Fall 2009 Game Releases

Fall 2009 is here, and with it comes some amazing games that have been hyped up since the better part of last year. Yet this year has also seen one of the greatest disappointments ever, as many games such as Bioshock 2 and Starcraft 2 were delayed release until early next year from the massive hype and market of Halo 3: ODST. Nevertheless, some big names have come on in the end of 2009, and we shall see if they can make it to the record books in the annals of gaming history.

On October 26, 2009, Borderlands, by 2K Games, was released on PC. It is considered an First-Person Shooter Role-Playing Game that features four-player online cooperative gaming. Like all RPGs, the focus of the game will be quests, as nearly 30 quests are part of the actual story line of the game, with over 130 additional side quests. It also features a brand-new state-of-the-art generation program, making a nearly unlimited amount of combinations of guns and items that can be found in the world. Borderlands is also the first FPSRPG to feature actual vehicles, where players can fight AI enemies in vehicle-to-vehicle combat. With bandits and over nine different hostile alien species on the planet Pandora, players will be able to experience a unique and dangerous world in Borderlands.

By the time Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is released on November 10, 2009, there will be a long line of hardcore gamers who will boycott it. Infinity Ward’s sequel to the ever popular Call of Duty 4 will be a lot different from previous PC games. The game developers have decided to take away all dedicated servers and replace them with public servers. Instead of a server browser, the game takes into account your performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same skills. No more server choosing, no more server modding, and no more server admins. Replacing the private dedicated servers are fully public servers employing game hosts. In an unprecedented and arrogant response to the loss of the dedicated servers, Infinity Ward has claimed that this was the best move to ensure that hacking and cheating are kept to an absolute minimum. Not all gamers agree, saying that the move will not only serve to ensure a large number of admin abuse, but also create a bad mix of noobs and pwners in the same room. What Infinity Ward has done was take away the only boundary that kept noobs and pwners apart, and the fallout from that move could be ugly. As of this writing, more than 100,000 people have signed a petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dedis4mw) to restore the dedicated servers, but, so far, Infinity Ward has no plans to retract their decision.

Left 4 Dead 2, Valve Corporation’s sequel to the ever-popular Source game Left 4 Dead, is set to release on PC and Xbox 360 on November 17, 2009. It takes place in the southern United States, one week after the first Left 4 Dead storyline, and introduces four new survivors. The game brings five new campaign maps with a whole host of new weapons, like chainsaws, as well as new, even stronger zombies from which to slaughter.

There you have it, a concise list of what you want for Christmas. Happy Gaming!

iPhone 3GS

In the nearly endless summer of 2009, Apple Inc. released the third generation iPhone, called the iPhone 3GS. Apple came out with brand-new commercials before the release, creating a lot of hype. On release day, they were expecting more than 500,000 units to be sold, but in reality, more than 1,000,000 iPhones were sold over the entire weekend from June 20 to June 21, 2009, much more than first predicted. For iPhone owners, like Kenny Gouin ’10, it is simply “the Jesus Phone.” I got a close-up look at the iPhone 3GS and saw what made it the “king of kings” (of phones).

First off, the iPhone 3GS has a 3 megapixel digital camera with auto-focusing. The camera does pretty decently in normal lighting, although it doesn’t do so well in low lighting. Since there is no flash, near-darkness shots won’t work either. In addition to the auto-focusing, there is manual focusing, where you simply tap on-screen who or what you want your shot to focus on. There is also, for the first time ever, video recording. You can take high-quality VGA video in portrait or landscape, edit it, and then immediately upload it on YouTube, email it, or sync it to your computer via iTunes. Only drawback with the camera feature, there is no zoom.

The new iPhone also contains Voice Control. Voice Control lets you use your phone simply by using your voice. Need to make a call? Whip out your phone, go to voice control, and simply say the person’s name who you want to call, and Voice Control will call that person for you. You can also use your music library with Voice Control. Simply say “Play (whatever).” And your phone will start playing the first song in the library from that artist.

Other cool features on the phone include a built-in compass, which automatically reorients the map to your view like a GPS navigation unit. Cut, Copy, and Paste, which allows you to cut, copy, and paste words and pictures from just about anywhere and paste it, in just about anywhere. It also comes in the greater sizes of 16GB and 32GB. So why don’t you go down and treat yourself this year to the one and only Jesus Phone.

Bing vs. Google

Ahh Bing. We find it to be the crème le crème of Microsoft’s Live Search. They claim to be the so-called answer to search overload. We’ve all heard of Bing, but will we actually use it? Should Google be scared by a potential new competitor?

Let’s take a tour of Bing, shall we? First of all, Bing is a newcomer in the search engine wars. Google has effectively overtaken just about every single one of its competitors including Ask.com, Yahoo Search, and Microsoft Live Search. In order to beat out Google, Microsoft took Live Search, fed it roids and let it loose, unleashing the beast known as Bing. At first glance, Bing looks exactly like Google. To the side of the default home page are tabs for images, videos, shopping, news, maps, travel, and more. Of course, as you type a word in the search box, a preference list comes up, just like in Google. The web and image search are pretty much exactly the same as Google’s search; not worse, but not better either.

The true essence of Bing appears with the Video Search. For the first time ever, you can preview each and every video that appears to see if it is worth watching. This feature is something that even Youtube doesn’t have! Imagine, pacing around and you just get the sudden desire to see an entertaining video. So you hop on your computer, go to Bing, and do a video search for “kid freaks out over WOW” and voila! Complete videos showing a kid freaking out over his cancelled World of Warcraft account, as well as several remixes. Just put your mouse over the thumbnail and you get a preview of the video, with sound, for about 10 seconds. Plus, you can filter your search further by video length (short, medium, or long), screen type (standard or widescreen), resolution (low, medium, or high), and source (msn, aol, hulu, youtube, etc.).

Perhaps the greatest jump from Google to Bing is Shopping, but this is not your average internet shopping. You see, when you search for something using Bing Shopping, sometimes you might find a little something called Bing cashback. Cashback is a side program where, if you buy something online using Bing, they will take a percentage (usually between 1 to 10%) off of the sale price. This percentage is then returned to you as simply Cashback. After 60 days, you can request you Cashback rewards and it will be returned to you in a Cashback or PayPal account, which you can use like real money. Imagine, you would not only save time when you shop online, you would also save money!

Microsoft redid its entire Live Search Maps with Bing maps. It also included a free download for 3D maps that is browser-based and works pretty well. In fact it is much better than Google Earth, which requires manual downloads of individual buildings, whereas Bing 3D Maps delivers full, 3D replicas of well-known buildings and landscapes right on your map. The only issue with Bing Maps is that the satellite pictures are a little outdated. When finding Saints on both Bing and Google Maps, you can clearly see the new buildings on Google, whereas Bing still shows the construction pit.

All in all, Bing is something to look at and use. My verdict: Google still has a slight edge over Bing with Gmail, Google Docs, and other stuff from Google toolbar. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to forget Bing altogether. In fact, I’m simultaneously using both right now and waiting and seeing if people will either rewire their brains from Google and switch to Bing, or stay with the big G.