2020 Gamer Gaming from a consumer's eyes

Gamers from all over the US united in one convention center this past weekend. You didn’t find any hard core gamers putting down the noobtards here. In fact, the number one rule at PAX East was “Don’t be a dick.” A great rule that seemed to work out. So now I will go through a few of the things you’d need to know if you want to go to next year’s convention and if it’ll be worth it.


Prepping for PAX

Crysis 2 has been officially released today in the USA and will be released globally on March 25th for the PC, 360 and PS3.

More details here: EA Official Crysis launch page

What do you think of this cross platform sequel to this highly popular PC shooter, is it worth it?

Tanichea will be streaming Live from the Penny Arcade Expo. Keep your eye on the stream to see whats going on.

Update: PAX is over and as such, the feed is over too.

Looks like someone at Sony Ericsson noticed the same trend I did, that is that smartphones are the future of the mobile gaming. This is a topic I have covered here: Click Here for reference.
Yesterday they announced the Xperia Play, an Android OS powered phone with a slide out PlayStation gamepad and a Sony PlayStation application pre-installed. Also will launch with around 50 titles when it is released.

fter being smash hits on multiple smartphone platforms across the globe, Angry Birds now comes to the the PlayStation 3 and PSP according to the new releases post on the PlayStation blog: PlayStation New Releases for Jan 3rd

In the console space this answer is obviously no in the short term, that is for sure. However in the mobile gaming space, this may not be so clear. Right now the Nintendo DS series has been selling extremely well and the Sony PSP is doing okay for itself. So there seems to be some life left in that market for now. However, the rise in smartphone sales across the globe may soon start to cut heavily into the sales of stand alone portable gaming units such as the DS/3DS and the PSP.

If you have missed it, there is a massive games sale going on in the Nokia Ovi store. It has been for this entire month but now there is less than a week left.
This sale has many of the $2.99 and $4.99 games now listed at $0.99. This includes games from top tier mobile developers such as Pop Cap, Electronic Arts, and Polarbit. Read more for further detail.

Starcraft 2 has similar features like some valve games with achievements. I was finally able to finish winning 3 times in a roll with a quick match game for 1v1. This is pretty hard because you don't get to choose who you play against also the map is random. So even if the person your playing against isn't so good, but if the map gives them the edge can really turn things around.

Also you might be playing against someone with the same race who might be better and you need to win 3 times in a roll. They also did a few updates which made it harder. Example I was trying to get it with Terran. After winning 2 that day I went to play the next day blizzard added an update to reduce the hp of the SCV's from 50 to 45. I normally use the SCV to stop the ling rushes from the Zerg.

L4D2 The Passing DLC

Starcraft 2 preorder is available at newegg

The minimum system requirements for the StarCraft II Beta are as follows:

PC Minimum Requirements:
Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
1024x768 minimum display resolution
4 GB free hard space (Beta)
Broadband connection

*Note* the final requirements for StarCraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.

You can get the Collectors Edition PC version for 99.99