video games

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I hope these kids understand that emergency first aid in the real world is kinda hard to do while running around the landscape looking for medpacks.

The Boy Scouts of America is now offering a Video Games merit award for its younger members: those who are part of the Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts and Webelos Scouts. There are actually two awards: the Video Games belt loop (one of those metal belt ornaments, which I always thought were pretty innovative) and an academics pin, which is earned after getting the belt loop. Among the requirements for the decoration: “Teach an adult or a friend how to play a video game”, “Play a video game that will help you practice your math, spelling, or another skill that helps you in your schoolwork”, and “With an adult’s supervision, install a gaming system” (click here for the full list of requirements).

Now, ...

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Epic Games’ Cliff Blezinski on Last Night with Jimmy Fallon in the wee hours of this morning let the world in on what we already knew: that Gears of War 3 was coming in April 2011. An official press release from Epic and Microsoft gives a firmer date: April 5th, 2011 for the concluding chapter of the Gears of War trilogy.

Personally I’ve no doubt we’ll be seeing more games from this series though. It might – or might not – be the end of humanity’s war with the Locust Horde but there are plenty more tales to tell in the Gears saga. Such as the earlier Pendulum Wars, and the events surrounding E-Day.

But ’nuff with speculation. Take a looksee at “Ashes to Ashes”, the first trailer for Gears of War 3!

The song is “Heron Blue” by folk rock group Sun Kil Moon. Now you know. And ...

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If you can’t hear the hair-rending going on right now at Epic Games’ studios in Cary not far away from here, I’d bet good money that Cliff Bleszinski’s Twitter feed is about to go pure apoplectic.

For more than a week Bleszinski – the creator of Epic’s Gears of War series – had been hinting heavily that his appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show on NBC late night would herald the announcement of Gears of War 3. That was supposed to have been last night, but something got messed up behind the scenes and Bleszinski’s appearance was postponed.

Unfortunately nobody got around to telling the management of Microsoft’s Xbox Live service about it. Here’s what greeted Xbox 360 players this morning when their consoles logged in…

Personally, I’d be sweating bullets right now. I mean, it can’t possibly pay to honk off a man who’s wedded a chainsaw to ...

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All good things must come to an end. Which as more than one person has noted, means that my jokes are cursed to live forever! 😛

You know what I like most about April Fools Day? It’s that my birthday is March 31st. So for me it’s like a two-day long extravaganza of hilarity and thanks to this blog, I get to share that good-natured nuttiness with a wide audience!

Okay well anyhoo, obviously this year’s April Fools Day on The Knight Shift was nothing like last year’s infamous “Johnny Robertson arrested at the Vatican” stunt that saw this blog slammed with visits from such places as the U.S. State Department and Vatican City itself. This time, I wanted to do something a bit quieter, but no less funny. And as things turned out I wound up running three prank stories on this blog.

Let’s count ’em off…

1. “Governor ...

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We already knew that ROCK BAND 3 is scheduled to retail later this year… but I am already drooling about this one even more: Rock Band: “Weird Al” Yankovic has just been announced by Harmonix and MTV Games! It’ll publish on October 27th, just over seven months from now.

Here’s the press release that IGN Games posted a short while ago…

ROCK BAND: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC WILL BRING PRINCE OF PARODY TO POPULAR PARTY GAME

Harmonix and MTV Games is proud to announce ROCK BAND: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC is in production for a release date of October 27th, 2010.

The latest in the popular Rock Band series of music and rhythm video games, ROCK BAND: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC is a homage to the unique character and career of “Weird Al” Yankovic: the best-selling comedy musical artist in history.

Much like last year’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful ROCK BAND: THE

...
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BioShock 2 went on sale yesterday. I was in line at midnight on Monday evening at the local GameStop to get my copy. I’m still early in the game but it is wildly exceeding my expectations!! There’ll be a full review of it up as soon as I finish the game.

But…

…Can somebody PLEASE tell me HOW in the world can I beat the Big Sister?!?

The first Big Daddy that you meet in the game, I was able to take him out easily (probably ‘cuz after playing BioShock no less than seven times it had become old hat and I not only knew the tricks but was able to adapt BioShock 2‘s new weapons to those tactics). And I’ve got my first Little Sister to harvest the ADAM (which took considerably longer ‘cuz those Splicers were coming at us like there was no tomorrow).

Well, I’ve been ...

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BioShock 2 finally comes out next Tuesday! Don’t even think of buggin’ me for the next few days after that, ‘cuz Lord willing I will be in line before midnight next Monday evening to get my pre-ordered copy and then spend the rest of the week once again immersed in the sub-Atlantic dystopia of Rapture.

We already knew that 2K Games is coming out with a Special Edition of BioShock 2 and in this video 2K community manager Elizabeth Tobey unboxes the whole package. And then she reveals the BioShock 2 Uber Edition.

Make sure you watch the entire video…

...

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What is perhaps the most anticipated computer game is going to be a bit longer in finally arriving. BioWare confirmed today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be released sometime in the spring of 2011. It was fall of 2008 when BioWare announced that it was developing the massively-multiplayer online RPG.

Some people are saying this is too long a time to wait for this game. But I remember the winter of 2000 when LucasArts told us that we’d be getting Star Wars Galaxies, and that didn’t come until the summer of 2003. And we all know how that turned out to be (okay, to be fair it was a great game at first before Sony Online Entertainment messed it up with “New Game Enhancements”). But this is BioWare we’re talking about: the company that gave us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to begin with. ...

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