XBox 360 Mega-Preview

Greetings everyone, its been a long time since I updated my blog! I'd like to take this opportunity to give you the fans a major preview of the upcoming XBox 360, the first of the Next-Generation game systems, which is coming out November 22nd. Now Im sure you've heard of the 360, and you've probably heard about some of the sweet awesomeness, but Id like to give you some specififcs about the upcoming games, many of these specifics you're probably hearing for the first time, right here.

Let's begin with some titles that are slated to be 'Launch' titles, that is, games that may in fact be out the very same day as the 360 itself (Nov 22nd). Being a man of the people, Id like to start with a title that probably all of you are familiar with, Madden. Madden NFL 06 is indeed scheduled to be out the same day as the 360, and in case you're wondering just how similar it will be to the Madden 06 for the XBox and PS2, I assure you there are profound differences. It is being redesigned in a number of meaningful ways. For one, the voice of John and Al is being replaecd, by a radio-announcer, who will be biased in favor of the home team, giving the game a totally unique flavor right off the bat. Of course the graphics will be markedly superior, but you already knew that, right? :). Personally, due to the NFL 2k series, I havent gotten a Madden game in like, 2 or 3 years, but with no NFL 2k game out this year, and Madden NFL 06 as a Launch title, and looking off the hizzle, Im definitely going to pick this bad boy up on Launch Day.

Of course, the title that is probably the most anticipated Launch Title, maybe the most anticipated game of the YEAR, and the game that has a real chance to be the 2005 Game of the Year, on any game system, if it lives up to the hype, is the sequel to the ultra-popular 'Morrowind' game, titled 'The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion". This game sports graphics never before seen in any RPG (Role Playing Game), it has voice-acting by Wonder Woman herself (Linda Carter) as well as Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), as well as others. Keep in mind that its predecessor Morrowind was arguably the greatest game of all time, when it first came out. Dont be too surprised if this game also captures that title, it will definitely be a game I pick up on Launch Day.

As for a Basketball, I'm looking forward to NBA 2k6, as I am a big fan of the 2k series of basketball as well as football. College Basketball 2k6 is another game I definitely am looking forward to, but no word yet on a release date for that one. The 2k5 version was tons of fun, and I still play it, its super awesome.

There are other games that have gotten a lot of positive press lately, including Perfect Dark Zero, and Kameo: Elements of Power. I dont know yet if these games are the Gladiator's cup of tea, but whether or not they turn out to be games I will pick up, they definitely look like they have real potential to be outstanding, and big hits with the fans.

The Gladiator is a fan of the sport of tennis, and as such I really enjoyed the XBox game Top Spin. I think it was the top selling tennis game of all time, it was very highly rated at the time of its release, so naturally I am planning on picking up Top Spin 2 for the 360 on Launch Day. With an all new lineup of Superstars, this game could be the greatest tennis game of all time.

I could go on for quite a while about the sweet awesomeness that is the XBox 360 and its many, many games, but I would like to close this article by mentioning two upcoming 360 games, neither of which are due out remotely soon, quite frankly its possible that neither game will even be out in 2006, but both are very much in development. The first is a sequel to, interestingly enough, an outstanding Playstation game, Rumble Roses. If you recall, Rumble Roses is an all-women wrestling game, lots of fun, super awesome graphics, interesting storylines, and the sequel will hopefully be even better!

The other game is an action-RPG from Bioware, and if I didnt say another word about it you should already be in eager anticipation :). Bioware, makers of 2003 Game of the Year Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the very popular 2005 release Jade Empire, both of which were super awesome games, these guys really know what they're doing, and now they have a totally new game they're working on, called 'Mass Effect'. The game has a sci-fi setting, and while the game still has a long way to go until completion (right now it looks like the game will probably be released some time in early to mid 2007), so not too many details are known, the fact remains these guys are at the top of the action-RPG world right now, it seems that everything they touch turns to gold, so Im really excited about this brand new, hot project from Bioware.

Thats all for this mega-preview of the XBox 360, we're less than a month away from Launch, I look forward to continuing to learn more about these and many other games for the 360, I hope you are as excited as I am to get a 360 and enjoy the sweet next-gen awesomenses!!

Video Game Review

I'm sorry I've taken so long between posts. I hope everyone is doing very well! I would like to share with you, the fans, my review of a new game I have played a lot lately. I read a lot about it before I decided to try it for myself. Some sources said that it was extremely awesome, one website gave it a 99 out of 100, another a 5 out of 5. But others said it was only good, not great, giving it a score only in the 80s, out of 100. So who was right? I wanted to judge for myself. So a couple weeks ago I began playing the game, Jade Empire, which was made by Bioware, the makers of the 2003 Game of the Year Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Let me begin by saying that this is indeed a very unique gaming experience. The conversations in the game, between your character and others, are very similar in format to those in KOTOR, in that you very often have multiple choices of things to say, and that can effect the game powerfully in one way or another. This is a tremendous amount of fun, and its a very good thing they kept that. The rest of the game, particularly the combat, is completely different. It is action-based, not turn-based, and it again is just a tremendous amount of fun. For starters, there are a very wide range of styles to choose from, and you can switch during a fight. There are faster and slower styles, and as you might imagine the slower ones are the most powerful. There are close range and long range styles, there are styles that cause status effects instead of damage, etc. There are also quite a lot of fun and interesting 'side-quests' that you can do, which are optional quests you can do if you want to, but dont have to in order to finish the game, and like some other Role Playing Games, the toughest opponent in the game is actually the Arena Champion, which is a totally optiona opponent. But defeating him is very much worth your time and effort, as you obtain his fighting style, which is the best in the game. The Graphics are outstanding, the music is very understated but quite solid, the voice acting is superb. You can, just like in KOTOR, play as a 'good' or 'evil' character, or anywhere in-between, giving the game that extra replayability. All in all, I feel Jade Empire is indeed a great game, and a must have for anyone who owns an XBox.

2005

This is my first Blog posting of 2005. I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year, and I hope this year is even better than 2004, which I hope was awesome for everybody!

Since my last posting, in which I revealed to you, my friends, that I had been named the 2004 Charlotte Chess Club Player of the Year, I have since won the very last CCC tournament of 2005, by a full point over my nearest competitor. And yes, the final game of 2004 was a Newton Sicilian, won by yours truly :).

I look forward to playing in some major tournaments in 2005, and hopefully doing well. As you may know, I beat a major Grandmaster, and drew the then-US Champion. I have also beaten the now-current US Champion, and I hope to one day be able to say that I beat the World Champion also :).

Props and shout outs go to some of my friends who had an amazingly awesome year last year. I would like to start with my friend Hikaru Nakamura, who won the US Championship, after ALMOST winning the World Championship! Clearly he will probably one day become World Champion, he has all the talent that you need to get there, and he has that winning drive that you need to succeed.

Shout out to my friend Tom Rohrbaugh, who landed a SWEEET Managerial job at a Target in Chicago. Big bucks, big title, you earned it, you da man!

Props to my friend Greg Wilder, who is not only an awesome player of Magic the Gathering Tournaments, but also is quite possibly the #1 designer of MTG Decks in all the world today! Way to go dude, you're at the top, and you're still going higher!

Too many of my friends won big bling-bling in the world of poker for me to name each of them, so shout out to all of you, you know who you are, and you rock!!

Here's hoping that 2005 brings us all more success than ever before, and in the case of us single dudes, a really NICE girl too! No more mean girls for the Gladiator or any of his friends! Yay!!

Player Of The Year

Saturday afternoon, at a special Christmas Chess-Party, I was officially given the title of "2004 Player Of The Year" by the Charlotte Chess Club. It is truly outstanding to be given this high honor, I want to thank NM Leland Fuerstman, Jon Pietras, and all the leaders of the Charlotte Chess Club, for their friendship and support over the years. I would not be where I am today without the support of such living legends of the chess world, nor would chess in general be where it is today without their herculean efforts to promote the Royal Game.

I would like to congratulate also everyone else who won prizes and awards at the Christmas Party, it was truly a wonderful afternoon for everyone. Also, its worth mentioning that NM Leland Fuerstman actually played the guitar and sang for all the members in attendance, and I think its fair to say that his musical stylings leave James Taylor, and other such musicians, in the dust.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

I know its after Thanksgiving now, but a technical problem has prevented me from posting for a while, and I wanted to make sure that I told everybody Happy Thanksgiving :). Also, I'd like to fill everybody in on some other interesting news and information.

I would like to share some information about some video games Ive played lately. It has become obvious to me that EA Sports has become a clear 2nd to The ESPN 2K series, at least from what Ive experienced. Never has it been more clear than when I played the NCAA Football 2005 game by EA Sports. Its inferiority to ESPN NFL 2k5 is so extreme, its really intolerable, I cant stand to play it its so bad by comparison. The graphics, the gameplay itself, I played it one time with my cousin, and the term she used to describe the NCAA Football 2005 game was "primitive", and it was a very good description. Its very primitive, if you're looking for a good NCAA Football game, you need to hope that Sega puts one out, I know I sure do :).

But speaking of the ESPN 2k series, another gem that I have had the extreme fun of playing is the NCAA Basketball one, again only $19.95, and its the best basketball game Ive ever played. It has a super awesome "Legacy" mode too, that has super duper awesome recruiting options, and its very deep. The announcers are awesome, the graphics are top of the line, the sound effects are super duper, tons of different kinds of music, depending on where you're playing the game, the mascots, cheerleaders, coaches, its all there baby!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to review a game for the PC, that I have been playing for a while now. This review has to be very nuanced, because I dont want to give a mis-impression when I'm critical of certain aspects of it, it is overall an amazingly awesome game.

The name of the game is Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines Lets start right away with the one bad part of the game, so I can get it out of the way and focus on all the things this game does right. If you note the rating of the game, you'll see its rated M, and theres a very good reason for it, the language at times gets really bad. I hope that noone who is under 18 will play this game, and those of you who are over 18 and who do play this game, please keep in mind you can hit the space bar when you see bad words coming, and you dont have to hear them (the subtitles appear on the screen very often before the words are actually said). Also, the game at times gets a little bit gorey, but nothing really terrible, at least to me.

Now on to the main portion of the review. This game is amazing, the graphics are top notch, the people, and creatures, are super realistic. The sound effects, the background music, and the voice acting, are all superb, top of the line stuff. The game itself is what you would call an 'Action RPG', that is to say, a Role Playing Game that is played not in a turn based, 'Final Fantasy' style, but rather in an action based style, much like 'Fable' for the XBox. There are so many different awesome things to see and do in the game, I wouldnt want to ruin any of it for you by saying too much. Some points in the game are actually even scary, I was scared during portions of this game, it was the scariest game Ive ever played. If you dont like being scared, you can always turn the sound down, because while it will still be scary in these moments, the scary sound effects really make it extra super scary, and turning the sound down will help at least to make it seem less scary. I'm somebody who always loved vampire movies and stuff, and I love playing as a vampire in a game with lots of vampires and cool stuff related to vampires in it.

Awesome New Video Game Review!

I'd like to take this opportunity to review the amazing new game for the Playstation2, Rumble Roses. As you may know, Rumble Roses is a wrestling game, similar to the 'Smackdown' series, only this game doesnt involve WWE Superstars. This is an all-women wrestling game, but unlike real women wrestlers, these ladies can do lots of impressive moves, like regular wrestlers can do! Let's start with the obvious. The women in this game are definitely quite attractive. But so are the women in the Smackdown series. It takes a lot more than attractive women wrestlers to make a game good, much less great. One thing this game does NOT have going for it, is the wide range of match types of the Smackdown series. No Steel Cage matches, no Ladder matches, no Iron Man matches, no Tag Team matches, etc. All matches are 1 on 1, singles matches. There are regular matches which involves wrestling in (and out of) a regular wrestling ring and, 'Mud' matches, where the wrestlers wrestle in an area filled with mud. That seems to be it. I dont know why the match types are so limited really. But once you get over your lack of pre-game options, things really start improving with the ring entrances. Awesome music, and unbelievable graphics accompany your wrestler's entrance to the ring. These arent just as good as the Smackdown entrances, they're better, WAY better. After the entrances, its on to the game play itself. The game play is similar to the Smackdown games, the 'counter' system has been improved somewhat so that it isnt completely random anymore, it requires very specific timing. Much like the Smackdown series, you do have a meter you build up over the course of the match, that allows you to use your patented finishing maneuvers. You can leave the ring and go outside the ring and find various foreign objects to use against your opponent, if you so desire, as all matches seem to be 'No DQ' matches. Another considerable improvement over the Smackdown series of games, is the wrestlers TALK during the match. Not conversation, of course, but they say little things every once in a whlie, like kicking out of a pin and saying 'I'll never give up!', that really does make the game that much more awesome. If you're playing in "Story" mode, you get a special scene before and after each match, and you have to beat about a half dozen or so opponents to complete your character's unique 'story', and the scenes are quite good, the storylines are very interesting. In exhibition mode, you can turn each character good or bad, 'face' or 'heel', by doing certain things during the course of the matches. And you can also have title matches as well. So there is a variety of things to do in this game, and again, everything the game does it does VERY, VERY well. I strongly reccomend Rumble Roses for the Playstation2 to anyone who enjoys playing wrestling games. While I havent played every wrestling game out there, of the ones I have, this one is the very best!

Shocking Chicago Cubs News!

Some really sad news, as the #1 Chicago Cubs announcer, the man who was the sidekick to Harry Carey himself, the man who IS Chicago Cubs TV, Mr Steve Stone, has been run out of town by the Cubs management. Despite being beloved by the fans, despite being the best announcer that WGN has ever had, aside from Harry Carey himself, despite being arguably the most knowledgeable announcer in all of baseball, they ran him out of town because he dared question some of Dusty Baker's bonehead managerial decisions last season. Everybody knew Dusty was making some horrible judgement calls, but Stoney had the guts to say so, and that was unforgivable by the high-up types at the Cubbies. This comes AFTER Chip Carey, Steve Stone's broadcast partner, left the broadcast booth for very similar reasons. The team of Steve Stone and Chip Carey was the #1 reason to watch the Cubs each day on WGN. They were awesome. Now Chip is working in Atlanta, and Steve at present doesnt have a job, one hopes he will get one soon. The Chicago Cubs management has done it again folks, and speaking as a Cubs fan, I can say this. The Cubs management SUCKS! BOOOOOO!

New Video Game Reccomendation

Ive been playing the brand new "Lord of the Rings" game the last few days, and I must say, it is TOTALLY AWESOME!! Its a very unique sort of game, the graphics are unbelievable, the sound is super cool, the game play is simple but you can make it complex if you want to, its got it all!! It is a 'turn based RPG' and has been compared to Final Fantasy, but there are plenty of differences. For one, you have tremendous control over character customization. For another you dont buy or sell ANYTHING in this game, you find all your weapons, armor, etc by opening treasure chests or defeating opponents. The lack of town exploration, buying and selling, and general in-depth character develoment, is the one down side to this game. The storyline advances the majority of the time simply by watching scenes from the LOTR trilogy, narrated by the original voice of Gandalf himself. He does a great job as always. All the voice acting is great in fact. Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for the XBox (I think its available for the other two systems also) gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from the Gladiator!

Election Night Information

Its almost 9pm now, and the election is still way too close to call. But one thing we know is, the exit polls showed Kerry winning the election. But resutls so far seem to show Bush may be outperforming those exit polls in some states, including the exit poll that said Bush would only win NC by 51 to 49. So this election is far from over, and the exit pollsters may be wrong once again, like they were in 2000 and 2002, when in both cases their error was in the Democrats favor. So let the votes be counted, and the better man win!

Election Results Predictions!

As you know today is ELECTION DAY! And in less than 24 hours, we may very well know the outcome of the election! I would like to give my official Gladiatorial Predictions for the election.

First, in the Popular Vote, President George W Bush will receive 51.5% of the National vote, and Senator John Kerry will receive 48.3% of the National vote. On the electoral college, President Bush will receive 286 Electoral Votes, to Senator John Kerry's 252 Electoral Votes. President Bush will win Florida and Ohio, and lose Pennsylvania.

I have some predictions from my friends. First, "Rookmaster" says that it will be Bush by 3 points in the popular column, with around a 25 electoral vote margin. Secondly, "Savior" says Bush by 4 points, and by 3 electoral votes. And my friend Mr Gil Holmes, "Kassy", calls the race as 48% for Bush and 47% for Kerry, with Bush getting 285-295 Electoral Votes, and Bush winning Florida and Ohio, with Kerry winning Pennsylvania.

So the consensus of the "Chess Experts" says its Bush for 4 more years! You heard it here first folks, and you can PUT IT ON THE BOARD!

Sweet Victory!

A little while ago, I just defeated my cousin in TWO straight games of ESPN NFL 2k5 for the XBox, the final scores were 40-0 and 40-9. Oh man was she upset! She was accusing me of 'cheating' and generally not taking the losses very well :). Of course I was winning fair and square, Im a bigtime Video Gaming Gladiator!! :). If anyone here hasnt tried ESPN NFL 2k5 for the XBox yet, I heartily reccomend it, its only $19.95, and its arguably even BETTER than the 50 dollar football games out there! You can put it on the BOARD!

Howdy!

Good afternoon one and all! It is I, your friend and mine, the Gladiator!! This is my first ever Blog Post! Ive never done anything like this before!! Wow, this is cool!!

On this, the Gladiator Blog, I intend to provide you, the fans, with cool commentaries, hot information, and all around big fun!! So sit back and enjoy, and you can PUT IT ON THE BOARD!!

Election Predictions Coming Soon!

As you know, the Presidential Elections are almost here! Tonight, shortly after midnight, I plan to post here my very own Predictions, as well as possibly some predictions from some of my friends. So if you want your predictions to be included on the official Predictions posting, please send me your predictions now! What Im looking for is Predictions for both the Popular Vote Percentage, as well as the actual Electoral Vote numbers. And also specific Predictions for the 'Big 3' states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If anybody wants to predict any other states also, like Wisconsin, feel free to do so, I may or may not include those predictions in the Official Election Predictions posting. Thanks!