and depleted jump jets.

And lastly, in the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' news , Infinity Ward have reverted to the Call of Duty part of Modern Warfare 2 . Just goes to show that if you have spent a ton of cash creating and marketing a brand, it's not very helpful to then de-brand it .

I am Timber Wolf

I am not a fan of the comic style, the illustrations are not really to my taste. But if you are a Star Wars fan and like Dark Horse comics, then this two for one special is for you.

As a dyed in the wool , world war fan, I like to find new and interesting ways to kill Nazis. Saboteur looks like an interesting concept in the works, it is coming from EA's Pandemic Studios so we should hope for good things...

Unchartered 2 is looking very pretty, hopefully this time they can stick to a consistent story line and turn down the monster hunting a bit.

Treyarch have released another map pack, and the best part is that they have added a new Zombie map . I don't think that I will ever get tired of the World War 2 Zombie combo.

The fact the map pack is free to PC gamers really rubs salt in the wound. As an erstwhile, dyed in the wool PC gamer, I feel a physical at pain at having to buy the map packs, especially since I simply want to kill more zombies in new and exotic ways.

I had a look at the full Modern Warfare 2 trailer and it looks great. I know that I am breaking my own rules here but the teaser trailers have got me hooked. I even took a sneak peak at a few screenshots...for shame. To make matters worse I am downloading the E3 game play video while I type this - I really need help...

I am still very curious to see how well DJ Hero is received, from the looks of things the controller has been well implemented. My thinking is that it may turn out to be an also-ran rhythmn game trying to capitalise on the success of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Microsoft used E3 to unveil a fairly revolutionary gaming technology incorporating motion sensing and voice recognition. The actual implementation of the tech still has to be proven but it does provide an interesting insight into what the future may hold . Sony for their part decide that E3 is a good place to announce an updated product, which turned out to be a rough hack job of an unsuccessful product . The PSP Go looks alot like the Mylo . The fact that both products have not been as successful as Sony hoped is another unfortunate commonality that they share.

With the PSP Go Sony has finally gotten ride of the much maligned UMD drive, a propietary technology that never got any traction in the market place. In it's stead they leave a deafening silence. Sony has not mentioned what will happen to the existing UMD owners or how their games will be ported to the GO. But rest assured that Sony is working on it .

After getting all hot and bothered about the early trailers for the PS3, which  turned out to be prerendered bullshots, I am not buying into the Natal hype machine . By the looks of it the guys over at Penny-Arcade are excited about Natal for different reasons.

E3 has landed, so now we can progress from pre-show rumours, leaks and teasers to the show rumours, leaks and trailers.

One of the biggest announcements so far is Project Natal and the Milo game from Microsoft. The technology looks like it has great potential and includes motion sensing as well as face and voice recognition. If it is well implemented, it definitely has the potential to knock the Wii off it's thrown. I will reserve judgement until I see Natal in a retail game but I think that Microsoft has made the biggest impression at E3 so far and Nintendo and Sony will have to do alot to beat it. Note to Sony, the PSP chubby is not going to cut it.

One more nail in the coffin of format exclusivity is the news that the next chapter in the Metal Gear franchise will be available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

In other news, I need more sexy plastic instruments .

With the E3 just about upon us the news wires and blogs are going into over drive. The amount of news, rumours and speculation doing the rounds could fill a small country.

 One of the more interesting rumours  is the news about the PlayStation 3 slim/skinny/ugly which will not be at E3 .  As always the focus is on whether this means a price drop for the PS3 Obese. The release date should be around Christmas to take advantage of the gift buying season. This would also allow Sony more time to sell off their old stock. 

 I would bet on the PS3 slim having a competitive price point  to compete with the Xbox 360 Arcade version. I very much doubt that they will cut the price of the older PS3 because it would canabalise sales of the slim.

I recently had a look at a few inFamous trailers and the game looks great. The environment looks huge and more detailed than any other that I have seen before. It is a PlayStation 3 exclusive, so the PS3 fanboys finally have another title to crow about. If the game is a huge hit, then I predict that it will lose it's exclusivity very quickly.

 For all the die hard Call of Duty 2 fans, they have finally released a Modern Warfare 2 trailer, you can check it out here. It is certainly better than the teasers that they have released.

 

The papa bears amongst us, and I count myself as one, generally can only game late at night, maybe once a week.

 In case you haven't clicked the link, a Papa Bear is a gamer who has a family and a job and not much time for gaming.

The clip is hilarious and nails down the online gaming experience to the T.

 Your momma is a plasma rifle.