Latest MGS4 trailer

It's not HD, but it is the latest trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4. Can't really comment too much on it other than I am totally and utterly excited about the next installment in an awesome franchise!!!!!! It's all in Japanese, so if you are from Japan and can interpret every word for me, leave a comment and tell me what is going on exactly. Because all I could make out was when Ocelot said "Snake."

And good God, I still can't get over how old Snake looks. Oh well, I guess we all do have to age, even video game characters. I wonder what an old Sonic or Mario would look like (thinks....). Never mind, I don't want to know.

Can you imagine Mario saving Peach from Bowser is an old folks home? LOL! Doubt it'll ever happen but it is something funny to think about. As always, comments are welcome.

-Adridius

PSP in the bathtub.....ok.....

For those of you that love the Rain Forest, this is for YOU!

Came across an interesting little add-on (so to speak) for your PSP system. If you are like me and don't need to have your PSP everywhere you go this add-on is not for you. But if you like to bathe in the tub with bubbles and relax and play your PSP, then this is just for you! Check out the picture.

Heck, this could be good on a rainy day when you have to walk to class; or when you are stuck outside, or heck, if you just want to jump in an aquarium full of fishes and show them your awesomely cool combo score in God of War! Yes there are multiple uses for this. Personally I would love to go see Shamu and show him Final Fantasy VII so he could have an appreciation for other things in life rather than showing people he can wave. Wave on Shamu, wave on.

-Jeremy aka Adridius

Only the beginning: GTA IV ad pulled

This ad got pulled. (Pause) What do three men on the side of the bus have to do with a mass shooting in Chicago?! According to Fox, the ad probably should have held the trigger itself. Stupid Fox...

The Chicago Transit Authority has pulled ads (see above) for Grand Theft Auto IV. Fox news had their own bit of musing that they did:

With so much focus on kids and violence these days, we wondered why ads for a violent video game have begun popping up again on CTA buses and train stations.

Yeah. Wondered. More like tried to pull a story out of your booty holes! Are you serious Fox? Go pick on something else ok? Seriously. I didn't hear you crying bloody murder when 300 came out and was being advertised. I didn't hear you yelling and screaming about Saw I, II, III, and IV. And where exactly were you when Freddy Vs Jason came out? Seriously, there are tons of other violent mediums that you can jump on. The shooting in 24 (oh wait, that's a Fox show, let's not talk about that), the Sara Connor Chronicles with guns blazing (wait...Fox again). No, you only attack what is easily convenient to attack.

Just because there are a handful of complaints (compared to the amount of people who are definitely going to buy this game) does not mean that these ads should be pulled. I am not advocating violence by any means, but how do the GTA ads (as seen above) start violence that led to "37 shot, 2 stabbed and 7 dead" (numbers according to CBS). Seriously Fox, why are you insisting this is causation? You all need to learn about the difference between causation and correlation. Just because something is there, does not mean it causes the other act to happen. And if you don't know what of what I'm speaking then you need to stop deciding what gets put on as 'news'. This is disgusting and it's only the beginning which is sad.

-Jeremy aka Adridius

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows

Interesting.....kind of looks like Spider-Man meets War of the Worlds though.

Nick Chester from destructoid got a chance to do an interview with Graham Fuchs, Executive Producer of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Instead of going to look at the interview on another website I've brought it to The Video Game Aid for all of you to enjoy. Here you go, and then my thoughts will be after the interview.

Destructoid: So just tell me a little bit about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, and the direction you’re kind of taking with it.

Graham Fuchs, Executive Producer: So New York City has been invaded – S.H.I.E.L.D. has declared martial law, and they're downtown, trying to evacuate citizens from the island; [Luke] Cage is gathering people for a last stand in Harlem; Kingpin is in his fortress in Midtown, and he's gathering his forces to help propel the invaders. [So] it's up to you, as Spider-Man, to determine how you're gonna help deal with this invasion.

So it sounds like there will be a lot of Marvel Universe characters in the game. This isn’t based on any of the films, it’s based on the fiction of the comic books?

Yeah, actually it's based on the comic book universe; it's not based on any particular story line or arc or anything. It's our own original story that we've come up with for the game, which has been great, because it's allowed us to bring a lot of elements we wanted to put in the game in terms of characters. You know, [we can] mix and match our own elements to sort of maximize the gameplay and make the kind of game that we want to make, so it's great.

Is it a free, open environment?

It's open world, you have free reign over all of Manhattan. We're bringing back the swing mechanic that everybody loves. We've completely rebuilt the city, and you know in the trailer -- I don't know if you've seen it -- but that's all in-game footage. It's not a pre-rendered cut-scene or anything. So, the city's been totally rebuilt. And there's a brand new lighting system.

Something we really wanted to do this time was take advantage of the verticality of the city. Our combat [we're saying] is the "most 3D ever." You can start a fight on the ground, fight a guy all the way up the side of a building, to one of our rooftops. We've got a whole new wall-combat system, so really we really wanted to just blow-out the “Spider-Man-ness” of that.

So in terms of the combat, and the Spider-Man character himself, will you be able to upgrade your abilities as you go throughout the game?

Yeah, you know a lot of it is based on how you're fighting. What we really wanted to do is give the player a lot of control over what happens in the game, and how Spidey kind of evolves throughout the game. So the system allows for you to kind of tailor Spider-Man to your own play style. If you're using lots of web moves, that'll upgrade his web abilities. If you're using a lot of hand-to-hand combat, that will improve those abilities. It really puts all of that in the player’s hands, as to how they're going to evolve throughout the game.

It seems like you can either be a “good” kind of Spider-Man or a “bad” kind of Spider-Man, right?

Yeah, like I said, it's up to you as to how you're going to deal with this kind of menace in the city. If you're being more heroic, the city is going to reflect that; when you meet the citizens, they're going to be cheering you on, and all excited to see you. If you’ve been using the more "by any means necessary" approach, then they're going to be a little more leery of you. And basically as you're playing throughout the games those decisions are going to effect when you encounter all of these heroes and villains at various points.

When will you guys be shipping the game?

It'll be shipping in the fall.

So the game will be coming to next-gen consoles, and pretty much everything you can possibly think of?

Everything, yeah. [Editor's note: This refers to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation 2, and PC]

Are you talking any differences between any of the versions, like the Wii version and use of the Wii Remote for instance?

When we're starting to do “first looks” we'll get into all of that.

So the game is called “Web of Shadows.” What on Earth does that mean?

That's kind of a mystery, isn't it?

Yeah, you’re talking about it?

Yeah, you're just gonna have to wait and see.

Interesting (oh, it's me now if you guys didn't know, your friendly neighborhood gamer). I like the idea of a unique story-line. Another intriguing point is the combat system. The fact that you can start a fight on the ground and then literally move up the side of a building to fight is something that I never imagined before. And you would think someone else would have implemented that by now since Spider-Man can indeed climb up the side of buildings.

A fall release date tickles my fancy as well. The last two Spider-Man games I have played, I've enjoyed. Although both of them were too short: Spider-Man 3 and Ultimate Spider-Man. Both were fun though. The fact that this game won't be totally linear is cool too. You can power up certain aspects of Spider-Man; be the hero and watch out for civilians; be the hero but not worry about civilians; I think these are all good ideas. We'll have to see how well they are implemented this fall. Stay tuned.

-Jeremy aka Adridius

Top 15 games with the best story lines

GamesRadar has a top 15 list (in no particular order) of the games with the best storyline. Obviously great story lines can be highly relative as some people may appreciate a more obscure and "confusing" story line rather than a clear and brilliant story being told. But anyway, here are the 15 games.

• Metal Gear Solid (1998, PlayStation, PC)
• Grim Fandango (1998, PC)
• The Longest Journey (2000, PC)
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, Xbox, PC, 2004)
• Beyond Good & Evil (PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, 2003)
• Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
• Portal (Xbox 360, PC, PS3, 2007)
• Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC, 1993)
• Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007)
• Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)
• Fallout 2 (PC, 1998)
• God of War (PS2, 2005)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, PC, 2003)
• Final Fantasy VI (Super Nintendo, 1994)
• Silent Hill 2 (Xbox, PS2, PC, 2001)

I have to admit, I was pretty stoked to see Metal Gear Solid up there, although I do think that Metal Gear Solid 2 had a better story line, but hey, to each his own. I was kind of bummed that Final Fantasy VII wasn't in there. Let's forget the fact that the story was heartfelt and all that good stuff. FFVII contained a scene where every gamer that had a soul at the very least thought about crying their eyes out because Aeris died. But hey, like I said, that's just me. A more recent game I enjoyed the story line from was Lost Odyssey, but that might have been too melodramatic for people. I personally cried at least four or five times and I loved the game.

Tell me what games you would want in your top 5, 10, 15, or 20 as far as story-lines go. There are no wrong answers as each game can affects people differently (COME BACK AERIS!). Feel free to leave your comments.

-Jeremy aka Adridius

Okami: Wii and PS2 comparison

I've never played Okami. Go ahead, go crazy, shoot guns in the air, cause a riot and start a chant for me to be burned at the stake. Ok you done now? Ok, if you've gotten this far you will see that I do WANT to play Okami, and I probably will go ahead and buy it for the Wii. Check out this video that compares the Wii Okami to the PS2. Personally I think the Wii is better because the colors are richer, and I like warm rich colors. But maybe that's just a preference of mine, some may like the more faded colors of the PS2. Let me know what you think. Also let me know if you have Okami for Wii or PS2.

DC vs MK?

I'm all about innovation. Innovation meetings, innovation workshops, ideating, all of that good stuff that you see on those funny IBM commercials. But let's be real folks, DC versus Mortal Kombat? I'm all about crossing the paths of unlikely characters, but this isn't Super Smash Brothers, this is gore gore and more gory (and not the multi-million dollar former politician) paired up with childhood super hero icon. How does that mix?! I'm a positive person, I think it can work, but my better side of me is saying that you can't juxtapose two sets of characters on total opposite ends of the spectrum and put them in a game that will be taken seriously. I wonder if Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent will make cameos in a 'secret character' form? Haha! Ok, seriously, let me know what you think. Am I the only one that thinks this is ludicrous (and not the rapper).

-Jeremy aka Adridius

Iron Man demo coming to XBL tomorrow; PSN soon

If Iron Man ends up being as good as it looks-similar to if the Hulk is as good as it looks- this might be the day where I wake up and say, "Yay! A great movie video game!" The closest thing I've seen in recent memory is Spiderman 3 on PS3. I liked the game, just thought it was too short. You can check out the review if you go back into my older posts.

Anywho. Check out this Iron Man video game trailer and let me know what you think. I'm definitely going to see the movie (even if I'll be playing GTA IV before and after that) and I hope the game is just as good. Here's hoping.

-Jeremy aka Adridius

The Arcades are Empty

Does your Arcade look like this? Oh look...two people..

I remember a time where I didn't consider a shopping mall legit unless it was home to a video game arcade. Now I find myself walking through malls and being surprised if I even see a resemblance to something that once looked like a place to play arcade games.

When I was younger, kicking peoples butt at the arcades was something that made you feel like a legitimately good gamer. When you could take 50 cents and turn it into 20 minutes on your favorite fighting game. When quarters were used to show your place in line to take on the best of the best in that arcade at that moment. That's what arcades were all about. It was about putting just one more credit in the coin slot so that you could put your initials into a machine that to be immortalized forever (or so we thought).

What happened to that time? Somewhere in the midst of Dreamcast and Xbox, arcades got lost in all the hubbub of slicker graphics and ease of use for online capabilities on home systems. Something happened to arcades during that time. Something told us we didn't need them anymore.

We no longer need to go to arcades to put our initials into a machine to show that we are the best; that's what online rankings are for. We no longer need to go to arcades to see the coolest graphics; that's what our "next-gen hardware" is for. We no longer need to go to arcades to get social interaction to see how we measure up, that's what online gaming is for. It's really a shame because arcades used to be heaven on earth. They were the one place where video games were larger than life and you appreciated every moment of gaming since it was literally costing you every quarter you had in your pocket. The fast paced racing games; the hard hitting fighting games, and the classics like Pac-Man and Centipede. These games are now all available on our home systems, and the interactive pull of arcades is gone because of it.

I'm not saying this is bad thing, it's just sad because arcades used to be a place where gamers of every kind could come together and just simply be. Be good, be great, be awful, but jubilant, be happy, and most of all be appreciative that they as gamers have a place to go. But all that is slowly leaving now and I don't know what it will take to get it back. Virtual reality? Bigger screens? I don't know what the future of arcade gaming will be, but I hope it has a future for the gamer-communities' sake.

As always, your comments are welcome. What do you think?

Jeremy aka Adridius

Wii Fit 90!?

Lean with it, Rock with it! Lol!

No no no, it's not the 90th installment of Wii Fit, the 90 is how much Wii Fit will cost! That's a third of what the entire Wii system costs. Very slick Nintendo. The reason I say very slick is because Nintendo realizes the reason they are as dominant as they are. It's not because they have the best hardware, it's because they have the best innovation. And since Wii Fit is supposed to be the next big innovative step for them they have no problem putting the price up to just under $100. I'm not mad at them, I can't be. They allowed me to buy a system that has years of fun value for the price of $250, only $50 more than their original boom NES.

What do you guys and girls think? Will you buy Wii Fit? I know it is going to be marketed heavily. And because of this I bet a lot of people who may not come around because of the price will eventually come around due to the high level of marketing it is going to receive. Let me know what you think. And as always, thanks for visiting the blog, and check back often.

-Jeremy aka Adridius