Aliens And Predators Only Equaled Awesome Twice For Gamers

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that most licensed games suck. By licensed, I'm referring to games that are based on other media. Then there are the games that are based on more than one thing in the same medium. There haven't been many of those, but they are usually tied together somehow so it makes the amalgamation work a lot better. One such grouping has always seemed to stand head and shoulders above its competition. That franchise being Alien Versus Predator.

The two classic Sci Fi franchises were joined together thanks to the good folks at Dark Horse Comics in 1989. The tie in continued with a Super Nintendo game released by Activision in 1993. While it wasn't the best game, it served two important functions: it introduced gamers to the idea of an Alien Versus Predator game, and it served as the the first decent game featuring Predator characters released in the US. That SNES game was followed up with an okay Gameboy offering in Alien Vs. Predator: The Last Of His Clan later in the same year.

A year later, we received the excellent AVP arcade game from the good folks at Capcom. This AVP game has been widely regarded as the second best game based on the franchise. Which one is the best? Why it's Alien Vs. Predator for the Atari Jaguar. British developers Rebellion seemingly put their everything into this game, and with three character types, which means there are three story arches, this one game a lot to console gamers who may have been limited in the amount of experience they had with First Person Shooters at that point. This version of the AVP story was probably the most well received, and had it not been released on the ill fated Jaguar console, it may have become a long running series of games.

While there have been other games that used the Alien Vs. Predator name and characters released as recently as last year, none of them ever reached the critical or commercial level of Success as the arcade of Jaguar games. Even though Rebellion, the developers of the Jaguar game, have been tapped to develop many of the FPS iterations of the AVP franchise, they haven't been able to capture the imaginations of gamers out there. It may not have helped matters that the two AVP films that were released in 2004 and 2007 were pretty bad movies. It just goes to show that sometimes only the right people can make magic happen.

Random Arcade Gameplay Theatre

Duke Nukem Forever Delayed...AGAIN!!

Just found out an interesting bit of information. Apparently, folks have preordered Duke Nukem Forever have to wait until June 14, 2011 to get their copy of the long awaited first person shooter. Gearbox interactive announced the news with a tongue in cheek attitude, calling the delay "the shortest delay in the games nearly 15 year development cycle". At least it hasn't been pushed back to the next system generation again.

The NFL Lockout May Screw Gamers Too

As many of you know, The 2011-2012 NFL season is in serious jeopardy. While this many not matter to most gamers, it should matter to anyone planning on buying Madden NFL '12. The last time there was a strike/lockout in sports, EA Sports was readying NBA Live 99, but when the NBA endured a strike shortened season, the glaring flaws of NBA Live 99 were made even more apparent, and the game sold horribly. This football season is as of now on hold, and Madden may have the luxury of being the only NFL licensed football game on the market, but that doesn't mean that the long running football juggernaut can deal with the spectre of its source material shutting down for a year. Take for instance those roster updates you guys are used to getting during the week based on how well your team does...yep, they aren't happening. That over hyped rookie that's going to be a bust that your hated rival drafted? He'll kick your tail all over the field during games and his ratings can't be adjusted because there's no parameter to make said adjustments. Who knows, EA Tiburon might say to hell with it and just change the year on the menu screens a sell you the same game. There are a lot of "What ifs" gamers have to consider with the NFL season in danger of screwing up their yearly $60 buy. Then again, anybody who buys madden yearly will buy it like always and whine about the stuff not in the game. I would seriously like to pose a suggestion to anyone who buys Madden yearly. instead of lining up to get it on day 1, do some research and make sure the lockout and lack of football won't have a major impact on the game. I know many will read this and say, "I can't watch football and I need my fix", but $60 is a lot of money to spend on something that may potentially suck.

Latest Game Pickups

I got some new stuff...and figured I'd share the vid with you guys

Gamer News Brief

It's Friday, and I can't think of one particular thing to write about, so today I'll write about a few things.

• A California judge has given the green light for Activision to sue EA. Why is Activision suing Electronic Arts for $400 million? Over the incredibly childish Infinity Ward situation, that's why.
• Ubisoft recently released an HD redraw of Beyond Good and Evil. That's a great thing, but can we cut the double sell crap and get the sequel already.
• The tragedy in Japan has led to several games being understandably postponed, while Irem decided to outright cancel Disaster Report 4 out of respect for those affected by the Earthquake and ensuing Tsunami.
• An all new DJ Hero 2 track pack, which includes music from Jaylib, Atmosphere, and RJD2 was released earlier this week. It shouldn't cost more than $10 for the full three mix pack, so if you have DJ Hero 2, go get it.
• Fans of Mass Effect 2...There is more DLC coming in the form of yet another mission. This supposedly final mission pack is slated for a March 29th release date.

I'll be back on Monday...

Lou Takes On Dragon Age II

Today, I'm taking the day off, but the homie Lou decided to contribute his opinion on Bioware's latest project, Dragon Age II. Hope you enjoy..