R.I.P Ralph Baer 1922 - 2014 - The Father of the Home Gaming Console.

Ralph Baer
March 8, 1922 - December 6, 2014

Ralph Baer the father of the home gaming console passed away December 6, 2014 he was 92. He created the first home gaming console the Magnavox Odyseey. It was ground breaking at the time it was the first time we could play video games at home. Without Ralph Baer and the Magnavox Odyseey there wouldn't be any consoles today. To all the gamers join me in remembering Ralph Baer. With out him there wouldn't be any videos games at home. So remember when you go to play a video game always thank Ralph Baer for his great breakthrough in gaming history. You don't know where you are doing until you know where you have been. Never forget the classics. Thank you Ralph Baer.

Angry Video Game Nerd - Magnavox Odyseey

James Rolfe and Mike Matei play the Magnavox Odyseey

Upcoming collaborations with the Video Game View

I recently sat down with Bobby Hash of the Video Game View. We decided that it would be a lot of fun if we did some video posts together. Between the two of us we have over 1000 video games. So we have the material to do plenty of videos. Right now we are in the planing phase of what we would like to do first. We have a few ideas of what games we would like talk about first and we are open to suggestions. If there are a game or games you would like us to talk about please let us know in the comment section below.

A Month with Halo Reach

It has been a Month since Halo Reach has come out and it has been a good month. This is an awesome edition to the series. The Multiplayer is better than ever with a new leveling system, new game modes and much more. Firefight have been enhanced so much the best part about Firefight is that you can use matchmaking to find people to play with. When Firefight came out on Halo 3: ODST you had to just play with your friends or hope online and find people playing Halo 3 and ask them if they want to play Firefight. You come for the single player and you stay for the multiplayer. The single player campaign is one of the best Halo campaigns in a while. It’s still not better than the original Halo but it’s very satisfying. Its action packed from start to finish and it’s so much fun. The main issues I have with campaign is that the character development is weak and the checkpoints were very random you either got them when you didn’t want them and when you wanted them you didn’t get them. Back to the character development it seemed that they didn’t put much into the Characters they were all different but you didn’t develop any type of relationship with the characters. Everyone that follows the series knows Reach is lost and pretty much everyone dies, but when as the characters die off you really don’t care too much about it. You know how you feel when you play some games and the character development is so deep that if a character you have grown to love dies it makes you up set I can name a couple of times where that have happened to me. Overall the Campaign is fun there is even an Easter egg close to the end of the game there is a dance club for the Covenant.

The multiplayer is the best multiplayer Bungie pull out all the stops for this one. They seem to have taken notes from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Even though it is similar to the COD: Modern Warfare it is still different. You can even gain credits/experience while playing the campaign as well. Bungie also has Daily and Weekly challenges that help you get even more credits/experience. There are so many different games types to play which include classics like: Team slayer, Firefight, and Capture the flag. Their new game types consist of: Headhunters, Invasion, and Elite slayer. Halo Reach is awesome and it it’s totally worth the buy even if you aren’t a fan of Halo. Halo was and is a revolution when Halo first came into the gaming world its changed how we saw and played first person shooters and it will set and hold its place in the past, present, and future. Angry Joe did a review of Halo Reach and it’s a good review. This video contains explicit language and content viewer discretion is advised.

The first week impressions of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

It’s been a week since the release of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty and I have to say it’s awesome. This is what we have been waiting for a Blizzard has delivered just like they always do. The game play is similar to the Original with much better Graphics. This game is everything I thought it would be and while I was installing it I was recapped during the install process on what has happened that good for those who haven’t play the first Starcraft they can learn the background of this game. This is probably the best real time strategy game out there right now. The game has awesome multi-player and a great single player campaign I haven’t beat the game yet but from what I’ve played I’ve it’s an awesome game. The game has in cons though you only get a Terran single player campaign you get a special Protoss campaign but it’s very short and you don’t even get a Zerg campaign at all. Another thing is you must have or create a battle.net account to play the game and there is no LAN support for multi player if you want to play multiplayer you have to play on battle.net and you can't spawn copies to play with buddies who don’t have the game either so if you have multiple family members that want to play at the same time they are must spend $60 and buy their own copy of Starcraft II. This game may have cons but these cons don’t affect the game play it’s still a 10 out of 10 for me. If you don’t own this game go out and buy it’s amazing and you don’t even have to be an RTS fan to like this game. Angry Joe did a review of this game and he touched on everything that needed to be touched on and I agree with his review. Check out his review below. This video contains explicit language and content view discretion is advised.

To see more of Angry Joe’s review you can go to AngryJoeShow.com or ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com.

Happy 10th Birthday Diablo II

Today June 29, 2010 it the day 10 year ago that the highly anticipated game Diablo II came out. It was the sequel to the great game Diablo. Diablo II Improved on Diablo is so many ways added 5 character classes which are totally unique to each other. These Characters were: The Barbarian, The Paladin, The Amazon, and The Necromancer (my favorite character).

This game have very high replay value for example you could play as The Paladin and beat the game then play through as the Necromancer and beat the game and it’s a different experience each time because each character is unique in the fact that you need a different strategy to beat the game. The online play was phenomenal you could save your only characters on battle.net and play from any computer with Diablo II installed. You also had another option you can play offline then log into open battle.net and use your single play character online which was cool also because they also let you play on a LAN if you didn’t have internet access. The plus to playing online is that you can show off you characters in the chat rooms/lobbies. When you use open battle.net it only showed someone in a robe but either way playing only was lots of fun.

Exactly a year later on June 29, 2001 the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction which added so much more to the game including two new characters: The Assassin and The Druid.

It also came with a bigger stash to hold more gold and items. It’s also added another act to the game Act V which gave you 6 more quests and the final quest where you fight Baal the Lord of Destruction. This gave the game so much more and Blizzard new exactly what to do with this game. Another thing that is gave Diablo II was that it gave the game very high replay value was when you beat the game it gave you more difficulties which help you level up your characters. When you beat the game with a certain character the first time you play the game on Normal. After you beat it you unlock Nightmare difficulty which is much more challenging you also get to go in the secret cow level as long as you have a full tomb of town portal and wirt’s leg and you put them in the Horadric Cube and the hit the transmute button and it opens the portal to the secret cow level. Make sure you are in the Rogue Encampment form the Act I. Diablo II is a awesome game and if you play World of Warcraft there is a lot of Diablo influence on the game but that’s my opinion of that game. Diablo II is an awesome game that so many including myself play this game people still play Diablo I these games haven’t lost their steam and I doubt they ever will. Happy Birthday Diablo II it’s been ten great years and we hope for many more years.

Happy 30th Birthday Pac-Man

Today May 21, 2010 is the day that the great game of Pac-Man was created and one of the most iconic video games characters was introduced to the world. The game was made by Namco and distributed by Midway in the US. The concept of the character of Pac-Man came along when the Creator was eating pizza and a slice was removed. In japan he is known Puck-Man but the creator changed it to Pac-Man in the US because he said people in America perverted minds (He's right but the Japaneses also have perverted minds as well you can tell by the type of video game they make that aren't released in the US). This game was amazing it was a simple game eat the dots and avoid the ghosts and it got harder and harder as you progressed through the levels. They were many ports of this game to many systems, but it was the arcade port that had people going crazy. Kids would save their lunch money and head to the arcade to play after school. Pac-Man also had his own TV show and he has other merchandise as well so he was definitely a money maker. Buckner & Garcia in 1982 released the song "Pac-Man Fever" which went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Everyone had Pac-Man Fever and the parents of these kids thought so which lead to the video game crash of 1983 and arcades were shutting down left and right. Lucky for us video games game back on the scene and have left our side. Pac-Man is an awesome game who could have though such a simple game would be so much fun. That would explain how Pong was so popular and it was even simpler then Pac-Man. Pac-Man is also great because it shares its birthday with the best Star Wars Movie ever made "The Empire Strikes Back". Pac-Man also had many other spin-offs and remakes like Ms. Pac-Man. May 21st is such a great day Happy Birthday Pac-Man (...and The Empire Strikes Back").

Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta the Final Verdict

Now that the Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta has ended I thought it would be a good time to do my review of the Reach Beta. Overall is was a great experience. My favorite armor ability was the jet pack. It was so awesome to be able to fly around and shoot people. The armor abilities were an awesome addition it changed up the game. I enjoyed the Invasion game type it was a very good and challenging game type. It was Spartans Vs Elites and the Spartans had to defend the base while the Elites tried to get in and destroy components of the base and escape with a generator. One of my favorites game types was Headhunter it was lots of fun to try to get kills and collect the skull(s) that get dropped by your opponent. You then have to take the skulls you collect and take them to the drop off point to score. There was also the arena which is for the more hardcore Halo players. In this game type you have season and after each season you are given a rank that shows how you match up with other players. There really isn't too much to say given that its a Beta. The Reach Beta feels like Halo should my only complaint was the control scheme but if you are like me a would like controls that feel like Halo 3 you can select the Recon control layout. There are bugs to be worked out but its a Beta and that's how its suppose to be. Based on the beta alone I plan to preorder this game soon. I hope that they have an awesome single player campaign to go with awesome multiplayer. Everyone who played this game remember to leave feedback about the Beta at bungie.net.

Halo Reach is set to release on September 14, 2010

Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta at a Glance

Yesterday May 3, 2010 the Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta was released for download. If you own the Halo 3: ODST campaign game disc you can gain access to the Reach Beta. The Reach Beta is the main reason most people bought Halo 3: ODST. In my opinion Halo 3: ODST is a good game and I still enjoy playing it. But enough about ODST lets talk about the Reach Beta. This post is not going to go in depth to much I'm just going to talk about a couple things. I do plan to talk more in depth in a future post but for now we will scratch the surface. At a glance its a lot of fun and the fact that its a real beta is awesome. You are able to go to bungie.net and leave feedback and the developers are going to look at the feedback and fix what needs to be fixed. What I like is the new abilities especially the jet pack and cloaking and some of the new gun are really nice. I'm a big fan of the pistol because it reminds me of the pistol from the first Halo. The Credit system is nice as well. So far I'm excited about the release of Halo Reach and so far the Reach Beta has made me even more excited. That's my view of the the Reach Beta at a glance in the meantime I'm going to continue playing the Reach Beta and come back with a more in depth review in the future.

Halo Reach is set to release on September 14, 2010

Console Flops: Virtual Boy

With all the talk about the Nintendo 3D I thought it would be good to talk about an awful system known as the Virtual Boy. This system was the worst thing that ever came from Nintendo. Here is a commercial for the Virtual Boy.

I remember wanting this as a kid just because of what I heard, but when I saw a price tag of $179.99 I said to myself my parents will never buy me this. Before I knew it I had forgotten about the Virtual Boy because it came and went in less then year. I never played a Virtual Boy and I'm happy I never did seeing the games was enough. This system was suppose to be cutting edge so it should have been in full color. The only colors it had was red and black the main color was red. I heard that if you played it to long you wouldn't be able to see Red for a while. Another thing was that this system was marketed as a portable system and it was not a portable system. The Virtual Boy was created by Gunpei Yokoi the man who created the game and watch games and the Game Boy. Nintendo gave him the go ahead to make the Virtual Boy because of his success with the Game Boy. When the system flopped he was put in a cubical in the back of Nintendo and pretty much wasn't aloud to do much of anything. In 1997 he died in a fatal car accident. When the Game Boy advance was released he was honored and remembered for his accomplishments. The Nintendo DS was taken from his original design of the Game and Watch systems. He also was the mastermind behind the Metroid series. Super Metroid inspired the game designers over at Konami to give Castlevania: Symphony of the Night the same level layout and the fans of Castlevania: SOTN commonly referred to this game as "Metroidvania". Gunpei Yokoi had many great accomplishment and one major flop overall he was an amazing game and console designer. This also shows that even the greats can make mistakes. The Virtual Boy was a great concept but the execution was horrible. The Virtual Boy was able to sell just under 800,000 copies of the system in its short life time but it went through many price cuts before it made it to that number. The Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed this system and pretty much all the games and if you would like to see what he thinks please watch his review below. This video contains explicit content and language viewer discretion is advised.

To see more of the Anger Video Game Nerd's reviews click here.

Swordquest: A True Adventure Game

Swordquest was one of the first adventure video games ever made. Swordquest was to be split into 4 games: Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld.

But these games we more then just games. When you put these games into you Atari you had a chance to win up to $150,000 in prizes. Keep in mind this games came out in the early 1980s and that was a very big deal. The reason this was a big deal was that contests involving video games were very rare in the 1980s. Anyone who played this games had a change to win big prizes and they was huge. Each game would have a winner and they would each receive a prize valued at $25,000 each. Those 4 winners would each compete for a sword that was valued at $50,000 all together that was $150,000 in prizes. Unfortunately the video game crash of 1983 happened and the contest was never finish then Atari went bankrupt and had to sell the company so the contest for Waterworld never happened and they canceled Airworld. So they couldn't have a final round and they final remains prizes were never awarded. It's a shame that something so epic with video games couldn't be finished. I learn about this when I was watching the Anger Video Game Nerd's review of Swordquest. The video below is his review and he goes into more detail about the games and the contest. This video contains explicit content and language viewer discretion is advised.

Video Games | ScrewAttack | Angry Video Game Nerd: Swordquest

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

The Swordquest needs to be completed.

To see more of the Anger Video Game Nerd's reviews click here.