I Personally think ‘girl gaming’ sites who get offended by the colour pink don’t have a right to complain if they post Hello Kitty articles and have cute pink mascots.

If you are a female gamer and own a site or write for a site that could be described as ‘gender nutural’ or ‘masculin’, I could understand if you were slightly offended by the press release of all pink accessories. You are right, it isn’t your obvious audience.

However, if your site is obviously aimed at women, by women and you review girly products, such as Hello Kitty games, pink iPods and nail decorating machines. I fail to see how you can be offended by PR companies sending you information on pink products? You claim you are ‘not the obvious market’ when I’d argue that you obviously are, maybe it verges on hypocritical.

I also fail to see why you are even offended. Pink is a colour, it sells well and that is a fact. We could hardly keep the pink DSlite on the shelves at Christmas time. Now, I own a pink DS, Pink iphone case and pink Skull Candies. This does not make me ‘less’ of anything. I just like the colour, I don’t find it degrading in any way. If I don’t like pink (even if I am female), I will quite simply not buy it. It is merely an option for those who do want it. You know, blue is a very nice colour too and I’ve even heard that they will sell you something in pink even if you have a penis!

Nobody is forcing you to buy all pink accessories because of your vagina. I write for a girl gamer orientated website and I am past the point of caring. I play games and what colour Xbox360 pad I use will not effect how badly I suck at Halo3, but I can still play.

What began as a simple Halo 3 expansion evolved into it’s own, full-length project.  Sans Master Chief, ODST is definitely a unique game that is worth your time.
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This year saw my return to Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and despite the usual glory that comes from carrying a media badge, this year I was also invited to spend the day at Microsoft’s head office. Yes, I know what you are thinking, I am indeed lucky. The Community day saw 30 or so people picked up from the convention centre around 1pm and not returned until 8pm.

After a quick introduction to the event by Major Nelson and the handing out of wireless codes to avoid people getting withdrawal and the shakes, we were treated to a tour of the Microsoft campus; this included the new dedicated XBL building that only went up this past spring. The tour showed everything from Microsoft’s football fields and basket ball courts, to offices, play test labs and of course a quick stop at the company store.Once the tour was over the real fun was about to stat. Microsoft had set up some of the top games, like Left 4 Dead 2, for us all to get hands on with, included some pretty amazing panels and Q&A’s.

So here are my top 3 hands on/panels from the day….

Left 4 Dead 2 and panel with Valve.

Now I loved Left 4 Dead and since Valve don’t normally f**k up games I have to admit I was damn excited to A) not only play this game but B) not have to queue up to play it. Now if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, and this is exactly what Valve has done. Valve has kept the true essence of the original game but has added enough new content to stop it feeling like overpriced downloadable content.

The demo saw me playing as Rochelle, the Zoe counter part, in the Carnival of Doom. Now not only is ripping the horde apart with a shot gun as fun as you remember but now you get to rip them apart with melee weapons too. I assure you, there is nothing more satisfying that picking up a katana, slicing off some zombie horde head and watching the blood splatter across your screen as there body and head end up in two separate directions. Besides the katana, the baseball bat and electric guitar also prove to be just as fun. 

The three new special zombies really do change the way you play. Myself and my team mates kept close to avoid being picked off, yet before I knew it something had slammed into me knocking me off the balcony and separating me from my team. This was the Charger. Then something had jumped on my shoulders and was driving me around and straight into a group of infected, this was the Jockey. The three remaining survivors were currently pinned down dealing with the horde only to be covered in acid by the Spitter, before the Tank was there demise.

At the panel with one of the lead writers from Valve, I couldn’t help but ask what was his favourite of the new additions in Left 4 Dead 2. He replied that ‘the jockey’ was his favourite ‘because listening to your friends cackling in Vs mode as they jump on you and drive you off a cliff is priceless’. You know what? That is completely true.

Alan Wake Panel.

Now I love it when a game slips under your radar and you discover it and it leaves you with your mouth on the floor. Alan Wake did exactly this, in-fact if a friend hadn’t dragged me to the panel I still wouldn’t know of its existence.

Alan wake is a writer whose wife disappears and the only clues to her whereabouts and the strange going ons are the torn pages from the book that he doesn’t remember writing. The game is a physiological thriller and beyond atmospheric. The enemies appear to be poltergeists that can only be killed with light either from the use of the torch in you hand or from using the environment around you.

The panel saw one of the writers playing through the demo while providing running commentary. Graphically this game was superb with unbelievable detail paid to lighting and building atmosphere, which are of course this games life line. The game, while not technically a horror is defiantly scary. I have to also admit that the game did actually look quite difficult which isn’t always a bad thing. However, if you team that up with the fact you will be shit-your-pants scared I don’t think someone like me would get very far. This doesn’t stop me though because I really do want to get hands on with this game as quickly as possible to see how it feels and plays for myself.

Alan Wake is still yet to receive a launch date but the ambiguous1^st Quarter of 2010 is currently on the table.

Borderlands

Right, I am going to go out there and say my time spent playing Borderlands can only be described as a cluster f**k. I was thrown straight in with no actual explanation and I thank God that shooter controls are all roughly the same on the 360 or I would have been really screwed. Borderlands is a highly anticipated Role-playing FPS with heavy emphasis placed on co-op. Basically you run around shooting everything that moves in an attempt to search for some mysterious alien vault, with a near endless arsenal of weapons at your disposal (and it really is a near endless arsenal).

While the game can be played alone, it’s pretty obvious that the real fun is only to be had playing co-op, and like all good co-op games it is at the mercy of human stupidity. So here’s hoping you have actually friends on your friends list.

I was left feeling a bit ‘meh’ after my time with the game. Admittedly I only played for roughly 30minuites and was thrown straight in, probably not the best way to go, yet considering the amount of hype surrounding this game I can’t help but feel that I must have missed the point.Yet I am sure when this game launches and all my friends are playing it, I will defiantly be joining in. I can’t say no to some good co-op with friends.

To wrap all this up, I am going to go out there and say that Microsoft provided the best chocolate brownies ever. EVER.

World War II is an oft-visited setting in video games, most extensively the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor series.  The Wolfenstein series has been around for a while, going all the way back to 1981 with the release of Castle Wolfenstein.  The Wolfenstein franchise, however, offers a different WWII experience by incorporating the Nazi interest in the occult and paranormal.  By combining the standard killing of Nazis with mutants and paranormal, futuristic weapons, Wolfenstein makes for a unique and satisfying first person shooter. Read the full story

Will this classic remake have you yelling COWABUNGA, or WTFUNGA?

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ComicCon was filled with upcoming demo madness that I was lucky enough to sample. Read the full story

She glides into the room, as you run your hands up your proton pack, onto your proton gun…then she flies into you, leaving you covered in sticky slime. Now you blast her with a large Boson Dart and cover her in slime with your slime blower, just before throwing a trap and slam dunking her ghostly behind into it. Bustin’ makes you feel good!
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Run up the side of a skyscraper while a helicopter chases you, get to the top and jump… then glide through the air like a flying squirrel around another skyscraper where you transform into a business man and blend in with patrons on the street. This game will be make you say, “Grand Theft Who Cares?”. Read the full story

The Bionic Commando name started all the way back in 1987 with a Capcom arcade game called Bionic Commandos. After the arcade game’s popularity, an updated version called Bionic Commando was released for the NES was released in 1988. Since then, there have been two games for GameBoy and in 2008, a revamped version of the original game, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, was released for XBLA, PSN and Windows. This newest installment is a direct sequel to the original NES game, including several of the original characters. Though this game conjures up a great deal of nostalgia for many of us who remember the NES game, it struggles in places and fails to become another classic in the Bionic Commando series. Read the full story

Remember cheat codes, hidden characters and alternate costumes? How about when they were FREE? Do you know how much they cost you now?

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