Ah, the arcade Beat em' Up boom of the mid 90's. Brings back fond memories of dank arcades, sticky buttons, and that guy who kept trying to show me puppies in his van. We've also got bad news for the PS3 (shocker), Jack Thompson and Bully, and something about game developer sauce.
Judgement: Luxology's Modo 202
Jank of the Week: Mech Assault 2: The Lone Wolf @ Gamestop / EB
Quote of the week: "As soon as I beat off all the other sweaty nerds"

If you have any feedback, you can shoot us an email here, call our voicemail at 845-BATTLE-9, or leave your thoughts in our forums here.

THIS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29th AT 4PM EASTERN (1pm Pacific, 9pm UK)

Listen to the show as it's recorded Live! In addition, you can participate in our Live! chat by joining the room "bdpelive" (no quotes) on any AOL Instant Messenger program. Finally, rumor has it that BATTLE will be making it's triumphant return - the section of the show where YOU can call in by dialing 845-BATTLE-9 on any phone, or contact our Skype name "bestdamnpodcastever" (no quotes).

Just click HERE to download the streaming file (lisen.pls), and double-click to open in iTunes (or other audio app) and listen in Live! For more information check out our liveshow page at:

http://www.bestdamnpodcastever.com/liveshow

Finally, we'll be running a Debug Show this Thursday night at 9 PM Eastern to get all the kinks out, so if anyone wants to tune in or give us a call so we can test everything out, we'd appreciate it.

[Review by listener Alexi G.]
Luminies Live! Is a newly released game on the Xbox Live Arcade (for Xbox 360), developed and published by Q Entertainment. A sequel to the popular title Lumines on the PSP (Blake Buck’s Favorite Gaming Platform), Lumines Live! is a 2D tile based puzzle game *cough* Tetris Clone *cough*.

When you launch Lumines Live! You are first presented with a character creation screen (on first run), which prompts you to create a new character. By creating a character, it means that you pick one of several strange icons to associate with your gamertag. Unlike a gamer picture however, the choices are a bizarre bunch of basic black and white characters, which look like they were designed from a collection of children’s art.

Once you chose a character, you are presented with the main menu for the game. Lumines Live! has an interesting layout of menus which involve a series of branching tabs. You can chose from ‘Single Player Game’, ‘Multiplayer Game’, ‘Leaderboards’, ‘Achievements’, ‘Help’, ‘Options’, and ‘Return to Arcade’ by either up and down on the D-pad, or by using the Left Thumbstick.

In Single Player mode, you have the choice of playing ‘Challenge Mode’, ‘VS. CPU Mode’, ‘Time Attack Mode’, ‘Puzzle Mode’, or ‘Mission Mode’. In the basic ‘Challenge Mode’ the player has to arrange squares consisting of 4 blocks of two different colours into single colour blocks of four in order for them to be eliminated by the passing wave. You gain points by eliminating blocks. The game ends when the player is unable to eliminate blocks and they pile up past the top (can you say ‘TETRIS”?). The other Single Player modes offer refreshing variations of the basic game ranging from a mode where the player fights for space on the board against an AI player (creatively named ‘VS CPU’), to the ‘Puzzle Mode’ where the player strives to create a set of bizarre shapes.

In multiplayer mode, you are presented with the option of ‘Local Battle’ or ‘Xbox Live Battle’, which provide a great way to prove your dominance over a friend.

The Graphics in the game are crisp, and look stunning with a variety of High Definition visuals that just look great! The game includes a variety of different graphical styles ingame, which shift as time goes by.

The Audio in the game is highly addictive, and changes as the graphical styles do. The only complaint I had regarding the audio was the annoying computerized voice that announced my choice with every menu selection.

Now, Lumines could have been an awesome game. Except for Microsoft’s marketing. Lumines costs a whopping 1200 Microsoft Points for the BASIC GAME! That is $15 US, or like a meal’s worth of Burger King cheeseburgers for Blake Buck! On top of that, you are required to buy add-ons ranging from 300 to 600 Microsoft Points to get features like ‘VS CPU’ mode and ‘Puzzle/Mission Mode’.

THE JUDEGEMENT:

+ Great Graphics, Audio, Menus
+ Addictive Gameplay
- A Bit TOO MUCH Like TETRIS
- 1200 Microsoft Points
- Addon Packs Required to Get Full Features

RECCOMENDATIONS: Unless you have extra cash to blow on this game, love Lumines on the PSP or must get every achievement possible (like Justin Fic), Lumines is probably not for you. Recommend that the try the DEMO first!

Alexi's Gamertag: Ghostsoft

Our first ever "Classics" video, where we'll be bringing back some of our favorite videos from the BUCK archives. In this video, we've got a review of Call of Duty 2 for the Mac. World War II has never felt so innovative.

YouTube Player:

This week we've got an interview with Brenda Brathwaite, acclaimed female game designer (Wizardry series, Jagged Alliance series, Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, and Playboy: The Mansion), founder and chair of the International Game Developers Sex Special Interest Group, and professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Also this week, the Guitar Hero 2 Song List, the role of the ESRB in gaming industry, a review of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and something about hot wings. Jank of the Week: Xbox 360 Promo on Amazon. Quote of the week: "Just send them a copy of Labyrinth with David Bowie"

If you have any feedback, you can shoot us an email here, call our voicemail at 845-BATTLE-9, or leave your thoughts in our forums here.

[Article by listener Bruce Morrison, of Freeverse fame]

When the decree from on high came down this year to declare E3 dead, I got this feeling deep in my gut. It was a two fold feeling—on one hand I was sad to see the media frenzy and blitz of game news pass, but on the other I was relieved that I no longer had to plan that trip out to LA. I really hate driving in LA.

I can only imagine how happy the Digital Life expo people, aka the Ziff Davis yahoos were to hear of E3s passing. Now they could rightfully become the big awesome show.

So, Dell had a few badges held for me and a coworker to go check out the show here in NYC at the Javits Center. When we arrived at the show doors, there was a long line to get in. This is a good sign; it was also the last good sign of the venture. We quickly bypassed the long line, got our Exhibitor badges (not that we had anything to exhibit) and entered the show floor.

This is an accurate picture of what we saw:

Yeah, that’s about accurate.

Before I continue, lets get a feel for the scope and size of Digital Life vs. E3. Lets say E3 is as big as the Death Star.

With me so far? Good. So if E3 is the Death Star, then Digital life is a 1963 Airstream trailer being pulled by a stinky French guy on a bike.

(Ok, so, I wasn’t really going for that specific analogy, but I mean what a wacky photo to find on Google image search!)

So yeah, while E3 is acres of sprawling mass media awesome, Digital Life felt like I was in some dudes basement. And not a sweet basement with an old Pinball machine, but a really grimy one where you keep the Christmas decorations.

Ok, sure Digital Life had some good things. First I got to play some Guitar Hero 2! Of course, I had already played an almost final build at Harmonix a few months ago, so it was not really special. Also the HDTVs the Red Octane had were really laggy. So the rock was only at 4 (it goes to 11 after all). Then I got to watch some fat 12-year-old play a game on the Wii. That was kind of neat, in a watch-a-fat-kid-play-a-game™ kind of way. And I saw Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but it was no different than what’s on YouTube.

Now, lets talk about the lameness. First, there was nothing “New” at Digital Life. Part of the charm, the magic, the “This is worth standing around a bunch of smelly nerds” of E3 was how new everything was. You were often seeing footage for the first time. Maybe getting to play a game before everyone else you know. Knowing you were standing with the big dogs. I’ll never forget how “Internet Cool” I felt after playing Halo 2 almost 6 months before the rest of the world. That made E3 special. Digital Life had nothing new, nothing special. Hell, one of the Ubi Soft “booth babes” (I use quotes here, as she was not a babe, but she was in a booth) was loudly letting everyone know they could go home and download the new Splinter Cell demo from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Gee thanks lady, I guess I’ll get out of this line to play the game and just go home.

And I did! Yes my entire Digital Life trip took maybe an hour. I spent longer on the subway train than in the hall. I had seen everything there was to see. All I could think, when exiting was “Thank god I didn’t pay 8 bucks to get in here!”

The real shame is, there are some really good games on the horizon that could have been showstoppers. Where was a Gears of War demo? Or just a looping trailer, with a full battlefield recreated in plastic and foam? Seriously Digital Life, what gives? Damnit, now that E3 has reformed (but it’s not the same) I’ll probably have to truck back out the California.

Bruce Morrison
bruce@freeverse.com

[Review by listener Mark G.]

Black Shades is a freeware game developed by David Rosen for the U Dev Games contest in 2002. It has a geometric graphical style mixed with the good old blood and violence of games such as Kill Monty. The game features two main characters: you and the VIP. The VIP walks with a purpose (or does he?) around a block in a generic city while hundreds of faceless assassins attempt to kill him for no apparent reason. Somebody has got to stop them, and only two men are up to the challenge. Sadly, The Cougar did not make an appearance in this game, but you and your black shades are up to the challenge.

In each level, you are required to escort the VIP around the block for a set amount of time. You are armed with weapons ranging from sniper rifles to hand grenades, and these weapons are seldom at rest. You will find yourself shooting the hell out of viscous onslaughts of idiots, becoming more and more satisfied as assassins become more and more dead. Because they are incredibly stupid and slow, they attack with sheer numbers and (most likely unintentional) distraction tactics. The assassins may frustrate you at first, but, in time, you will be massacring everyone in sight, assassins and civilians alike.

The levels progress in a repeating cycle, getting slightly harder each go-round. You are given a different weapon for each level, and the assassins are armed to match you. For example, you may be looking down your scope at a few snipers across the street, while a knifer stabs the VIP out of your view. On the last level of each repetition, all the civilians turn into zombies and attempt to feast on the VIP's flesh. Unfortunately, these zombies are much faster and tougher than the typical undead. They will run at you in large numbers and, unless you literally blow their heads off, they cannot be "killed".

Black Shades is very different than most games in the FPS genre. For one thing, there is no cross-hair, and you must look down the sight of the gun as you would in real life. This may make baby Jesus cry, but it makes shooting much more enjoyable. Black shades is also unique in that you are psychic. Apparently you are a freak of nature and can not only slow down time, but enter "soul release mode" and fly through the air to scout out enemies. You can also knock the VIP out of the path of a bullet, take a bullet for him, steal your enemies' weapons, or kill them with a single punch them in the face.

The sound is not anything too special, but it is pretty cool. The gunshots can sound very airy and low quality if fired into the air, but if you hit a body, be it civilian, assassin, or VIP, the sound that emits is quite satisfying. The music must be turned on in the config file, however it seemed to be coming from a specific point inside the level, which made my brain hurt every time I turned around.

Overall, there is nothing like taking a bullet for the VIP, stealing your challenger's weapon, and blowing his head of with his own gun, only to watch him fall into a pile of dead bodies spewing blood all to the ground. Lack of story, satisfying gameplay, and maniacal shooting of blockheads makes this the ULTIMATE freeware game.

The Gangbusting:
Extremely satisfying
Never gets old
Excessive Violence
Can shoot civilians
Awesome factor

The Fizzwizzle:
Music hurts my brain
Learning curve a bit steep

Judgement:
THE HEAVY D.

Can be downloaded for free for Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, or Windows at:
http://wolfire.com/blackshades.html

Alone in the Dark, 2 hours of your life, Lowtax - what do all these things have in common? They've all been destroyed by Uwe Boll. This week we talk about video games and movies, plus we've got the News, Releases, the Judement (Rocket Slime and Cooking Mama), Jank of the Week, your Feedback, and the Cancer Rule. Quote of the Week: "I'd shoot God of War, and it's just Blake Buck taking a deuce in the bathroom for two hours"

If you have any feedback, you can shoot us an email here, call our voicemail at 845-BATTLE-9, or leave your thoughts in our forums here.

When Szymon received the strange package from some sweat shop in a distant land, I thought to myself "Boy! This is going to be great!" Now, as our beloved Playstation2 lays in pieces on our dinning room table, I can't stop crying.

As I began to think about modding the Playstation2 in terms of the probability of success, I found that chances of this actually working could be expressed as the fraction one over the number of games Blake Buck has purchased but never played (that's a lot of games). Of course, we as God fearing red-blooded American men saw this ominous piece of silicon not as the most certain ruination of our beloved game console and quite possibly our deaths, but as a CHALLENGE that must be met with bravery, sweat, grunting, and raw muscular fortitude.

Our mod chip, the Matrix Infinity - an unassuming bit of circuitry, requiring 19 (GILLION) WIRES to be soldered to the main board of the system. Before you can do any soldering, you have to take the machine apart, which is a task unto itself. When we finally got to the point of attaching the device, we looked at each other and realized the neither of us actually knew how to solder. Now, we're not talking about a simple wire to piece of metal job here - we're talking about impossibly small wires on impossibly small contacts. Our solution? Drink some more beer first. Once we began to solder, we started to get the hang of it, and it was all very intense. After about an hour, we had 10 wires in place (hopefully). There are 9 left, then we get to turn the power on, and hope the machine doesn't explode and burn our house down.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion (or lack there of if I die in a massive explosion).

By the end of 1997, the Sega Saturn had completely failed in the United States, and Japanese sales were in trouble as well. Sega knew it had to come up with a genius marketing plan to stay competitive. And there was only one man for the job: SEGATA SANSHIRO.

This short documentary traces the life and death of one of the greatest video game advertising icons ever.

YouTube Player:

Phantom Entertainment, the butt of every game developers' cocktail party joke for the last four years, has finally started shipping its flagship product, THE PHANTOM LAPBOARD, presumably a peripheral precursor to their yet to materialize on-demand game service. Excited as I get over things like this, I clicked as fast as I could to Phantom Entertainment's web site to examine the device more closely. The more I looked at this thing, the more confused I became. The device looks like you could press waffles with it, and at $129.95, it had better make me coffee too.

Hi yo, my name is Mike Apps and I decided for my first article I’d write something that would immediately get me flamed, that’s right folks, I am here to tell you that Final Fantasy 7 is the worst game in the series. There I said it. I’ve even got plenty of heat to back it up. So let’s get started here.

First of all, the battle system in this supposed “Best RPG ever” is just plane and simple, Lame. Yes I did just use Lame with a capital L. Previous Final Fantasy games had deep battle systems where each of the main characters either had unique abilities or had the ability to be turned into one of sever very cool jobs such as black mage, white mage, etc. In Final Fantasy 7 the only thing unique about each of the characters is the weapon they use, and in the case of most of the characters some Lame limit breaks. In other words, the majority of people will play a large portion of the game with the same party of Cloud, Vincent, and Cid, some people maybe switching in Tifa (possibly just to look at her virtual boobs but I wont go there) because they have the strongest weapons. Sure at certain points you’ll be forced to use the other characters, but you’ll never really feel like using them because their weapons are just plain weaker than Cloud, Vincent, Cid and their limit breaks not nearly as powerful. The reason the whole blank slate thing worked in games like Final Fantasy V is that every character can be just as powerful as the others in terms of magic, weapons, everything, and its a lot of fun to customize them however you want them. Customizing material just isn’t the same deal because of the weapon and limit break issues. BLAM.

Second of all, Final Fantasy 7 is stealing the spotlight deserved by other Final Fantasy games. Have any of you FF7 fanboys even played Final Fantasy 6? The game features the largest cast of playable characters, each of whom are easily as developed and more entertaining than twelve clouds. You’ve got your wise cracking thief Locke, your woman loving king Edgar, and of course the Ninja Shadow who has more secrets than the U.S. Government. What have you got in Final Fantasy 7? A whiney main hero named after those floaty white things in the sky, a giant stuffed animal, and a guy with a gun on his arm. LAME. Even the annoying main hero in Final Fantasy X is much more enjoyable than Cloud. The coolest character in the game is the vampire Vincent, as we can see from his spin-off game, and he’s an optional character! For the record, according to gamerankings.com, the two highest rated Final Fantasy games of all time are Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 9, yet a large number of people have probably never played those because all we ever hear about is Cloud and oversized sword (compensating for something there Cloud?).

Finally, Final Fantasy 7 is simply over-hyped and many people’s memory of the game may be somewhat clouded. For example have you ever watched some of those shows you loved as a kid and still thought were great into your adult years? Ya, all I have to say is Thundercats blows. Final Fantasy 7 for most of us was our first foray into a cinematic 3D role-playing game. Too often we forget that the crappy character models in the game often looked misplaced in the many locals in the game. Too often we forget we forget the stupid submarine mini-game (what is this, SeaQuest?), and the often too convoluted story, and the pain in the butt Chocobo raising system whose only reword was a summon material that made the toughest bosses in the game way too easy. Did it have its moments? Sure it did, but so did X-men 3.

The BDPE crew continues to tweak the show format, and this week's central topic is everyone's favorite blue bomber, MEGA MAN. We talk this week's news, Halo the Ride, and Zero's dark secret. Quote of the Week: "Nintendo Power is my church and my god"

If you have any feedback, you can shoot us an email here, call our voicemail at 845-BATTLE-9, or leave your thoughts in our forums here.

Continue reading "Episode 4: Megaman Megashow" »

Blake Buck and William Miller recount a tale from their glory days in high school. Is it a glorious battle between two warriors, determined to seal their fate? Or two immature high school kids acting retarded? TWO MEN ENTER ONE MAN LEAVE.

YouTube Player:

If you have any feedback, post it in our forums here. And with some luck, Episode 4 will be posting tomorrow, followed by the Yakuza Video Review this Friday.

While poking around the internet today, I read a rather poorly written article about the excess of sequels in the gaming industry today. The article reports that Electronic Arts released 26 games in 2005, 25 of which were sequels. The article continues on to state this is due to the increase of online communities, piggybacking successful features of original titles, and the comfortable mechanics of a familiar title.

However, where I really think this article misses the mark is the role of intellectual properties in the gaming industries today. In 1987, you're average hit game was developed by a team of 15 people or so and sold around 500,000 copies. In 2007, you're average hit game is developed by hundreds of people and sells 5 million copies. And since the gaming industry has grown to such a massive business, multi-medium tie-in's and cross promotion has now plays an integral role - just like it does in all other businesses. Observe the graphic below:

Obviously, you'd buy the more familiar and tasty looking T.G.I. Friday's Buffalo Wings, rather than the buffalo wings you don't know anything about. Odds are, the Friday's Wings probably aren't even remotely like the one's you'd get at the restaurant, yet because of a strength of the Friday's name, they seem much more appealing.

The same holds true in the gaming industry. People latch on to an idea they are famliar with, usually referred to as an Intellectual Property (IP). And strong IP's are the driving force behind the majority of sales in the gaming industry: Mario, Star Wars, Solid Snake, Judge Dredd, etc. So let's examine the top 8 sellers for the entire video game industry for the month of August.

Top Software for August (by Units)

1. PS2 Madden NFL 07 - 1,012,000
2. 360 Madden NFL 07 - 569,000
3. 360 Dead Rising - 337,000
4. XBX Madden NFL 07 - 253,000
5. PS2 Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus - 200,000
6. NDS New Super Mario Bros. - 179,000
7. PS2 NCAA Football 07 - 160,000
8. PS2 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - 102,000

As you can see, all but one of these games is either a sequel or based upon an existing franchise. The one exception is Dead Rising on the Xbox 360, which Microsoft has been heavily advertising over the past few months to drive up it's otherwise slow software lineup for the summer.

Another great example of the stregnth of IP is the Cars game, which shot to the top of the charts upon it's release in late June. Even though gamers had never played a cars game before, the stregnth of the name and simultaneous release with the film generated far greater sales than any original game with unique gameplay.

In the end, the masses will buy what they like - which usually turns out to be the same thing over and over again. But this isn't a new development, original games have always taken a back seat to more widely-appealing commercial titles. So go ahead, buy Final Fantasy XIII-2: Dirge of Bahamut, just keep an eye out for new original games as well.

I dug up this little beauty while browsing the internet today - the Game Guardian. This thing is the ultimate in parental laziness technology, allowing parents to set a time limit on their child's PS2, after which the device shuts the console off. Brilliant! I wonder if we could create some underwear version of this technology for Blake Buck...

When the call came down for me to do a game review, I recruited my roommate Szymon to help create a new segment that addresses a genre of games that often are overlooked. That’s right, bar games. As unassuming a variety of game this might seem, one could argue it’s importance by asserting that the video game began its life next to the pool tables and dartboards of the smoky pub. Let us not forget that the original prototype of Nolan Bushnell’s PONG still resides in the bar where it proved it’s worth. Our subject today, Fantasia, meets Mr. Bushnell’s specifications in that it is “so simple that any drunk in any bar [can] play.” Oh, and it has boobies.

This game is like Etch-a-Sketch meets porno. After the player (or players) select their character from a list of celebrities including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jackson, and Joe Pesci (as he appears in Moon Walker), the player(s) is presented with an image featuring the silhouette of a scantily clad woman in a suggestive position. You reveal parts of the silhouette by drawing enclosed shapes with your cursor. To hinder you in this task, each level has some erratically moving enemy, which interrupts your drawing and kills you if it touches your line. Once 80% or more of the silhouette is revealed, you win, and are shown the entire image, and whoever uncovered the most wins. The game has several other features, but the important thing to remember is that in a game like this, everybody wins.

Fantasia features 50 levels, each with a different girl to uncover, and has a delightful sound track which consists of moans, grunts, screams, and porno music. The game’s resolution is vertically bias to accommodate the centerfold style images, and overall, the graphics are decent.

This game was quite an experience for Szymon and I, especially considering neither of us have ever ever ever viewed any boobie dot jaypeg (see picture). We had some emulation problems, but managed to negotiate about 20 out of the 50 levels, and even getting a perfect score on two separate occations. The game requires some fine motor skills to get high scores, but is very playable with a few beers under your belt, which was certainly the case tonight.

The D:
Over 50 levels!
Easy to play!
Celebrity cameos!

The Jank:
Only white and Asian girls accounted for.
Kendric requests a male version

Miller and Marciniak give this game three thumbs up!

The month of HEAT at Freeverse for PROJECT STINGRAY (top sekrit) is now over, and I am now on the Fung Wah Bus to Boston for a day, then back to Vegas.

That's right, I am ON the Fung Wah bus, en route, harnessing the power of Hellanet and bringing the latest heat right to your face. You could say I'm "moblogging" if you're the type of person that doesn't get punched in the face enough.

The Fung Wah Bus goes from Chinatown in New York to Chinatown in Boston, for 15 bucks. Blam. That's like 30 wontons. And the kung fu exhibited so far has been amazing- there was a dude up in the front that busted out the Tiger Claw on another dude and it was all over.

Not only that, but the two dudes RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME have been having a 3-hour long sleep apnea contest. Such endurance to be so loud and annoying for three hours straight without me kicking your ass, but these competitors are great indeed. We're talking olympic snoring here.

Anyway, we're not that far out from Boston now- and I will attempt to speed run Megaman 2 before we DOCK.

FIC OUT

On this week's show we're changing up the format a bit. The BDPE crew talks about the crumbling PS3 launch, Harmonix going corporate, Japanese narrative and it's role in gaming, and John Romero's status as the biggest tool on earth. In addition we have a new section: JANK OF THE WEEK - this is where we bring you guys the best bargains on great games. Finally, we've ditched the liveshow in favor of our old format show - though we'll still have a liveshow bonanza every once in a while.

In addition, Episode 4 (the MEGAMAN MEGA-SHOW) should be posting in a few days as well, so keep an eye out!

==MILLER ADD GRAPHIC HEAT D GO==

The X06 Show in Barcelona brought much 360-related heat to the table, in the form of Halo Wars, Guitar Hero II on 360, and another Halo/Peter Jackson collaboration separate from the movie, Halo 3, and Halo Wars. It's looking good for Microsoft.

We were also promised that a major franchise was coming to Xbox Live Arcade, and that was also sprung upon us: DOOM. And it was available for purchase THAT NIGHT.

OH MAN. I didn't even download the demo. I just shoved 800 more points into my account (that's $10 US) and bought that power outright. And let me tell you, that heat is strong.

The graphics and gameplay are faithful to the original DOOM. Yeah, the graphics are chunky, but I'm glad it stayed faithful. And the gameplay is as awesome as ever. Playing DOOM with a 360 controller is pure bliss- better than playing with a keyboard ever felt. And if you played DOOM with a mouse you were a tool. As with the original DOOM, there is no up/down looking, and the vertical aiming is still automatic. The resulting gameplay is much faster: less aim-carefully-for-that-one-placed-sniper-shot and more HOLYF***INGMOSESRUNAROUNDTHECORNERSHOTGUNBLASTTOTHEFACEGO.

And yes, there is multiplayer: both split screen and Xbox Live. You can play co-op through the levels, or Deathmatch. There are a few bugs and drawbacks here- in splitscreen, the HUD is scaled horizontally to fit the split, and looks downright odd. It also cuts off the edges of your hud, which would either be the ammo count on the left or your inventory on the right. Xbox Live games have been rather difficult to get going so far, but when they start, it's GO D ALL THE TIME. Finally, DOOM predates multiplayer maps and gametypes, so you're looking at Deathmatch only, no CTF, King of the Hill, or for your Marathon types, no Kill The Man With The Skull. In addition, you're deathmatching only on single player maps. You'll quickly find out which maps work best for good furious deathmatches, and you'll completely forget about the rest.

Honestly, if you have a 360 and you have a soul in your body you will get DOOM. You'll get D in the mouth both from nostalgia and from the constant heat gameplay that holds up well even today. There's a few bugs, but they are slight annoyances and do not detract from the awesomeness.

Everyonewitha360byDoomGO.

The D: Furious gameplay, nostalgia, feels like it was MEANT to be played on a 360 controller, and deathmatching is bliss.

The JANK: Bugs in the HUD in splitscreen, connecting to Xbox Live games can be jank, and the original Doom wasn't meant to be multiplayer.

Final Rating: 9 out of 10 plus two bonus shotgun shells to the face.

While BDPE has been lacking in content over the past week due to technical problems, fear not! Blake Buck (pictured above) and the rest of the BDPE team have a whole slew of new stuff rolling out this week. You guys better be ready.