Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A slight lull in activities

Its been a busy past few weeks. I haven't found much time for gaming as of recently. Although I am occasionally on FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010. I'll be waiting until the end of this month for FIFA 11 (September 28th in the US). Other than that, not much to report on. My old Xbox 360 has left, and I have about a hundred or so dollars to show for it. I will probably be putting that down toward my Kinect pre-order later this week. There isn't too much else going on at the moment, possibly some new info on Call of Duty Black Ops or FIFA 11 to come later this week.

Until then,
BakEd

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

EA Sports' FIFA 11 Preview Q&A | David Rutter

Following last week's Gamescom event, David Rutter of the FIFA production team answered questions from Facebook users regarding the upcoming EA Sports title, FIFA 11.

The demo is due September 16th for both the Xbox Marketplace and Playstation Store. Rutter has mentioned that there will be a few surprises in the demo, and chose to not reveal the demo teams in the interview. FIFA 11 is due to be released on September 28th in North America and on October 1st in Europe/Asia.

FIFA 11 will implement many graphical and gameplay improvements, including the following:

  • Personality+ engine in which players are true to their real life characteristics. This means an aggressive defensive midfielder such as Gattuso will be a tough competitor on 50/50 balls and slide tackle with much more intent as opposed to someone who is not known for his defensive skills, such as Nani. Even referee's will have their own personality traits, which affect how leniently or strictly they referee the game.
  • Player faces have been remodeled and updated. Although Rutter didn't specifically mention which teams and players were updated, it is a safe to say that most big name clubs and players have had their facial look and personality traits modeled according to their real life characteristics in FIFA 11.
  • Users can now control the Goalkeeper, which will allow full on 11v11 online club gameplay. Goalkeepers can also be chosen as the user's individual player in Career mode. The goalkeeper's position can be controlled by using the left stick, while diving is initiated with the right stick (similar to the way the keeper has been controlled in penalty kicks). For those of you who don't feel up to the task, a simple press of the 'X' button will allow the keeper to make an assisted save. If you are playing with a friend, one of you can control the goalkeeper in the loading arena, allowing for fun 1v1 gameplay.
  • A new 360 degree gameplay system which allows players to jostle and fight for the ball in a dynamic new way.
  • Manager mode and Be a Pro mode have both been scrapped, er or um, combined in a new 'Career Mode'. Career mode allows players to choose a single player (or your virtual pro) and control him over the course of 15 seasons. Users can also decide to partake in a combined player-manager role or just a manager.
  • The penalty kick system from FIFA: World Cup 2010 will be returning for FIFA 11.
  • No new national teams will be added from FIFA 10's crop, but the Russian Premier League will be making it's debut on the 'next-gen' versions of FIFA.
  • Virtual Pro's cannot be transferred over from FIFA 10, so you will have to start from scratch. The number of VP accomplishments has been doubled to about 400. New Virtual Pro unlock items and traits have also been added. The online clubs system has been improved, allowing for better recruiting and scouting of fellow Virtual Pro's, including a 'trial' option which allows you to bring another user's Virtual Pro over to play a practice match with your club before deciding to bring him on.


A truly impressive list I must say. I will be pre-ordering my copy of FIFA 11 this week. If anyone wants to play a quick game on FIFA 10 or FIFA: WC 2010, send me a message (my gamertag is on the right hand side of the page).

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Parting ways with an old friend.

It will be a sad farewell for my trusty ol' Xbox 360 Pro. After 5 long years, a time away at the RROD intensive care treatment room, and hours upon hours of playing time later, it's time to let her go. Yes, sad times for all of us involved, but fear not, I will be looking forward to the Xbox 360 S 250GB and the wonderful world of Kinect.

Preparing to depart :(


In the mean time, it looks like I have my eyes set on pre-ordering the following during my next trip to GameStop.

FIFA 11
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Hardened Edition)
Kinect

Until next time,
прощание

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer Teaser Trailer!

There was a big buzz of excitement among gamers as the new Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer teaser trailer made it's way onto the official Call of Duty Black Ops website. While playing Modern Warfare Two, word of the trailer spread like a wild fire in every multiplayer lobby I joined. It looks like Treyarch will be adding a few new elements to the game such as new rewards for kill streaks, among which include a remote controlled RC car bomb and a spy camera which replaces the player's radar on the upper left hand portion of the HUD. It also looks like Black Ops will be taking a page out of Halo's book by adding a theater-like replay function that allows you to record, save, upload, and share gameplay footage with friends.

Without further ado ...




Tuesday, August 3, 2010

How to Install Xbox 360 games onto your Hard Drive

Through my time playing both on Live and browsing discussion boards, it seems that most casual Xbox 360 owners are not aware of the ability to install games onto their Xbox 360 hard drive. The benefits of installing a game onto the hard drive are immense. For those of you who have the room to spare, 60GB-250GB owners, installing games onto the hard drive is a must. 20GB owners may be able to allocate enough room to install one or two of the games they play the most.

Some games receive a significant performance boost, including smoother gameplay, faster loading, and less frame rate stuttering. The greater benefit though, applies to all games, as once a game has been installed onto the hard drive, the Xbox 360 will run at almost dashboard level quietness. The disc drive will no longer have to spin, which will save the system from generating extra heat from having to read the disc while playing, as well as save electricity and create a quieter gaming environment. Before you start hot swapping discs, remember that the actual game disc still needs to be inside of the Xbox 360 for the game to play.

To install a game onto the hard drive:

  • Make sure the game disc you want to install is inside the Xbox 360 and has been recognized (readable).
  • Go to the 'dashboard' on your Xbox 360.
  • Make sure you are in the 'My Xbox' pane.
  • Scroll to the right and press 'A' on the 'Game Library' menu.
  • Highlight the game that is currently inside of your 360's disc drive and press 'A'.
  • Choose the 'Install to hard drive' option and let the system do it's work. The installation should take about 5-10 minutes.
Once the installation has finished, you are good to go. Hope you enjoy the peace and quiet.