Games of the Year

We at XYBA decided that we couldn't let all the big blog sites have all the fun so we went cagematch style to determine our own games of the year. In the end, after a bout of bloody fighting(Josh fights dirty) we decided to just post all of our picks. Our choices after the jump. (Face, Charlie!)

Game of the Year:

Andy: Fallout 3
Charlie: Gears of War 2
Josh: Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2 gets the coveted XYBA Game of the Year award. Josh and Charlie love the Horde mode and are constantly playing it. Runner-up is Fallout 3.

Casual Game of the Year:

Andy: Scene It? BOS
Charlie: Rock Band 2
Josh: *Declined*

Probably the hardest category for us because we aren't big casual gamers. We're giving the award to Rock Band 2 with Scene It? BOS receiving the runner-up.

Co-op Game of the Year:

Andy: Left 4 Dead
Charlie: Rock Band 2
Josh: Saint's Row 2

A three way split! There were some good co-op games this year, online and off. I went with Left 4 Dead because this is a game that truly requires cooperative play to succeed. I tend to often go lone wolf on a lot of co-op games, but if you do that on Left 4 Dead, you're toast. Josh went with Saint's Row 2 because the co-op on it is so smooth and makes the game ten times more fun. Charlie went with Rock Band 2... no explanation given.

New IP of the Year:

Andy: Left 4 Dead
Charlie: LittleBigPlanet
Josh: Left 4 Dead

Our New IP award goes to Left 4 Dead. Valve did it again with a post-apocalyptic world where an unlikely group of survivors bands together to try and escape the zombie masses. The AI and the "Director" make the game different every time you play it, and the online versus mode guarantees you'll be replaying this game. We can't wait for more DLC or Left 4 Dead 2. Runner-up is LittleBigPlanet.

RPG of the Year:

Andy: Fallout 3
Charlie: Fallout 3
Josh: Locks Quest

Fallout 3 is our RPG of the Year. Bethesda did it again. They took a beloved franchise and changed it without fucking it up. The massive post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 3 is beautiful and deadly. This is a game we spent countless hours on and still went back for more. Runner up is Locks Quest on the DS.

Shooter of the Year:

Andy: Saint's Row 2
Charlie: *Voided*
Josh: Saint's Row 2

Charlie's vote was voided since he picked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare which came out last year. Our Shooter of the Year is Saint's Row 2. I don't know if this won awards from many other organizations, but we love us some Saint's Row 2. This game has what so many games tend to miss: fun! Saint's Row 2 is possibly THE most fun game I played all year. Much of the fun is from co-op, but the game stands without it as well.

Rant: I Hate Game Freezes!

I've had to deal with some game freezing on my Xbox 360 lately. It seems to be certain games and not the Xbox itself(hopefully). But it's very frustrating, especially when playing games without a real save system.

I picked up Call of Duty: World at War on sale at Best Buy last week. I beat the campaign playing split-screen co-op in one sitting. It seemed like it was going to freeze at one point but unfroze after a few seconds. I then played online multiplayer for a few days - no problems. I went back to play the campaign on solo(there's more missions and achievements on solo). The game has frozen on me a few times trying to go solo. So I stopped playing.

I instead moved onto The Incredible Hulk. Sure, it got some bad reviews, but I picked it up from Gamefly for like $9. I found out that I actually enjoy it. It reminds me of Spiderman 3 except that it's fun.

When I'm doing the missions and such, it runs fine. But I'm trying to get an achievement for destroying an entire New York neighborhood. I chose Spanish Harlem. Because it's the smallest neighborhood.

However, it's froze up twice while I've been on a massive rampage. Today I took my score from 900,000 to 2.9 million while on a level 8 rampage and destroying 69% of Spanish Harlem. Just as I was thinking I should start a mission or something before it froze up - it froze. I did get an achievement or two while on my rampage, but all the powers and such I unlocked will be back to locked when I boot it up again.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the XYBA Podcast crew!!!

Gears of War X-mas

Here's a video that we put together over the past weekend. A little tribute to Gears of War during the holiday season. Enjoy.

Tabula Rasa is Now Free

Tabula Rasa is a sci-fi MMO developed by Richard "Lord British" Garriott, the father of MMOs having helped create Ultima Online. Last month was the game's one year anniversary and the announcement that Tabula Rasa would be shutting down at the end of February. At the time, they announced the servers would go free in January. Apparently, they've moved that time up because you can now download and play the game for free.

You can click here to download the game's client. Then you need to go to the Support Page of PlayNC to request a code for Tabula Rasa. And you'll need to use that code on your PlayNC account. When making your account, they will ask for a credit card, but they say you will not be charged.

I always thought this game looked good, and if anyone could have made a good sci-fi MMO, I would think Garriott would be the one. For some reason, I've noticed sci-fi MMOs tend to do worse than others. Plus, this game had a character pose for Playboy! (Go ahead, do a Tabula Rasa Playboy image search on Google, we'll wait.)

I'm going to try to get my PC back up and running just to try out this game. (It hasn't worked since June.) Too bad there's not a Mac version...

Remember the game will go offline February 28th so get your free playing in while there's still time. Or better yet, give the file and code to someone as a Christmas gift!

Rumors: Crackdown 2

Edge has some interesting information about a new Microsoft game developer team being created in Scotland. Apparently the team is made of members who created Crackdown, the sandbox game where you play as a supercop.

For now it is all speculation that the team will be working on Crackdown 2. It stands to reason that Crackdown will have a sequel since the first one was well received after players realized the game was tons of fun and not just a source to get the Halo 3 beta. And since Realtime Worlds is busy working on APB, which should be awesome, there is a need for another team to work on the sequel in order to get it out sooner.

I'm hoping this rumor is true because I love Crackdown. I would like to see them improve it by fixing the driving controls and maybe come up with some cool fighting combos, so I can really beat the crap out of people. I say steal the grab and throw mechanic from Saints Row II.

Free Avatar

Microsoft released an interesting little toy on xbox.com - Free Your Avatar. It allows anyone to make various pictures with Xbox Live avatars.

You type in someone's gamertag and it pulls up their avatar. You then drag the avatar into the picture where you can move it around and/or resize it. You can even drag in multiple avatars. You can also add in a background and a line of text.

But you can only add one line of text(in black or white). If you want to add other lines, you'll have to do it with a picture editor after exporting the image.



The weird thing about it is that you can use anyone's avatar. So you can make pictures with griefers and people you have problems with on Xbox Live.

Review: The Video Game Awards Show

I can't remember if I've ever watched an awards show before, but I watched Spike TV's Video Game Awards Show tonight. Some of it was entertaining, but a lot of it seemed stilted and vaguely uncomfortable like the actors had never seen their lines before.

Most of the musical guests were fine, but when the announcers and actors would be talking with each other nobody seemed to know what was going on. Jack Black did well most of the time, but there were bits when he also seemed confused. I like how Neil Patrick Harris had no idea who the winner of his award was. Awkward...

And who let crazy Mike Tyson come on with his crazy face tattoo?

Gears 2 Combustible Map Pack Available Tomorrow

It had been rumored before, but it was just confirmed on Spike TV's Video Game Awards - a new Gears of War 2 map pack will be available for download on Xbox Live tomorrow(technically midnight PST).

The Combustible Map Pack will include three new maps for use in multiplayer.

Flood is a map filled with imulsion which rises throughout your game, causing the safe areas to shift. Fuel Station takes place around a gas station. Gold Rush seems to have a lot of high ground/low ground.

No official word about the price of these maps, but rumor prices it at 800 Microsoft points.

Mercenaries 2 DLC Coming Tuesday

EA and Pandemic Studios are releasing a DLC pack for Mercenaries 2 on December 16th. One great thing about this content? It's free for the month of December!

The Blow It Up Again content pack contains four additional game modes and a few "patriotic characters."

I'm not exactly sure what the patriotic characters, but I'm definitely downloading this. Of course, it's free. But it will also motivate me to finally beat the game. I had a lot of fun when I first got the game but then got distracted by some other games...

Update: Apparently, this DLC is already live on the Playstation Network so if you have Mercenaries 2 on your PS3, go ahead and get to downloading!