So I am all for the new Xbox Live update. It is sweet! And for the new avatars? I like them. A good amount of people bashed them prior to the release of the NXE (New Xbox Experience), but now it seems that most everyone likes them. It is pretty funny to see all your friends in ‘avatar’ form and being able to see who is in a party together is very cool as well.

Side note: My Xbox is crapping out, however last night I was able to ‘film’ one of our new upcoming shorts. Thanks to all that helped out. Hopefully I will be able to put this together quickly and have something for you all next week! Oh and we also are going to be starting a new mini-series soon. More information on that in the next few days.

And who is this strapping young lad on the left?

So remember when you were a kid and nerf guns were the best thing since G.I. Joes.  

Read the rest of this entry »

So, I bought a massive amount of games recently which I have had no time to play.  If you couldn’t tell, I’ve been a lil MIA on the blog due to me starting a new job. (Spencer Note: You didn’t think I made money with TheDuoGroup did you?!)  That being said, I’ve just now started to settle in, so I can be a lil bit more active around the community.

So, back to buying games….one of the games I’ve been really looking forward to was Fable 2.  As we showed a few weeks ago, they had an epic win with their commercial (Graham Note: Which was done by the same studio who did the Gears of War trailers).  So I bring home Fable 2, take the day to myself (i.e. away from the g/f) and start to play.  Within 15 minutes the game freezes.  No biggie, just restart and try again.  15 minutes later, game freezes again.  So then I try that a few more times…..more freezing.  Then I decide to be a chick instead of a dude….no problem at all.  But I don’t want to be a chick, so I try being a dude again, and things seem to go along normally.

I take a day or two off, and come back this week to play again.  More freezing.  The game basically forces me to start, load my saved game, play for 10 minutes, freeze and restart the process until after the 10th time or so it stops freezing.

Then last night, the epic fail occured.  I was going through my Fable 2 freeze ritual just so I could play the game when it started freezing on the lionshead load screen.  After restart, it froze on the xbox load screen.  Then….the red rings of death.  I was able to get my Xbox going again, but soon after, more red rings.  So, in essence Fable 2 has killed my Xbox.

Its not the end of the world, I’m under warrenty.  It just sucks, because now is the time (Thanksgiving is coming up) that I want to play these games I’ve gotten.  I don’t know if its my xbox, the game, or the disk…there seems to be a lot of debate online about which is causing all the problems with Fable 2.  No matter what though, you heard it from me…the rumors are true.  Lionshead studios is playing the game of life, and they just crapped in your hand.   Its ok though, they grow horns for it.   EPIC FAIL

Peter Gibbons: Let me ask you something. When you come in on Monday, and you’re not feelin’ real well, does anyone ever say to you, ‘Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays’?
Lawrence: No. No, man. Sh*t, no, man. I believe you’d get your ass kicked sayin’ something like that, man.

Always loved that line from Office Space….cause its so true.

Anyway here are a few things to get you through this glorious November Monday.

.

1) Go check out the new episode of Web Zeroes by the guys over at Smooth Few Films

2) Have you seen our addition to the Halo 3 ‘Believe’ Campaign?

3) Left 4 Dead demo is out on Xbox Live….go download it now

4) Take a look at the NPD numbers for hardware/software in the month of October

5) Go see the new 007 movie Quantum of Solace…its badass

6) Take a closer look at the upcoming game Prince of Persia

7) Check out 1UP’s holiday gift guide

8] Never really liked star trek, but the trailer for the movie looks cool

9) Have some good design skills? Wanna help us out with a new logo? E-mail Us!

10) Still need stuff to do? Well stop by our forums and say Hi.

With the election of Obama and the anticipation of “change” across our badass country, I’ve decided to speak for (most of) the DuoGroup and talk about some things we either like or don’t like in the world today. Things that either make this great nation what it is or things that make all/most countries hate us. (These aren’t necessarily video game matters but now can’t say DG didn’t try to better this world!)

Let the first Going Green! post be one of criticism since our country could use quite a bit of it. I have a younger sister in high school (insert Spencer joke here) and since I live near home I always come in to see her contributing to an economic disease running rampant in America.

Spencer always gets his lady...

I’m talking of course about The Hills. Over at Durden is a list that I think has been out for a while, but needs to be reviewed by congress or ninjas - someone that might take action. The majority make more from one episode than most of America in a half year/year.

If you want to watch annoying children argue swing by your local high school OR the mall if you have that pesky Megan’s Law to contend with…

I think at most one of the characters is an intern or something.  Others like claim to make “appearances” at clubs for money…really?  Now I’m not going to defend club promoters but maybe this money could go to drink specials or finding attractive girls to make it popular - you know the old fashion way.

America! Go Green! No one should pay attention to “The Hills” unless E3 is in town.  There’s too much MTV programming for me to get to in one Going Green! post but don’t think you’re off the hook just yet MTV … and thanks for making the name Spencer synonymous with ghey.

The main reason I do the “Studio Spotlight” post is because I feel that the creative studios behind the great trailers and videos we all know and love don’t get the credit they deserve. I bet most of us couldn’t rattle off more than 1 studio that has done a cool video game trailer. Well I’m here to change that (queue dramatic music.)

Cut the music…cut the music…Ok so the next studio I want to talk about is Blur. These guys are gooood. They have done some really creative and original stuff….oh and they have made some of the cooler game trailers out there. One of my favorite trailers of theirs is the Warhammer Online cinematic trailer for EA. It kind of tries to follow the style of Blizzard’s cinematics (doesn’t quite match the quality and style) but very cool nonetheless. Here is another really creative trailer that I liked from Blur. It is for Tomb Raider Underworld and puts a cool spin on something we all love to do…..blow sh*t up.

Those examples are just a few of the many cool trailers Blur has made. Blur Studios also makes original short films and 3d graphic design. Here is an interesting quick fact, Blur made the intro animation to last years Super Bowl for FOX.

Now stop reading and head over to Blur’s site and check out more of their sweet work.