Project Thursday

After a short delay, followed now by an earlier-than-expected release, the highly anticipated Lair has arrived for the Playstation 3. Lair, a product of Factor 5, is the dragon-riding action game that Sony is banking on to bring some hot exclusives to their expensive paper-weight. Relying solely upon the Sixaxis’ motion sensor for control, Lair is supposed to show us just what these fancy (albeit rumble-less) controllers are capable of.

Sadly, it looks like the game may not deserving of all the hype it’s received. Gaming news giant IGN has release their final review of the game, condemning it with a 4.9/10 score overall. It seems that while the game is passable in a majority of areas, the use of the Sixaxis controller is the downfall of the entire thing.

Lair’s terrible controls and god-awful lock-on system make this a mission worthy of swallowing the business end of a shotgun to avoid. -Greg Miller, IGN

So is Lair just a pile of shovel-ware? God knows I’m sucker enough to drop 60 bones and find out. We’ll let you guys know in a review when we finish it.

So you’ve finally turned 21. After years of patient waiting, it’s time to kick back, knock down your first (legal) drink, and have a laugh with your pals, right? Wrong. Not today; not for Jackie Estacado. You’re celebrating your birthday with a different liquid altogether; the kind that pumps through the veins of your enemies.

The Darkness (from the comic series bearing the same name) is the second game to come from developer Starbreeze Entertainment, following their critically acclaimed first-person shooter, the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Sticking with what they know best, the Darkness maintains the first-person game perspective, but does it succeed in recreating the astounding visuals, captivating story, and raw brutality that made Riddick so much fun?

Well, it’s official; the Project Thursday crew is heading to Los Angeles in October to attend the first annual E for All electronic entertainment convention. Where E3 has closed their doors to all but the media, E for All is looking to rekindle the flame of thousands of gamers wandering through the LA Convention Center, unshowered, sleep-deprived, surrounded by the hottest games, and ogling booth babes.

While Sony has commented that they will not be attending the conference (screw you Sony), EA has already announced that they will be there in full force, which hopefully means that Microsoft will follow in suit but unfortunately, Microsoft will not be joining them and will instead choose to be a bunch of pussies, like Sony. Either way, we’ll be there to pass you the word on the convention, the games, and the hopefully scantily clad women. Check back between now and October for more information.

If you’re looking to go yourself, you can register online at the E for All website.

A few days ago the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD format war took a turn for the worse. Paramount Pictures, previously undecided on what side to take in the next generation media standoff, officially sided exclusively with HD-DVD, making upcoming releases like Shrek the Third, Blades of Glory, and the super popular Transformers movies HD-DVD exclusives. What does this announcement mean for you and me? Simply more confusion on which format to side with. I figured that now is as good of a time as ever to bring everyone up to speed on the vital stats of both formats. Is one really better than the other? Are both just a waste of time right now? Is there any end in sight?

I figure that owning both formats gives me a little bit of experience and knowledge on the subject. My goal is to not only make you more educated on where to spend your hard earned money, but also make you a better person. I can’t make any promises though.

With the growing anticipation of Bioshock arriving this week for the Xbox 360 and PC, I figured now would be a good time to talk about the origins of the game, since it’s attracted a quite a bit of attention lately. For those of you who aren’t already aware, Bioshock can essentially be called the spiritual successor to my absolute favorite game series of all time: System Shock. Everything you are going to experience in the mind-blowing Bioshock was already present in the System Shock games. From hacking computers, awesome weapons, and even a Plasmids-like "magic" system (although, in System Shock, the term was Psionics), the Shock games had it all over eight years ago.