Gamefly Launches Ponged.com

In an effort to expand beyond the game rental business, Gamefly has launched the Ponged.com. The aim of the site is supply free to play flash games to the masses. Before writing off the venture as a has bins paradise of mediocrity, Gamefly goes out of its way to assure us that the "hard core" crowd is doing all the vetting work.

So does this mean games like Peggle will be sadly lacking or does that game somehow count as "hard core" ?

Should the PC prove too retro a platform for your gaming delight, the site is fully functional with both the web browsers available on the Wii and PS3.

Good bye Xbox Originals, Hello Games on Demand

While it appears to be simple re branding of "xbox originals" on xbox.com marketplace, it holds promise down the road. This coming August the new "Games on demand", featuring fully downloadable games just like the "xbox originals" section its replaced, will also be hosting a collection of 360 titles. Both 360 and arcade titles are seperate from the original xbox hits but sadly lacking in content when one looks into the 360 section.

Its odd that no official posting was done by microsoft in light of this shift in branding.

Xbox 360 Arcade Upgrading to 512MB onboard memory.

After being confirmed by Eurogamer, its now official that the jasper motherboards found in the arcade xbox 360 will be packing 512MB of memory. Unfortunitly this was done so that the arcade xbox's would be able to make full use of the new xbox experience. Looks like we still need to buy memory cards.

Initial impressions: Terminator Salvation

By: AL3x



yesterday Terminator Salvation arrived in the mail. I'm about 3 chapters in and have a lukewarm response to the game. I'll state the pro's and con's at the end of this post. To summarize, you are john Connor in the year 2016 and rather then being the bad ass portrayed in the movie, you're still finding your footing in world of AI challenged machines. You'll regularly be paired with Blair Williams as you fight your way through hopelessly linear and unimaginative levels, battling terminators that always seem to have nicknames like "spiders", and "wasps".

Skynet's not the most creative psychotic super computer this time around. Essentially there are only 4 (three really since the skin job is just a diguised T600), main enemies to confront excluding the occasional airborne hunter killer gun ships. The T-7-T is four legged juggernaut that is heavily shielded in front but easily taken down from behind where its batteries are CONVIENTLY exposed. One has to wonder if Skynet needs to beta test its designs before going into full scale production. Aerostats are your annoying airborne foes that resemble all of spark's laser shooting robots in the Halo series. They die just as easily, if not more so. The not yet encountered T600 and skin jobs are supposedly "seemingly unbeatable", according to the game manual. I'm not holding my breath for that to ring true.

Excluding some mind numbing revelation farther down the road, the game appears to be a 65%. I know that seems harsh but it feels tacky to the core. The enemies are easily defeated even playing on the hardest difficulty setting. I'm guessing maybe 8-10 hours of game play if that. Baring a full review early next week, I don't see things improving much in the days to come. I could be wrong though, perhaps a seductive fem bot will appear to help save the day a la Sarah Connor Chronicles.

PROS: Short, large amounts of gamer points for easily aquired achievements. Its a terminator game.

CONS: lacks depth, linear events, unchallenging AI, ok looking graphics.