Gamertell

Halo fans may have another item to add to their holiday wishlist - the Halo Trilogy - The Complete Original Soundtracks boxed set. Sumthing Else Music Works’ has just announced that the five disc release, which also comes with four tracks from Halo Wars will be available both in stores and for download on December 2, 2008. Amazon‘s currently listing the set for $26.99. If you search for Halo at Sumthing Digital, the Halo soundtracks are $9.99 each, so the boxed set ends up being a pretty good deal.

The Halo Wars special DVD that’s included with this set may be the most appealing to fans. It not only has four unspecified tracks from the forthcoming Xbox 360 real-time strategy game set in the Halo universe, but it also shows the recording session where the Halo Wars theme was created and the opening “Five Long Years” movie that will appear in Halo Wars.

The contents of the pack are pretty standard, aside from the Halo Wars special DVD. There are four CDs…

MORE »

While dashing through my nearest Target store, I passed a rack stacked with tins in the underwear, er, pajamas section.

The tins, priced at $9.99 each, include a set of colorful men’s boxers that reflect the packaging: a Wii (as in the console), a red Guitar Hero guitar, black Guitar Hero speaker, an Xbox 360 controller, Super Mario Bros. 3 with Mario, the Superman logo and the Batman logo.

I did find a few listed on the Kohl’s and Sears web sites…

MORE »

Every so often a video game comes alone that changes the way its genre is seen forever. We often the words “innovative,“ “immersive” and “groundbreaking” to describe the games’ merits, putting them clearly above all others. However, there’s only a small number of titles that can be seen as redefining the genre.

We know these games when we see them because it’s usually imitated over and over again. A game that redefines a genre doesn’t have to be an entirely brand new idea because, truth be told, very few ideas are 100% original. Instead, a genre-defining title is one that grabs the attention of people who never would play that type of game otherwise…

MORE »

When I last spoke with Zach Wigal, founder of Gamers Outreach Foundation, he was just finishing up a Halo 3 tournament in January to raise funds for his community.

I caught up with Wigala few weeks ago and learned he has just earned the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award.

Wigal said he only became aware of the program a few months ago after doing an interview with Chris Erickson of 360StyleCast podcast and added that…

MORE »

According to Bungie’s community and PR director Brian Jarrard, Halo 3: Recon, the recently revealed standalone campaign expansion pack for Halo 3, may very well be the company’s final game to use the Halo property which it created (and is now owned by Microsoft Game Studios).

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Jarrard explained that he believes “when [Recon] wraps up in a couple of months that will be the time when that team moves on to something else.” He expects that some members of the team will move onto something entirely new, while others will be…

MORE »

In the October 15, 2008, issue of Wine Spectator magazine (p. 44), contributor Matt Kramer wrote an opinion piece tiled “Why Wine isn’t art - and why that matters.“

Inspired by a party argument where someone suggests that wine is art, Kramer argues that “fine wine is, at best, a high craft” and that, to call it art is “self-aggrandizing.“ He suggests that by getting people to accept that wine is art, winemakers’ “salaries will rise, and producers, for their part, will start pricing wine as ‘art.‘“ Instead, wine is simply an “amplification” and “refinement” of the existing attributes of the grape that happens to include the grape’s upbringing (“all the forces that create ta particularity of the site”). Lafite Rothschild, for example, is not created, but the result of craftily refining grapes grown in a specific area in a specific way.

Using wine-lover Kamer’s argument, videogames are then a creation from a blank slate, which makes any game art. Even if you have a…

MORE »

The NPD report has been released for September 2008 and Star Wars fans sure made a Force-ful impact.

Along with the positive news that total game sales were $1.27 billion, Star Wars fans had the pleasure of seeing their games place high on the charts. The console iteration of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed placed in 3 of the top 10 spots in this month, totaling 1.16 million in individual sales. The Xbox 360 version of the game accounted for 52 percent of those sales, with the Playstation 3 version taking 28 percent. Other notable games that appeared on the software side of the NPD charts included Wii Fit, Nintendo’s “exercise simulator,“  the latest iteration of Mario Kart, the ever-present Wii Play and…

MORE »

During Microsoft’s keynote address at the Tokyo Game Show 2008 (October 8, 2008), it was revealed that Halo 3 will be expanded upon, with Halo 3: Recon.

No longer will you play as the heroic Master Chief, as players will now control a UNSC recon soldier. 

The expansion will serve as a prequel to the events leading up to Halo 3 and will feature a new campaign.  The expansion’s release tentatively Fall 2009, so check out this impressive trailer from the convention…

MORE »

Bungie has finally confirmed that more achievements are being added to Halo 3 as well as several other upgrades.

According to the announcement, the ten Achievements are part of the “Title Update 2” (aka TU2) which, putting an end to many rumors, is “not ushering in a new ‘BR spread,‘ nor does it incorporate enemy AI and campaign components to the Forge map editor.“ The other major addition is the “Playlist Ratings” which are “the playlist-level decoupling of Trueskill values (the in-game number next to your name) from Experience (the icon next to your name).“ They also assure gamers that the Trueskill values are not being reset.

Smaller additions include…

MORE »

Title: Video Games Live: Volume One
Price: $16.98 ($0.99 per song download)
Release Date: July 22, 2008
Publisher: EMI Records Ltd. (Angel Records)
Pros: An excellent collections of impressive performances. Often well-orchestrated collections and homages to game music with an honest air of respectability that even non-gamers can appreciate. The name implies there will be a Volume Two.
Cons: A few segments are a bit slow and some of the instrumentation plainly mimics or masks the vocals.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up; 91/100; A-; * * * * out of five.

No matter where you fall in the games as art spectrum there’s no denying that plenty of artistic efforts are put into many games’ production. Case in point is the Video Games Live tour which offers orchestral performances of video game music that would be difficult for any music snob to scoff at.

The CD (and digital download) release of Video Games Live: Volume One offers selected studio and live performances featuring the Slovak Symphony Orchestra, Crouch End Festival Chorus and various soloists as conducted by Jack Wall.

Click through for a track-by-track review…

MORE »

Check out the gallery: Video Games Live: Volume One CD art