Black Ops 2 has been announced and the trailer looks pretty interesting, this game will be set in the future.  The trailer doesn’t say show it but I’ve heard that part of it is even fought in space.  Sounds pretty interesting and I’m looking forward to checking it out.

Like a lot of gamers I like to sign into xbox.com to check my messages, see who’s on and what they are playing, and to schedule downloads for demos.  Today when I tried to sign on I got a message saying that my account has been blocked.  The reasons they gave for it being block were I either had sent out a bunch of spam or done something else that violated  their Windows Live Terms of Service.  The e-mail I use for this was setup just for my xbox account and I don’t use it for anything else.  The only people that have that email address are Microsoft and whoever they decide to share it with.

The way to get your account unblocked is to give Microsoft your phone number.  Yep it seems like Microsoft wants your phone number to add to it’s collection.  You give them your phone number and then they send you a code that you have to enter that will unblock your account.  This seems like a cheap way to get your phone number to me.  With Facebook and Google already collecting as much information about you as possible it seems Microsoft wants to catch up.

The funny thing about this is if I close that screen and then reload xbox.com I get into my account just fine.  However if I sign out and try to sign back in again then I get the same account blocked page.  This plus the fact that my fourth xbox is about to die (I’m having disc tray problems) might just be the end of the xbox for me.

Judging only by the number of times I’ve been asked how I like my Vita and the conversation on Twitter about it, I’d say there is a lot of buzz for the Vita. When I got mine last week I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning and after having my Vita for several day I can say that I am not disappointed.

When you first power up the Vita you have to go through the normal setup process, setting time, date and things like that. In true Playstation fashion you can’t sign into your PSN account until you do an update. Because of this you have to sign in as a guest and then finish the rest of the start up process. You can’t do the update until you have done this which is a little silly. After that you update the system which takes a couple of minutes (nothing like updating the PS3 for the first time). After the update you can sign in and off you go. My Vita was about 80% charged so I could play for awhile before having to charge it again.

The interface is really nice and the touch is snappy and responsive. The icons are bubbles and looks very IOSish. You swipe up or down to scroll through the menu and hold down a bubble and they start to shake. From this point you can move icons by dragging them or delete them. There are certain apps you can’t delete (like the web browser but there are parental controls that allow you to lock it out.) Once you click on a icon a start menu appears and you have to click it to start the program. This is one thing I wish they cut out, why not go straight into the program? To exit a program click the Playstation button and it takes you out of it but it doesn’t close it. To do this you have to drag you finger from the top right corner of the screen and pull down like you are tearing off a sticker.

I had heard that load times where lengthy but I didn’t have that problem. The first time you put a game it will install the game and an icon on the screen. I’ve been playing Uncharted mostly and the controls work great, I love having the two thumbsticks. The game looks and feels like I’m playing on a PS3, the only downside I’ve found is the size. The size is great for playing games but it’s a little big to carry in your pocket. This is one thing I love about the 3DS is it fits nicely in my pocket but even with that I’m not complaining because the size is great when you are playing.

I was very excited when the Vita was announced and I have to say I am not disappointed. Hopefully this device will be supported by third party developers better than the PSP. As long as Sony has taken care of the hacking and illegal game downloads I think that they will. It’s a great platform and I am very excited about it future.

Playstation seems to drop the ball so often that it has become a running joke.  For me the latest is with the PS Vita’s first bundle that allows gamers to get the Vita a week before it’s launch date.  The idea is pretty cool but the problem that not everything was ready.  First of all if you try to use Media Go to transfer old PSP downloads the software doesn’t recognize the Vita.  Your computer will and will install the drives needed but Media Go itself does not, so you can’t transfer games using it.  The work around to this problem is use your PS3 (if you have one) to download the games and the PS3 will be able to transfer games to the Vita.

A bigger problem is the apps that Playstation advertises aren’t ready for the device yet, well at least they haven’t been released.  This includes the Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare apps.  Now I know that all of these are third party apps and are out of the hands of Sony but even Sony’s own apps aren’t available yet.  The Vita comes with several AR cards to play augmented reality games but to play these games you need to download apps that aren’t on the store yet.  This to me is a huge fail on Sony’s part.  I’m ok with the third party apps not being available right away but games that come with the system not being available is crazy.  I know what some of you are thinking, it doesn’t release until next week and they will work then, yes this is true but why do an early release then.  Why let your die hard fans get their hands on something that isn’t totally ready.  Also this has been out in Japan for several months and don’t they have the same AR cards?

In the grand sceme of things it’s not that big of a deal.  It’s cool to finally get our hands on a Vita and it is really nice.  I wouldn’t be playing the AR cards now anyway because of Uncharted, which is amazing, but they should of had this part available when the Vita shipped.

I couldn’t hardly wait to open up the Vita and get to playing but I did long enough to record this video.  I hope you guys enjoy it and send me a friends request if you have a Vita.

I have never played a Twisted Metal game before but Dez is going on and on about this game. The demo hit the PSN store yesterday afternoon and it took me about 20 minutes to download it. Go download it and look for us online.

I have taken several weeks off from recording a Fellowship of Gamers podcast but Eddie, Travis and I recorded on this week. We talk about Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Breaking Bad, Uncharted 3, Batman Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Mario 3D Land, Modern Warfare 3 and some Black Friday deals.

Ever see the movie the Expendables? You know the one with all the great action movie actors in it. If you have you know that the movie had tons of action and expositions and not so much of a story. That’s the way Modern Warfare series seemed to be headed. MW2 had some great levels but it seemed more like they designed the levels and then tried to put a story around it. The problem was it didn’t really work and on top of that they had you changing characters so much it was hard to keep up. In Modern Warfare 3 they have fixed some of that.

Most of the game you play as Frost or Yuri, this makes it easier to follow the story and seems to give it more of a flow. The story isn’t going to wow you but it is a decent story. This series has done a couple of things well, the first, have lots of tension and incredible scenes, this game isn’t any different. The other thing this series does well is mix up the levels. Between driving boats, sniping, running and gunning it, or trying to sneak around, this game mixes it up enough that you are never bored or get that been there done that feeling. My only problem with the game is I felt that they over used the slow motion action scenes. In games past those were some of the epic moments but I felt like they went to the well too often in this game.

It will be interesting to see where the next Modern Warfare game goes with the story or if this is it. Because of somethings that happen in the story I get the feeling this is the end of the Modern Warfare series as we know it. I’m not saying the end of Call of Duty just the Modern Warfare part of the series.

Overall (3/5)

The game is short but it’s fun and we all know the multiplayer is where this game makes it mark.

Questionable Content (4/5)

Maybe because I’ve gotten too use to it but I don’t remember a ton of language but I’m sure there was. There are some scenes that could be disturbing, nothing as bad as the No Russian mission in MW2.

Achievements (3/5)

It’s a Call of Duty game and with that you know that some of the achievements are going to be very challenging. In one play through on normal I got a little over 300 points.

When Batman Arkham Asylum came out it quickly became one of my favorite games of all time. The way the game made you feel like Batman with the gameflow was nice. So when Arkham City was announced I was excited but also a little nervous, I know how hard it can be to follow up a great game. After beating it though I am very happy to say that they followed it up well and put out another must buy.

The game is based in Arkham City, a part of Gotham that has been walled off keeping all of Gotham’s criminal masterminds inside. The city isn’t huge but it’s big enough to take a few minutes to get from one side to another. One of the great thing about Batman are the villains and Arkham City makes use of some of the different villains that didn’t get used much or at all in Arkham Asylum. I don’t want to give away who is in the game or any of the story line but I will say this, I loved the story. The main storyline of the game I thought was great and since I don’t want to give anything away I’ll leave it at that.

The big question about a single player game is how long is the campaign and is there replay value. If I had to guess I would think the campaign is about eight hours long. Also once you beat the game you can play through again with all your weapons upgraded and the enemies are smarter. Like Arkham Asylum there are Riddler challenges that add to the game play, that alone adds hours to the game. Also there are still challenge rooms were you fight bad guys and in rounds and get scored for how well you did. These rooms can get pretty challenging to get your score up and can get pretty addicting trying to do better than last time. New to this game are the side missions.

The side missions in this game will get you pretty distracted. I know I played for a couple of hours one night and didn’t advance the main story at all. They are mixed in and you stumble upon them. If you buy the game new you also get several Catwoman missions. These were nice but I didn’t enjoy these near as much as the rest of the game. In fact at one point I was wondering if I could skip it and get back to Batman. They did do a nice job though of making Catwoman different with different skill sets than Batman. You may have gotten across one room one way with Batman but have to rethink it playing as Catwoman.

Overall (5/5)

This game is great. I don’t say that about a lot of games but so far this is the most fun game that I’ve played this year. I would say it is a must play and a game that you should buy.

Questionable Content (3/5)

Batman keeps it classy but some of the thugs well not so much. The violence in this game isn’t too bad as most of it are fist fights and even when guns are used there is no blood. The language of the bad guys is pretty bad. I don’t think I ever heard an F bomb dropped but just about everything else seemed to be fair gain. Harley Quinn also makes several sexual jokes that might just slip right by you but they are there.

Achievements (3/5)

For completing the story and doing some side missions I got 390 points. It’s not terrible on achievements but you are going to have to work to get them.

This week it’s Jody, Eddie and Travis and we talk about Batman Arkham City, Uncharted 3, ShadowGun, Rage, Once upon a Monster, Real Racer 2, and more. Will there be a new xbox in 2013?