Halo 4 Trailer

This trailer isn’t brand new, but it is something I have been meaning to get up on TGA for a little while now.  It is a good mix of developer commentary and gameplay footage and it looks like it is shaping up really well.  So without further adieu here is the official Halo 4 trailer.  As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

Review Roundup: The Darkness 2

The Darkness 2 launched this week and continues the adventures of a one Jackie Estacado and his destructive tendencies through New York.  We went through a few reviews and found the ones that best described the game and gave us a great opportunity to pass good information onto you.  Everything we think you need to know about The Darkness 2 can be found below to uncover whether or not this is a good game for you, enjoy.

Release Date: February 7^th, 2011

Available Platforms:

• Xbox 360
• Playstation 3
• PC

The ROUNDUP

Pros and Cons Consensus

Pros

• Great Art Style
• Great combat
• Great sense of empowerment
• New narrative elements help the pacing of the story
• Unique multiplayer components
• Great Voice Acting and Sound Effects
• Inclusion of a Skill Tree adds diversity to combat

Cons

• Relatively short campaign
• Some aggravating bugs
• Linear Levels and predictable AI

Site Reviews

• IGN Review – 8/10
• GamesRadar Review – 8/10
• GameSpot Review – 7/10
• EuroGamer Review – 7/10

Average Score – 7.5/10

Buying Decision:

From what we could derive from all these reviews and word of mouth from our friends The Darkness 2 is a must buy, day one purchase for Darkness zealots.  If you liked the first one, but weren’t a mega fan we recommend waiting for a price drop especially if you only plan on playing the single player campaign.  If you didn’t enjoy the first one at all then we recommend that you don’t buy the game period.  Also keep in mind that there is a demo so you can always try before you buy.

Alright folks this concludes our first ever Review Roundup.  We hope you found some great information about The Darkness 2 and as this is just a roundup and not an actual review please refer to the actual reviews for more in depth analysis and criticism of the title itself.  Thanks for stopping by and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.  Lastly any suggestions to make this better or any requests for Roundups let us know by commenting on this page, Facebook or on Twitter.  Thanks and have a great weekend everyone.

TGA TV Ep.1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition Unboxing

Hey all you TGA fans, we are now on YouTube and here is our first episode of TGA TV.  Ryan and myself unbox the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition for the Xbox 360, enjoy and stay tuned for our next episode (hopefully soon).  As always you can follows us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

Amazon Video Game DOTD 11/1

Welcome to November everybody.  Amazon’s DOTD for games is for those gun-slinging sword wielding types.  I am speaking about none other than Red Steel 2 with the Wii Motion plus attachment.  This deal today will run you a cool $25.99 which isn’t bad considering what is in the package.  Red Steel 2 was much better than its predecessor if you were wondering, so if this deal interests you go nab it over at Amazon from this here link.  Happy shopping and as always stay tuned for more deals and you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

Battlefield 3 and the “Standard Def” Dilemma

Battlefield 3 is just around the corner (next Tuesday to be exact) and is no stranger to being the object of attention in the gaming news world.  Today’s latest tidbit about BF3 came as a bit of a surprise to me though so I thought I would share my thoughts on it.  Most major video game websites (I saw it on Team Xbox) have reported about the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield 3 being in “Standard Def” unless you install an HD texture pack on your hard drive (texture pack comes on a second disc).  Now the “Standard Def” tag being associated with BF3 is purely graphical in nature, which bothers me.  In today’s day and age of technical achievement and progress how could such problem exist for such a mega title?  I could see if the texture pack install put the graphics on par with the PC version (which isn’t possible, but you get my point), but installing it just to get current-gen graphics is asinine.  It is an “optional” install according to DICE, but how is playing a FPS in 2011 with “Standard Def” graphics an appealing or sought after option.  Will it be an issue for me to install Battlefield 3 on my hard drive?  Absolutely not, but that isn’t the problem or an issue for me.  I am thinking about the people who have limited hard drive capacity or those who have a 4GB Xbox 360s (they are really screwed).  They are the ones who will have an issue more so than I and might not purchase the game because of such a feature.

Battlefield 3 is still going to be an awesome title regardless of this issue, but I expect these kinds of issues from smaller companies not giant publishers like EA.  I will have to trust that DICE did this for a particular reason and maybe a patch later down the road will address the texture install issue (here’s to hoping).  If you are hearing about this for the first time; what do you think about this “optional” install?  Does it bother you or are you impartial?  Do you think Xbox 360 owners are getting an inferior version of the game?  Respond in the comments section and as always follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.