Funny, But True Dark Souls 2 Review

The Dark Souls series is one of the best from this or last generation, and I don’t think anyone would be angry if went on a never ending Final Fantasy style release path with more sequels than you can possibly keep track of. Oh, but speaking of angry, yes, you will get angry playing Dark Souls 2; I’m probably the calmest, most patient person you’ll ever meet, but when you have to start all the way over from the freaking beginning after yet another stupid little mistake, controllers will break and profanities will be articulately shouted.  But the reward for success?  That’s what makes this series so legendary, and what makes the review below so hilarious for those who have endured the highs and many, many lows!

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Why Nintendo is Struggling with the Average Gamer

Tough to write about Nintendo as a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that’s just what it seems to be.

Sure, we have Zelda, and Mario and Samus, but you know what we don’t have? A console worth buying.

Maybe Nintendo got too cute. Maybe they hit exactly where they aimed. Maybe they’re simply out of touch with the modern gamer.

And in order to make a come back, offense is necessary. Where’s Nintendo’s offense? We’re wondering the same thing. Continue reading “Why Nintendo is Struggling with the Average Gamer”

Epic Speed Run: Dark Souls 2 in Under an Hour and a Half

While you probably don’t have an hour and a half to sit through a video this Monday morning, this incredible speed run video through Dark Souls 2 – the latest installment in a trilogy that ranks as arguably the most challenging video game series since the pre-save your game days – deserves your attention.  While I just recently picked up Dark Souls 2 this past week – my initial thoughts are coming this weekend – I was a huge fan of Demon’s Souls which started this crazy series off, and I’ve also been known to peruse into the world of video game speed runs, although I prefer to stick in the retro arena.  And by retro I mean Goldeneye 64.  More on this crazy speed run after the jump!

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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!

Alright, confession time. I haven’t had this big of a guilty pleasure since I downloaded Miley Cirus’ The Climb back in 2009 (Which I played over Ventrillo during WoW raid bosses to aggravate the hell out of our main healer). At leas that’s what I keep telling myself…

But Borderlands? Keep it coming! This franchise is fun, addicting, and I don’t feel guilty when I walk away from it for a month. I loved Skyrim; I will always love Skyrim. But take a a couple weeks off and I had no clue what I was doing, or who I was supposed to sacrifice someone to, or what skill I was building.

Set to debut sometime in late 2014, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel takes place before the storyline of the original in the series, and focuses mainly on Handsome Jack and his own personal bag of problems.  Continue reading “Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!”

Deconstructed Game Controllers

Now this is pretty neat.  While many of us have likely already peered inside some of our favorite game controllers growing up, it probably wasn’t due to taking them carefully apart with a screwdriver – so what if we’ve all smashed a few in a fit of rage?  That’s totally normal, plus you couldn’t save in pretty much any video game back in the 80’s, so what else were we supposed to do?  I digress.  Hit the link below for all the deconstruction photos, and see if you can correctly identify which system each controller belongs to; if you can’t, you were likely born in the 90’s.  Oh, and I’ll help all you young bloods out a little by putting them in chronological order, with the oldest ones first.  And GO!

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Drone Videos: Meet the WildCat from Boston Dynamics

Now how cool is this beast?  Having worked with a few different drones from my recent time in the Marine Corps, I can definitely vouch for the huge value they bring to the battlefield; on that same token however, many of them also have significant shortfalls.  Although drones are making the biggest impact from the skies at this point, robots on the ground have been a huge help in the fight against IED’s (CIED).  Boston Dynamics has been at the forefront of ground-based robotics for the US military, and that four-legged gentleman who you see above is their latest and greatest creation: his name is WildCat, and you do not want to be in front of him when he starts a chargin’.  Check out the video, then hit the link below for our thoughts on if this guy is battlefield ready yet.

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Microsoft Claims Xbox One Will Be Break-Even or Profitable on Launch

Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president of the Windows giant’s Online Audience Business Group has placed Microsoft’s profitability bet, and it’s a steep one: “break-even or profitable on Day 1”.  Mehdi, a 21-year veteran of Microsoft Corp. with degrees from Princeton and Washington (BA Econ + MBA, respectively), is not only a smart dude, but incredibly successful.  According to his CrunchBase profile, he has led or been at the forefront at some of Microsoft’s, and even Reuters’ (his previous professional stop) biggest achievements.  He’s looking to add the Xbox One to his list of professional accomplishments, and with launch day just 16 days or so away, the day of reckoning is just around the corner.  So how realistic is this bet that he dropped this past Tuesday at the Citi Global Technology Conference?  Would you take it?  Based off his credentials alone, I think many folks would; as always however, there is more to the story line.

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Games We Want: The Last of Us – New Footage

Back on April 3rd, which seems like a long time ago (this is our 100th post, believe it or not!), we published an amazing trailer for Naught Dog’s upcoming adventure game, “The Last of Us“, which may look like a new Uncharted, but according to the developers, it’s quite different.  Not like that would be a bad thing, but you know what I mean.  Looking ahead to the near future, “The Last of Us” will hit store shelves on June 14th, and will be an exclusive title for the PS3; sorry Xbox’ers.  Like you needed more depressing news after Monday’s debacle?  Naughty Dog has released brand new demo discs to many of the latest news outlets, which means savory new, HD game play footage that you absolutely must-see.  Did I mention the game play video is more than 15 minutes long?  You’re welcome.

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Call of Duty: Ghosts Confirmed; Release Date Set

COD Ghosts at SlightlyQualified.com

The rumors were right, and now we have an official release date.  Call of Duty: Ghosts will hit store shelves in, wait for it, November of this year.  Yes, November.  Pretty shocking, isn’t it?  /sarcasm.  The official release date is November 5th, and according to the poster below, appears to keep the modern, SOF-approach that appears to never get old with the COD audience.  Who remembers the original Call of Duty for PC, where the sound was so real it felt like you were actually in Germany?  I digress; hit the link below for the official Ghosts game poster, and if you want more on Ghosts, expect more from Activision tomorrow.

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PS4 Launch Lineup Will Trump Previous PlayStation Launches

Superlatives are fun.  “The PS4 is going to kick ass.”  “The PS4 will be the best ever.”  “SQ is probably the best website you’ve ever seen.”  Mark Cerny, the lead architect over at Sony’s PlayStation 4 department, has resorted to that very linguistic avenue when he recently described the upcoming PS4 launch lineup.  In a recent three-page interview with GamaSutra, Mr. Cerny made this very bold, yet extremely vague launch prediction: “The launch lineup for PlayStation 4–though I unfortunately can’t give the title count–is going to be stronger than any prior PlayStation hardware.”  While pretty much every hardware maker believes this (just to keep the superlative train going), Sony is now just coming out and saying it.  While it is arguably the most vague statement of the year, it does feature two words that I think give away what he’s basing his claim on.  Hit the link below for our Slightly Qualified take.

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March Not Kind to GoW Franchises

Nothing in business, or life for that matter, is guaranteed, even if your name is Marcus Fenix or you just happen to be a God of War.  According to an investor note released yesterday by Cowen & Company, Gears of War: Judgement sales are estimated to be hovering at or around the 425,000 unit mark.  Taken alone that doesn’t sound too terribly bad, unless you compare that figure to Gears of War 3 month one sales from September 2011, which rang up cash registers more than 2 million times.  Now that 425,000 units mark really stands out, doesn’t it?  Like I mentioned earlier, Kratos is searching for an explanation to his investors as well; full details after the link below.

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