The Year In Review

So as 2010 passes us by and 2011 knocks on our door, we leave him standing there while we muse over the events and general happenings of the last year. Click on through to find out what we had to say about the games, music, movies and general life events of 2010.

ITS OVER!

It's over!
Thank Zombie Jesus it's over...

So yeah 48 hours, about 5 hours total sleep...I think 21 movies in total!
All part of a series. We capped it off with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...After the movies (because after movie after movie we started dying inside...) we saved our minds with some good old fashioned constant video gaming!
So lots of Xbox, lots of people and good old fashioned (once again) drinking.

It was a grand old time of movies for hours and hours...

BYE!
Sleep time now...For a long time.
*Edit* 24 movies total..The last list was the lot...The rest was halo from there...We got sick of movies as would be expected.

Day two or something.

It has reached the second day. My brain continues to let me down but on the whole I very highly recommend that you gather your friends, and sit down and watch a shit load of movie trilogies/series.

We have covered:
Both Bill and Teds.
Back to the Future Trilogy
Night At the Museums (So we could still have the marathon going while I slept!)
Austrin Powers Trilogy
Die Hard (only the first three!)
Jeepers Creepers Movies
Evil Dead Trilogy
Original Star Wars Trilogy
Indiana Jones Trilogy.
And we must press on!

I think we still have Pirates movies and Bad Boys etc...
Also We decided not to do Lord of the Rings because that takes up it's own day.
Bye!

And A Happy New Year!

Hey readers,

 I just thought 'd take a moment to let everyone know roughly what i want to do with The Arkhive going into the new year, and beyond. First up on the list is a layout change, woot. Nothing drastic, just going to give the blog a fresh new face for all those who might be sick of seeing the current one (like me). Secondly, while i do enjoy pumping out as much gaming news as possible, i'm going to try to get more posts coming on other topics including movies, music, personal stuff and anything else i can think of, which also brings me to the third thing. More posts from Mike and Steve (although they don't know it yet). So if there's anything you'd like to see on The Arkhive then drop a comment below and let us know what we can do, otherwise, continue into the new year you awesome reader you.

P.S. You can also expect some major changes over at The Gamers Pad for next year, and i'm sure Mike will keep up his insane ramblings and musings over at The Mikey Inflection. If Steve was working for another site, you'd find that link here too ;)

Day One

It is as I feared. I am beginning to lose my strength and I continue to fear I cannot hold on any longer. The Marathon is only in it's early days but it is taking it's toll on my body. The spirit is willing but the flesh grows weary and sore.

So that's entry number one!
I figure you ought to be aware of the situation. For those that don't read my tumblr (HOW DARE YOU!) me and some of my high school friends have started a Marathon Marathon...More technically it is a Marathon of Movies with multiple parts. Such as the Back to the Future trilogy, then the Die Hard series...You get the point. So we've started at 12am Midnight on Monday the 27th and have planned to finish some time on say Thursday or something.

Ah so far we have clocked out the Bill and Ted movies and are now just about finished the first Back to the Future movie.

So far the event has been quite awesome and we plan to keep it going. So I highly recommend you get a bunch of your friends together and do something like this. Currently it is 5:01 am and my sleeping shift is about to start. So I have to make a video soon!

Cheerio!

The Internet is wonderful.

So as you may have guessed, the internet is a wonderful thing. (Aren't titles helpful!?)
Happy Christmas, Merry New Year to all those who will read this.
I was writing because as I so often do, on those long lonely and to add real insult to injury, cold nights, browsing the Internet for entrainment and what not when I decided I love the sheer vastness of it.
I can talk to a thousand people a day and still find someone new, something different of a puppy trying to lick its own ear because there was jam smeared on it...I wonder if that exists...Challenge accepted.

Regardless, I was just chatting to people on Omegle. You may know of it, you may not. It is a fun site if you get bored just be warned...Video chat is 99% NSFW....Cocks...Lots of Cocks...Like the animal. Roosters...You know...Nothing sinister.
But yeah the complete anonymous chat is always fun and you can seriously have some fun/enlightening conversations. Or if you get bored fuck with peoples heads. It's all up to you.


And that is just part of the reason the Internet is wonderful.

Love, me.

And A Merry Christmas To All

Christmas is a time for family, a time for friends and a time for giving. More importantly it's a time to forget the bad things in the world and have a day or two of joy and jubilation (depending on how hard you drank on the first day). So from Steve, Mikey and Myself, let all your Guitar Hero sessions be played drunk, all your deathmatches end in yelling, screaming and rematches and all your races end in a close finish. To one and to all, have a great game, a merry christmas, and a happy holiday.

Inflections

Our very own Mikey has been hard at work on his own Tumblr page, which you can find HERE. The Mikey Inflection appears to be a random account of anything he can imagine, so you never know what you might find there. It's like a lucky dip for the mind. Check it out and let him know what you think (oh, and i'll still leave him as an author here in case he randomly decides to drop by :P).

In The Blue & Out The Orange

In customary Valve fashion, Portal 2 was delayed some time ago and now once more we have a set release date for it... woot. Portal 2 SHOULD be hitting shelves (and Steam, of course) around the 21st of April 2011.

The Return of the Lawsuit

Just when you think a certain news topic has finally been laid to rest, some stupid company (i'm looking at you Activision) decides they haven't had enough bad press yet. So with that said, Activision have added EA to their lawsuit again ex-Infinity Ward heads, Jason West and Vince Zampella. Activision are claiming that EA actively interfered with contracts, engaged in unfair competitive practices and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty (yes, i had to google that too) by the executives. Basically Activision is saying that EA were courting West and Zampella while they were still under contract with Infinity Ward and encouraging their exit from the company. The claim of the lawsuit is now $400 million dollars against West, Zampella & EA, with the countersuit by West, Zampella and 40 other ex-Infinity Ward employees still happening too. Jeff Brown, of EA, said that this action "is a PR play filled with pettiness and misdirection. Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work." I guess neither Activision nor EA will be having a very merry christmas... As for the fans, i'm wondering if anyone even cares anymore.

Beta Be Ready

I'm pretty sure i once promised to tell everyone when i had more info on the Gears of War 3 beta... Well guess what, I have news on the Gears 3 beta... Obviously. So it has been announced that the public can get exclusive access by buying the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm. Yep, that's it. The only way into the beta will be to pick up the special edition of Epic's other new release. Can't say that it interests me a whole lot, but i'm sure there will be plenty of people willing to drop the extra cash to get into the beta (just look at the Halo 3 beta). The Epic Edition of Bulletstorm also includes a bunch of extra DLC, including extra experience, weapons and outfits. Bulletstorm hits shelves at the end of February, and Gears should be hitting shelves later in the year.

[Insert Joke Using The Word Noire Here]

So as the new year approaches, we have to turn our gaze to the games of 2011. What are we looking forward to? What will be a hit? What will fail? There's really no way to know, but a new game by Rockstar is always an event and next year, that event will be L.A. Noire. I mention this because i just watched a video which was amazing. So how will Rockstar make L.A. Noire different from every other game they've made? By giving you the ability to tell if people are lying or not, with your own eyes. The new MotionScan system in use for the game captures the most lifelike facial movements i've seen in any game before, and with over 400 people scanned for use in the game, i have to believe your interactions in L.A. Noire will be quite entertaining. Check out the video showing off the tech below...

A Second Serving Of Humble

After the success of the first Humble Indie Bundle, the promotion has returned and is happening right now. For those who don't know, the idea behind the humble indie bundle is simple. Assemble a handful of the latest and greatest indie games, throw them into a pack and let people purchase the pack for whatever price they choose, with proceeds being split between the developers and charities. The Humble Indie Bundle 2 includes Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos and Revenge of the Titans... All of which could be yours for the low, low price of... Well, how generous are you feeling? The current average price paid for the bundle is $7.19, with Windows users being the cheapest overall and Linux users being the most generous. If you're interested, then head over to humblebundle.com and check it out. Remember the price is in US dollars. Oh, and so far the bundle has raised over $500,000 but it's not just ordinary gamers getting in on the action. Records show Notch (of Minecraft fame) donated $2000 to the cause.

Updated Synch

All you Brotherhood players out there should head on over to the marketplace to grab the first piece of DLC. Animus Project Update 1.0 adds a new map and game mode to Brotherhood's multiplayer and is available now for the great low price of free. You can add it to your download queue HERE.

Keep On Dreaming

As many have suspected, not only are Sega refurbishing some old Dreamcast games for the digital download crowd, there is a Dreamcast collection game in the works that will be available in disc form. Sega are yet to confirm the exact lineup of games that will appear on the disc, but presumable Sonic Adventure, Crzy Taxi, Space Channel 5: Part 2 and Bass Fishing will all make an appearance as these titles are already available or will soon be available on the Arcade marketplace. Gamestop had a listing up for a short amount of time (before pulling it back down) which listed the release date as February 15th and the low price tag of $29.99... Presumably there won't be too many games included for that price, but i'll let you know when the line-up is announced.

Ubisoft Are In For A Fight

Zuffa, the parent company to UFC have filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft over a slogan that appears on the back of the NTSC version of Fighters Uncaged. The back of the case boasts the tagline "Become the ultimate fighting weapon" which the UFC feels wrongly creates an association with their brand and could be damaging to their image. No word on how much they're suing for just yet, but they ARE demanding that Ubisoft stop producing the game and destroy any remaining materials and/or games that have the offending slogan on them.

Meta-Announcement

More and more games are being announced as the VGA's roll on. The short and sweet version is that the following games are now official and confirmed... Protoype 2, Insane (by Guillermo Del Toro), Forza Motorsport 4 and SSX Deadly Descents. On top of that, we now have a release date for Resistance 3, which will hit shelves in September 2011. Check back a little later and i'll add more details / trailers if possible, for each of the games.

Reach For The Sky

On the slightly more exciting side of VGA announcements, Bethesda took to the stage to reveal The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim will be a direct sequel to Oblivion and take place in the lands of Skyrim (duh). Now that it's announced, how long will we have to wait for it, you ask? a little under a year. Bethesda have currently set the release date to the eleventh of November next year, or 11/11/11.

ME3 Confirmed... Not That We Didn't Already Know

So, the VGA's are underway and the announcements are rolling in, including Bioware making a shock announcement and revealing Mass Effect 3 :O... /sarcasm. So we already knew it was coming, but now it's 100% confirmed, and as predicted, you'll be taking the fight to Earth as the Reavers descend to wipe out humanity.

Prepare To Frag

Hold onto your hats FPS fans, because Bethesda and ID Software are about to take console shooter back to an age they missed out on. Releasing on December 15th (yes, in 3 days time) is Quake Arena Arcade... An Xbox LIVE Arcade update of the ever popular Quake 3 Arena from the PC. With online support of up to 15 players and boasting 30 classic maps, 12 new Xbox exclusive maps and a whole new single player campaign Quake Arena Arcade is already looking to be one of the top Arcade games.

I've come to notice a new world...

Hey all very long time no see. I could feather this up with excuses because I'm living at my cousins at the moment with limited internet usage or university work until now etc or even a real job...(A GAMER WORKING?!) But the truth is...I just get hit with writers block all the time. Scoot knows this so I'm sure he's been silently cheering for me. I am just lazy as well.

But in my time away from writing gaming articles or just plain gaming I've come to notice the outside world.
It scares me.
There are lots of people out there...And some of them do not...I repeat DO NOT, game.
I don't like them. Make them go away.

So yeah in my time off I've played a few games and read more books. I just recently as in so very just the other day recently, bought myself a new DS game. The first on the DS, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. I could not be more pleased. The Golden Sun series (when I first played it on Gameboy advanced way back when) is I think one of the only Turn Based games I've ever liked. Even a little.
Suffice it to say, I am so far loving this game. To those that know the first two games, Dark Dawn (DD) is like the second generation saga. It's all about the Heroes of yonder kids; how they have to set out on a new quest to save the world since the Golden Sun Event 30 years ago.
It is awesome so far and I highly recommend you pick it up or at least give it a go. The most awesome thing I've found so far is all the endearing sound effects are back from the first game which is just plain awesome and makes me reminisce a little. The graphics remind me highly of Zelda Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks and the story is engaging through and through.
If you like the idea of world exploring, puzzel solving, leveling, and using Psynergy (Basically psychic energy with disciplines in Earth, Fire, Wind and Water all about that Alchemy baby) then I think you should give it a go. (It doesn't ring true for me but I suppose it is similar to some Final Fantasy games on DS so if you like them give it a go. But I hate FF so yeah...)

Regardless I thought I'd post because well I can seem to write at the current moment.
Lots of love, your really bored writer,
Mikey.

P.S. I'll hopefully be posting soon about some books I'm getting into because I think I could bring that to this blog while Scoot gets all heavy on the gaming! I do mostly reviews any how...

Mass Effect The 3rd

The online store for EA Games just loves doing it's own thing. Although it has now been removed, an entry appeared on there for Mass Effect 3. The entry detailed that you'd be taking control of Shepherd on a quest to Earth to save humanity from a race of terrifying machines. This seems to match up with the teasers that have been coming out of Bioware recently, so look forward to Bioware's VGA announcement of Mass Effect 3.

/Rant Returns... Gaming Solo

/Rant is back purely because i want to blast some rage in EA's direction over statements that the single player game is dead to the games industry.

SCAG Avoid The Argument... Again

Many of you were eagerly anticipating today, knowing that the Attorneys-General were meeting and the proposed R18+ rating for video games was on the agenda. The rest of you probably don't play games (in which case, why are you here?). After the federal government gave their backing to the plan earlier this week you would think that SCAG would surely have to make a decision today, but alas, no. Once again the committee remains undecided on the issue and has asked to see a set of guidelines defining what would be R rated before making a final decision. Sadly this was the last SCAG meeting for 2010, so we'll be waiting into the new year to see if we finally get an outright answer to the issue.

More SSX Rumours Abound

The rumour mill continues to swirl around the possibility of a new SSX game. A source close to the game has apparently told Kotaku that a game is well into development and will return the series back to it's roots, but include use of Skates stick flicking control style. Supposedly members from the Skate team have been working with the game's creators, presumably to integrate the Skate control scheme into the world of snowboarding. Look forward to a possible reveal at the VGA's, along with reveals for just about every other game you currently think might be in production.

Lara Leaks

So i already showed you the GameInformer cover revealing the new Tomb Raider, and told you i would bring you the details when i got them... Well, turns out that is a bit of a lie. Someone over at a blog labelled Playstation Informer has been kind enough to scan and upload every page from the GameInformer article, and rather than copy them to here, i'm just going to point you in Playstation Informer's direction. As expected the article tells about how the game will show us a whole new Lara Croft, fresh to the world of tomb raiding, etc. so it's not really much you couldn't have already guessed, but if you've got a few spare minutes, why not read through it and let me know what you think.

The Busters Are Back

Next year will mark the return of the Ghostbusters once more. Don't go hoping for the familiar team though, as the new game (Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime) will see 4 rookie ghostbusters strap on their proton packs in a top down arcade shooter similar to Alien Swarm. Check out the trailer below and keep an eye out for it to hit the arcade around March-May 2011...

Out Of Harms Way

As part of a Dorito's promotion encouraging people to send in ideas for games they'd like to see on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, Microsoft have released 2 new arcade games free of charge. Following in the footsteps of Dorito's Dash of Destruction, both are small arcade games aimed towards multiplayer but both are radically different in idea. The first game is Dorito's Crash Course, which sends you (and your avatar) off on a race through an obstacle course. With 15 levels and 200 gamerscore to be earned, you can't complain about getting something for nothing, so head HERE to download it. The second game is called Harms Way and pits racers against snipers in a race to the death. Racers will have to try to complete 3 laps safely, meanwhile snipers have to try to take out the racers cars before they can cross the line. Sadly it seems like Harms Way is not currently available in Aus, but if you have a US or UK account then head HERE to get it.

Return To The Tomb

A few days ago i went ahead and posted what would technically be a spoiler by suggesting that the next GameInformer magazine would reveal a new Tomb Raider game...

Guess who was right. The new Tomb Raider is looking to be a gritty reboot to the series, with this game acting as an origins story to Lara Croft and supposedly "takes her on a character defining journey like no other" (according to Darrell Gallagher of Crystal Dynamics). You can find out more in the January issue of GameInformer, or wait till i pick up the details and post them here.

Showing Off The Prototype

A couple of days ago people stumbled upon the website murderyourmaker.com and speculation started about what it could be for. Now however, a 5 second teaser has appeared on the site which seems to include flashes of gameplay from Prototype, suggesting that Prototype 2 could be on the way. As with many more gaming mysteries at the moment, all will be revealed at the VGA's.

Adults Only

It has been revealed that the federal government is backing the plan to bring in an R18+ rating for video games. This doesn't mean the rating is approved yet, but with the attorneys-general meeting on friday, they'll be pushed to make a decision either way. Stay tuned and check back on friday to see what happens.

Reach: Combat Evolved

According to 'industry chatter' there is something underway at 343 Industries (Microsoft's new studio in charge of the Halo franchise). Word is that the studio is using the engine from Halo: Reach to create a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. I'll just let you think about that for a second. OK, So at the moment i'm definitely taking this as a rumour and nothing more, but it certainly is an interesting concept (until you realise that online multiplayer on the game would actually just be Halo: Reach). Following that, it's also rumoured that the studio is working on an actual sequel to Halo 3, but that's also nothing more than rumour right now although it wouldn't surprise me. Microsoft releasing another game with Master Chief is like a pig rolling in mud... It doesn't need to happen, but you know it will.

Rewarding

Microsoft have launched a new Xbox Rewards scheme, but before you get too excited, currently it seems to only be available for players in the US and UK. The scheme seems simple enough, all you have to do is sign up at the site HERE, and you'll automatically earn extra MS Points for doing stuff you'd normally do anyway. Ways to earn points include renewing your Gold subscription, buying select DLC and answering surveys. Sadly it also seems that Microsoft's horrible refund policy is still in effect, so regardless of how many points you've earned, you won't actually receive them until the end of each month, and all rewards points have to be used by the end of June 2012. Stay tuned for more info should any other regions be added to the program.

Industrial Augmentation

A viral advertising site has popped up for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and it looks very shiny. sarifindustries.com is the website for fictional company Sarif Industries and gives plenty of information on the type of augmentations we'll likely be seeing in the game. Plus, keep your eye out for a fun little hacking game which will give you a few pieces of concept art.

Back To 'Nam

The highly anticipated expansion/add-on, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, has been priced and dated. The expansion will bring with it new maps, guns and anything else Dice can think of adding to make you want to play Black Ops less. Vietnam will be available from the 21st of December (earlier for those pre-ordering PC gamers out there) for 1200 MS Points.

DLC Roundup

There have been a few pieces of DLC that have hit the marketplace this week and i thought you might like to know. First up is Halo: Reach's Noble Map Pack which brings 3 new maps to the Reach online experience. The Noble Map Pack is priced at 800 points and  brings with it some new achievements and 250 gamerscore. Secondly is the long overdue Big Thrills Pack for Trials HD, which brings another 40 levels to the game, including 10 created by the fans. Finally we have the Spunky Cola Special add-on for Monday Night Combat, which adds an extra arena, game mode and some general improvements to the game. The best part is that this one is completely free to gold subscribers, so go grab it now.

[EDIT] I forgot to mention that VIP Map Pack 7 for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 should be available now too.