Gaming Trivia

May's Question:

With Splash Damage, heading up the development on the game, Brink, which is due out May 10th… What part of Doom 3 did they develop? Send your guess & your t-shirt size to,72dpionline@gmail.com, one winner will be picked at random to win a sPesHaLL eDition 72dpi shirt! 

April's Question:

What was the Game Boy remodel that followed the Game Boy

Pocket here in North America?

Answer: Game Boy Color

Winner: Sadistic Duckie

From The Editor's Desk

By: Mox Born Again (Joe Dodson)

May, 2011

Well this is our first month stepping away from the Monthly Newsletter. It does feel good to get away from that slightly outdated format. Not to mention our blog is going to be banging with all kinds of new content! So here we are, May 2011, not much to talk about this month except for a little thing called "Online Gaming Pass.” I'm not sure if you've heard of these little tools of joy, and that's exactly what they are: "TOOLS". An Online Gaming Pass, or from here on out will be referred to as OGP, is a security action that game publishers/developers do to prevent users from buying games used. How it works is when you purchase a game new, you then take it home and put it into your console. Your system will ask you for a redemption code from your booklet. You have to type this code into your system and then you are off and running and everything is unlocked: single player, multiplayer, options, the works. But if you purchase the game used, and one of the previous owner(s) used the redemption code you can no longer use that code. So now you have to pay (normally $10-$15) to unlock portions of the game. In most cases this is the multiplayer portion of the game, or some part of it.

This has to stop, right now. If publishers are so worried about their games being sold to 2nd hand stores and passed between users, then they should embrace the fact that maybe they should invest in a different option. One that isn't so much of a slap in the face to the end user, us! Here's a good alternative to the problem. We know that the multiplayer portions are only worth $10-$15 to these publishers/developers, because that's how much money they are charging to use the online multiplayer part of the game. (If you buy the game for $50 used then publisher X is not receiving any money from the $50, and thus they are using the $10-$15 to help cover costs lost by you purchasing a used game). Here is your solution: release the single player/co-op on disk $45-$50 & release the online multiplayer (deathmatch, ctf, ect.) online for a $10-$15 download. This will keep everyone happy; publishers get full price for both the multiplayer and single player & gamers get to choose what way to purchase the game. Not to mention how many people would pick up a $45-$50 single player / co-op game that they would have skipped over because they didn't want the multiplayer portion.

I've run across 2 games that are supporting this feature, EA's Dead Space 2 & THQ's Home Front! We will be talking about both of these games on this week’s podcast so make sure you tune in. As of right now we are still on for Tuesday night at 9pm, but there might be a schedule switch to Thursday night at 9pm. We'll keep you posted! Either way you can watch us live at www.72dpionline.com

Until next month guys & gals, I want to see some comments on our blog so make sure to tell us what you think of the switch from the Monthly Newsletter system to our Blog system!! Let’s hear it good, bad & ugly....BRING IT ON...

Go Go Retro!

By: Starlea7 (Jenn McSweeney)

May, 2011

What is so special about the month of May? Did you say Mother's Day? How about one of the mothers of all first person shooters released this month back on May 5, 1992?! If you said Wolfenstein 3D give yourself a 1up! Although Wolfenstein 3D is technically not the very first shooter game, its revolutionary game play and graphics have been the blueprint of most of all future FPS games. This game made its world debut as a popular PC game, and then was marketed for home consoles in 1995.

The most important contribution this FPS gave to the gaming world was an introduction the FPS genre. This FPS brings the player into the world of the Nazi regime at Castle Wolfenstein where you become Allied Spy Prisoner William “B.J.”Blazkowicz. Blazkowicz attempts to make an escape using only a knife and a Walther P38 taken from fighting a cell guard. As B.J.’s story unfolds, he finds that the Nazis are creating an army of undead mutants to head up a chemical warfare strategy. Each episode contains missions as it levels, and B.J has to fight his way through SS guards, the head guard, a scientist, and Adolf Hitler himself. Although B.J. can sneak up on lesser opponents, he cannot do so to the episode's end boss. The end boss must be defeated before another episode can begin. As long as B.J. keeps his health and ammo up, the player can strategically defeat each episode and reach the opportunity to reach the bonus level by way of a secret elevator. 

With the historical, (but fictional storyline), this game is not without controversy. The original versions levels featured designs taken from the Nazis' swastika symbol. This led NES console versions to be heavily edited removing swastika and Nazi references and renaming Adolf as” Staatmeister”. Blood was also replaced with sweat to reduce the violent appearance.
With platforms such as IPAD, IPHONE, XBOX Live Arcade, Wolfenstein 3D can give us gamers a chance to play a historical game that has laid down the foundation standard for such FPS games as DOOM, and Wolfenstein sequels.

XBOX360 cheat:
To have an easy kill for those particle cannon toting Heavy Nazis, use Mire power. By using your Mire power the Nazis will have red targets on their shoulders. Try to destroy both so that a new target will pop up from the back. Easy shooting!