XBOX Live Arcade Game Catan FREE with 12 Month Live Gold Subscription

Planning on signing up for a New XBOX Live Gold subscription? You can get the XBOX Live Arcade game "Catan" free with your subscription.

To get Catan for free:

1. Sign up for a new 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership.


2. Register at: xbox.com/sm4

The code for the free game will be sent to you in 4 - 6 weeks.
This offer expires on March 25, 2008, so hurry up!

Enjoy!

XBOX 360 - Deals of the Week

There are a couple of good deals out there this week, if you are willing to shop around a bit. First off Circuit City has Capcom's Lost Planet: Extreme Condition on sale for a mere 20 dollars. It's a pretty decent game, and a great deal at that price, considering that EB Games sells it used for 26$ currently.

Next we have Call of Duty 2 on sale this time at Best Buy for 20 dollars as well. You can get it used from EB Games, for 13$ but they don't guarantee it will come with the box, or instructions. I would rather have the peace of mind that I'm getting the complete product, for 7 dollars more.

Anti-deal of the week:

Looks like Best Buy cut the price on the XBOX 360's HD-DVD Accessory down to 50$. Too bad the HD-DVD has officially lost the format war to Blu-ray. Plans to build a Blu-ray addon may be in the works over at Microsoft, but I need to ask: Why bother? Consoles are for playing games. Show me a game out currently that is so huge or advanced that it requires Blu-ray or HD-DVD and I'll change my mind.. But stand alone players are MUCH better then game consoles for movies. Why? Cause they are built to watch movies on.. The interface is better, they are more convienient to use, etc. I never played audio CD's on my PS1, nor did I use my PS2 to watch movies.. Christ, I never even used my Sega CD for playing audio CD's and honestly, that's about the only thing that piece of crap was good for..

Guitar Hero 3 - Dream On (Aerosmith) - FREE

For a limited time you can download "Dream On" by Aerosmith, for Guitar Hero 3, from XBOX Live Marketplace FREE! Thats right! From today (Feb. 16th) to Monday Feb 18th. Hurry up and get your extra track for free.

PGR3 - REVIEW - Genre: Bhangra

Bhangra

Genre Rating: 4.5

Total Tracks in Genre: 12
Length: approx. 53 mins.

The Wipeout series probably was responsible for getting me listening to Electronica/Techno. PGR3 is the series thats going to get me listening to Bhangra. This genre is, simply put, a great choice for racing. And Tigerstyle just tops it off. There are a couple lackluster tracks in this genre which prevents it from getting a perfect 5.. But this is overall the best genre of the game.

Guide to rating: 1 = Avoid at all costs / 5 = Can't go wrong with this one.

Track 1
Artist: MIDIval PunditZ
Track: Bhangra Fever/Heavy Nitro Remix
Label: Six Degrees Records
Length: 3.55
Rating: 4

This one starts off a little slow and then builds nicely. Some crazy tempo changes keep this one from earning a 5, but still an excellent track. Try this one on Nurburgring.

Track 2
Artist: Tigerstyle
Track: Akh mastani
Label: Nachural Records
Length: 3.28
Rating: 5

You know.. The PGR3 soundtrack repesents my first exposure to Bhangra music. Simply put, these guys make it an awesome experience for me. This song both rocks, and fits soooo great as a track in a racing game. I'm going to be buying a bunch of albums by these guys if they are all as good as this. You just cant go wrong with this track. Best track in Project Gotham Racing 3.. Period.

Track 3
Artist: Dhamaal Soundsystem
Track: Bol Breaker
Label: MusSync
Length: 3.50
Rating: 3

Kinda boring not bad.. but nothing exciting either..

Track 4
Artist: Achanak
Track: Lak Noo Hala De
Label: Nachural Records
Length: 2.28
Rating: 4

Energetic and a bit corny. But fun to listen to, and good for racing too. This track works well enough.

Track 5
Artist: Echotwist
Track: Frankies Next Move
Label: MusSync
Length: 4.54
Rating: 3

This track starts off a bit drony and boring, but picks it up about a minute and a half in. Give it a chance to get past the first part and you wont be dissappointed. Decent variety here once it gets going. I find myself wondering about the title of this track. Is this some sort of homage to "Frankie Goes to Hollywood"? Maybe they are still big in India? Who knows..

Track 6
Artist: Bhangra Blast
Track: Hauli Hauli (Abridged)
Label: Times Music
Length: 1.14
Rating: 3

The keyboards in this song sound like they are from one of those kids keyboards at the toystore.. Circa 1992.. But the song is so short, it doesnt really matter. Has a good rhythm to it and its a perfect length for those short challanges.

Track 7
Artist: Tigerstyle
Track: Boliyan
Label: Nachural
Length: 3.26
Rating: 4

Another rockin one from Tigerstyle. This one with a bit more traditional feel to it. Still a great song. These guys just don't dissappoint..

Track 8
Artist: MIDIval PunditZ
Track: Kesariya
Label: Six Degrees Records
Length: 7.12
Rating: 4

This one starts off SUPER mellow, Slowly introducing one musical element at a time. Vocals, then keys, then the beat, then the bass. This actually works really well for the super long races (think Nurburgring). The vocals are really pretty too, without being distracting.

Track 9
Artist: Karsh Kale
Track: One Step Beyond
Label: Six Degrees Records
Length: 6.05
Rating: 3

This song is mostly drums with a mellow melody over parts. Good use of both electronic sounds and analog. Gets a bit boring. Not a great track but a definately a good one..

Track 10
Artist: Jasbir Jassi
Track: Putt Jattaan Daa
Label: Times Music
Length: 5.40
Rating: 2

The worst song in the genre by far. The music is lame. The vocals boring. And it feels WAY too long. Skip this track.

Track 11
Artist: Achanak
Track: Maar Sutia
Label: Nachural Records
Length: 3.24
Rating: 4

Another good one by Achanak. Bouncy sounding and fun to race to.

Track 12
Artist: Tigerstyle
Track: Maan doabe da
Label: Nachural Records
Length: 5.05
Rating: 5

Ok third times the charm.. Just go out and buy one of these guys albums. You wont be disappointed. Another awesome track.

Next Up.. Classical

<< back to PGR3 Soundtrack Review Index

XBOX Originals - What a letdown..

Back in December Microsoft started allowing downloads of Original Xbox titles in Xbox Live. This allows 360 owners, to play some Xbox classics, all for the low low price of 1200 Microsoft points.

First let me say that some of these old Xbox titles are still GREAT games, and definately worth owning, if you missed them the first time round. Whether its Halo, or Crimson Skies, or Fable.. They are all exceptional games.

Here are the reasons I think this "deal" aint so great.

1. You can own these titles for only 1200 Microsoft points!
   Wow what a fantastic deal, that equates to only 15 bucks a game.. Fifteen bucks a game? Are you kidding me? If you spend some time looking in the discount bins over at your favorite game store, you can probably find them for 10 or less..
2. You can download them right to your 360! No need to run out to the game store!
   Wow thats awesome! You also get no case, no physical game, no liner notes, no instruction manual.. Don't you think it should COST less if you are going to GET less?
3. Pay with convienient Microsoft Points!
   What the shit is convienient about these points? Why not just charge cash, so at least you can easily figure out how much you are spending.. I don't really understand the idea of these points. I can understand if you could win points or something for playing in tournaments, or games or something.. But I havent seen any things like that.. I think that people who were with Xbox Live from the beginning got some free points for the 5 year anniversary, but thats about all I ever heard of.

Want a better deal? I just bought Crimson Skies used for 4.60$ complete with original case, instructions, etc. You can find most of these games either brand new in the discount bins, or used in near mint condition, for much less than 15 bucks. Christ.. you can probably get 3 original Xbox games used, for the price of one of these downloaded games.

Oh and the ONE reason that these downloaded classics ARE better than the original? You don't need to insert a disc to play the game. Me? I'll save the 10 bucks and put the damn game in the drive.

Undertow - XBOX Live Arcade - FREE

If you are an Xbox Live member you can download the full version of Xbox Live Arcade game Undertow free of charge, from January 23 - January 27. Get yourself a free game today! Just log into live, browse the games, and download your game for nothing at all.

Games Over Girls Podcast

Since starting this blog, my main objective was to start a podcast. This blogging shit's for the birds! Writing is annoying, I'd much rather have a little radio show that will flow freely. It's hard for me to express emotion in writing, not to mention I'll sit there reading and re-writing my thoughts, sure it may come out better when you have time to think about what you want to say - but it's not really the way it should be. I want all the stupid shit I say and think to come out naturally, it's honest that way, not as canned.
What do you say Chris, you want to move this thing to the full website and start the podcast or what?!
Chris - Yah, I'm down with doing the podcast Jacko.. Let's work on it this weekend, if you are not falling down drunk as usual ;)

iphone gaming coming soon?

There was a comment made on one of the 1up.com podcasts that mobile gaming on the iphone is a very possible reality in the near future. I just bought the 8 gig version a couple of days ago, and the thought of playing a cheap, touch sensitive RPG or Puzzle game has me pretty excited. It kinda sucks that I'm retarded with computers, because I'd love to jailbreak this thing and play NES games. Anyway, Lunar sequel, make it happen. Not on the phone stupid, DS or PSP, and not anything even resembling Dragon Song....wasn't this supposed to be about iPhone gaming?

World of Warcraft - Interface Addon - Loot Track

Well the thumbs healing up nicely. Should get the stitches out on Monday.. With my gaming thumb out of commission, I have been catching up on some PC Gaming.. Notably some Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, which is grand, and World of Warcraft. This brings me to the point of this post.

Way back when.. when I used to have a lot of time to play WOW, my main was a fire specced Mage enchanter. I used to do alot of farming for drops for disenchant loot. I used Thottbot for a while trying to determine which mobs dropped greens, or blues frequently, but it didn't work that well, since thott would tell you how often mobs would drop a given item. I wasn't really looking for this.. I just wanted to know how often an enemy would drop ANY item of green quality.. or blue quality.. etc.

In order to solve this dilemma I decided to code my own World of Warcraft interface addon. (Yes I know I am a nerd) Thus was born "Loot Track".

The purpose of this addon is to track how frequently any given enemy of a given level, will drop each quality item (grey, white, green, blue, purple, orange), and how much cash (in silver) it drops on average. The interface is very simple. You target a mob. If you have harvested it before, it will pop a list of how frequently it drops the different quality goods. It also lists how many times the enemy has been harvested, and the average cash it drops. If you have not harvested it before, nothing is displayed. The more you harvest a given enemy, the more precise the data becomes. Here is an example of the interface.

From this image we see the targetted mob, a level 7 Cursed Darkhound. From the Loot Track frame we see that I have harvested this particular enemy 40 times. On average it drops grey items 15% of the time, and white items 55% of the time. It drops no cash at all. The frame can be right clicked and dragged anywhere on the screen, so you can arrange it whereever you want.

This is a really simple addon. If you are looking for a good rough idea of what a mob is dropping, to figure out if you want to grind it, this addon is great. If you are looking for mass quantities of info on the mob, other addons are much better. MobInfo for instance is great for telling you just about anything you need to know. I use it all the time.

Anyway you can download Loot Track here. To install it, simply unzip and drop the "Loot Track" folder in your interface/addons directory. This app can even be distributed as long as I am properly credited, and you include a link to this blog from the distribution webpage. I hope you enjoy using this addon as much as I do. Cheers!

Thumb Injury

What an asshole, now you can't play Super Mario Galaxy HAHAHAHAHA.......Wait.....You lucky prick! Seriously though, is this going to effect Rock Band practice? The Cunt Farts are really starting to make it big in the underground scene, Rolling Stone calls us "Uproarious". What do you think about writing a real song called "While my plastic rock band guitar gently weeps"? What, no good?

Gaming Thumb Injured; Log Maul Aptly Named

Yeah.. I'm a dumbass.. Mangled my gaming thumb splitting some firewood over the weekend. 8 pound maul to the thumb.. Nice. I was actually pretty lucky for the fact that I managed to miss any bones, but split it open pretty badly to the tune of 3 stitches.

Amazingly, this is the first time I have ever gotten stitches. I mean.. I definately should have gotten them on at least 4 occasions that I can think of.. But just never went to get them done.

Anyway, looks like im relegated to the world of PC gaming for the next week or two.. Guess I could work on leveling my PVP alts on World of Warcraft.. :(

What a load of crap..

STUPID MARIO GALAXY - Review - Wii - 6/10

Dear Nintendo Fanboys,
Go play Super Mario 64....GO NOW, I'll be here when you get back. Ooooh sweeet mama, Tia Tanaka, I would love to eat your assho- OH SHIT, you're back.... um.... I wasn't doing anything, why, what did you hear? Now go play Super Mario Galaxy, this time give me a little more time to uh.... finish up. OK, do you understand why I made you go play them? To prove a little point, Super Mario 64 is a far more satisfying experience and was made over 10 years ago. I realize that it's a different game and it should be judged on it's own merits, but I can't sit here and give a game , that's inferior in almost every way, a score that's anything higher than a 6.
Look, Nintendo is still probably the best software company in the world, but you wouldn't know it by the shit they've been shoveling out over the past year or so. Where are the games for the hardcore? Is this it? Nintendo, you are on probation until you get your act together and get back to the greatness you once were. Now on with the review.

Graphics - The graphics are actually pretty good, the only problem I have with them is that the worlds are way too small to soak them up. I really enjoy the way the teeny tiny levels look as you shoot into them as you start, and when you use the star-cannons to shoot you around it also.

Sound - Most of the music is forgettable, the only high points are the little music notes that play an oldschool Super Mario tune from yesteryear, that was awesome.

Controls - The controls would be great.... if you were able to play this game with a normal controller and not with this dildo of an abomination. After about 12 hours of play, it still doesn't feel right, GOOD GOD I want to play with the Game Cube pad again.

Gameplay - It's just not that fun, Why are the levels so short? Just when I'm starting to get into it, the level is over. Believe me, I wanted so badly for something to justify purchasing that little white shit box, this ain't it! If Smash Bros. Brawl sucks I'm going to off myself.

Overall - Pass, they really shit the bed on this one. There are better games to play, go get some older Game Cube games, I suggest Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, even Super Mario Sunshine is worth playing over this, and that game SUCKED!

In closing I would also like to say that there is probably not a bigger fan of Nintendo than I (I have 2 Zelda tattoos to prove it), so save your mail bombs for someone else. I just want everyone to wake up and smell the cat crap, there is a reason we hold Nintendo to a higher standard and I just hope they remember their loyal fanbase when it comes time to make the next system.

PGR3 - REVIEW - Genre: Alternative Rock

Alternative Rock

Genre Rating: 3

Total Tracks in Genre: 11
Length: approx. 36 mins.

This genre is characterized by its mediocrity. There are no totally awful tracks in the Alt Rock genre, but there are no exceptionally great tracks either. A few of the songs work pretty well though.

Guide to rating: 1 = Avoid at all costs / 5 = Can't go wrong with this one.

Track 1
Artist: Bloc Party
Track: Helicopter
Label: Vice Music Inc.
Length: 3.38
Rating: 4

This track works pretty well. Vocals are catchy. Electronic and electric instrumentation keeps the song from getting boring.

Track 2
Artist: Morrissey
Track: I Like You
Label: Attack Records
Length: 4.08
Rating: 2

I enjoy listening to Morrissey. He's super gay and all.. but if you ignore the fact that he's singing about a dude in his love songs, they are good. This being said, Morrissey should not be on any racing game soundtrack, unless its some sort of yacht sailing/racing sim. The music/vocals just do not fit very well with the whole experience. An exception, would be The Smith's "How Soon Is Now", but even then I would probably choose Richard Butler/Love Spit Love's cover, which is more powerful. Good track.. Poor choice for this game though.

Track 3
Artist: Death From Above 1979
Track: Black History Month
Label: Last Gang Records/Vice Records
Length: 3.50
Rating: 3

Every once in a while, someone tells me that I sould listen to these guys. I give it a shot, and determine that I think these guys are ok, not great, but ok. I feel the same about this track.. This song is rich in adequacity. Not the best track, not the worst either.

Track 4
Artist: Louis XIV
Track: God Killed The Queen
Label: Atlantic Recording Group
Length: 2.28
Rating: 3

Reminicent of mid 70's guitar rock. This song is saved by its short duration.

Track 5
Artist: Hot Hot Heat
Track: Island Of The Honest Man
Label: Sire Records
Length: 3.03
Rating: 4

This track is one of the better ones in this genre. Some wierd breaks now and then, but as a whole the track works pretty well for the london races especially.

Track 6
Artist: Death Cab For Cutie
Track: Photobooth (Live)
Label: Barsuk Records
Length: 3.30
Rating: 2

I am a big fan of Death Cab. Im a big fan of this song. This song does not work well with Project Gotham Racing. It's not powerful enough. Live versions of songs typically more powerful sounding than the originals. This one is not. Great song, just does not work at all in this capacity..

Track 7
Artist: The Kills
Track: The Good Ones
Label: Domino Records
Length: 3.26
Rating: 2

This song starts and ends with very little fluctuation. Speed stays the same. Vocals stay the same. Guitar stays the same. Drums stay the same. This track is just plain boring.

Track 8
Artist: Gratitude
Track: Drive Away
Label: Atlantic Recording Group
Length: 3.20
Rating: 4

Hard guitar lines, mellowish catchy vocals, and good variety, make this track the best of the genre. Not the best in the game though.

Track 9
Artist: The Futureheads
Track: Trying Not To Think About Time
Label: 679 Recordings Ltd
Length: 2.18
Rating: 3

Lots of breaks and time changes in this fast track, make this one hard to match to the action. Still a decent track though.

Track 10
Artist: The Presidents of the United States of America
Track: Poke and Destroy
Label: PUSA, LLC
Length: 2.36
Rating: 2

I can't stand these guys. There.. I said it.. This song sucks. The vocals suck. This song is distracting. For some goddamned reason, this track seems to come up ALL THE TIME when I'm playing this game on a random soundtrack. I think they paid the developers off to keep this track "less than random" if you know what i mean.. Im giving this song a two, because I feel that I may be less than impartial, since I think these guys suck so bad. I would give this track a one otherwise. You are welcome.

Track 11
Artist: Less Than Jake
Track: Bridge And Tunnel Authority
Label: Sire Records
Length: 2.36
Rating: 4

Decent Pop-Punk ditty. Not familiar with these guys, but the track works rather well. Fast-pacing, catchy guitar and vocals, and some horns make this interesting.

Next Up.. Bhangra

<< back to PGR3 Soundtrack Review Index

Ubisoft Store - Free 2 day shipping

Just got Assassin's Creed. Came with an online coupon for free 2 day shipping if you order from the online store. Just go to the Ubisoft Store and enter coupon code: 2DAYFREE at checkout. Coupon is good until 5/31/2008. Enjoy!

Blue Dragon - Marked Down to 32$ at Circuit City

Looks like Circuit City marked Blue Dragon down to 32 dollars for a post-holiday sale. Jack.. I am aiming this post at you, since I know you were looking to buy it.. Now your broke ass can afford it.. With it on sale at this price I may pick it up myself!

Here is a link to the game at Circuit City.