With 2009 upon us, I decided to make my first New Year resolution ever: MORE CONTENT! I have a lot of exciting projects lined up for the this year and I hope you join me for the ride. Yes I know,  my RSS feed has been cold for the past month but that’s because I had to refocus my efforts to make sure that what I plan on unveiling is worth both the time and effort. So stay tuned to Byte Size Reviews as we bring random content right into your home. Or iPhone. Or computer. Or whatever you use to consume electronic entertainment.

Also next week, yours truly will be in Vegas for CES. I hope to bring you a look at this industry event like you’ve never seen it before.

I’m usually not one for dressing up when it comes to Halloween and when I do, I just go for stuff that’s around the house. This, however, is a different story. For only a $100 and a few hours of work, I can have custom made armor from the Halo universe! Why wouldn’t I want to do this?

The awesome team at Indy Mogul put together is quick video to show the masses how they can have their very own suit of armor. Also, if you never checked out their features called Backyard FX, I highly recommend checking them out. With a little time and patience, I could make a ridiculous cool movie in my apartment. Decisions, decisions.

Now if I can get 40 other people in Orlando to make a suit, we can take over downtown next year.

Well, where should I begin? When I  first heard about a game that would give gamers the tools necessary to create your own levels, I immediately wrote it off as a game that I would never play. I’m not the type of gamer who enjoys level editors or creating my own content; so I thought.

Little Big Planet gives anyone the tools necessary to make their dream levels come true. You want to make a level that never stops moving? You can do it. Have you thought of a very complex car that only drives in certain situation? You have that tools at your disposal to make that thought a reality. There are endless possibilities for you to discover in this game and that is one part of the equation that makes this game so much fun. Tweaking every variable of your own idea is very rewarding. If you can think it, you can probably build it on this game.

The other part of the equation is actually playing the game. If you haven’t smiled while playing this game you either don’t have a soul or you’re doing it wrong. During the beta, there were numerous user created levels that oozed with creativity. Seeing some of the more complex levels were just simply amazing and made me want to create a level of my own for others to enjoy. Don’t get me wrong though, there are some horrible ones but you have to expect that from a beta. The user ratings in the beta wasn’t not much help and I often relied on my friends list to find the truly awesome levels. When you’re surfing through user created levels, you have the option to add them to a favorite list. Anyone on your friend’s list can see your favorites and choose to play them as well. I’m sure the process of bubbling up great user created levels will be more refined when the game finally ships and this will drive people to try and perfect their levels.

In addition to the user created content, there will also be a single player aspect to the game. The levels in the single player game will be ones created by the Media Molecule and will probably be super polished. These levels can also be played by yourself or with up to 3 of your friends. If it’s anything like the beta, the single player part of the game gives you more tools for you to use in the creation of your own levels. While I’m not sure if there will be a story to go along with it, I know I’ll probably finish it once so that I can ensure that I have all the tools at my disposal.

Overall, Little Big Planet is a wonderful surprise of a game. Being able to create whatever your mind can come up with is very satisfying. If you have a PS3 then you should own this game, no question about it. Hopefully, in the future, Sony will bundle this game with the system so everyone can have this be their first experience with the machine.

Above is a video of the level that took me roughly 7 hours to put together. All of the content is custom made and hopefully I’ll be able to build upon it even more when the game finally gets released.

With TGS going on this week, the team at Bungie decided to drop a bomb on the fans of the Halo genre. Above is the extended trailer for the game now dubbed as Halo 3: Recon.

We knew that something big was coming out from the studio and most of us assumed that the extra content would be DLC. Boy were we wrong about that. According to Joystiq, Halo 3: Recon will be releasing sometime in the Fall of 2009 on store shelves. This title will still be a first-person shooter and will include some additional multiplayer maps. Also, there will be no Master Chief this time around.

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. I was all for it when I thought Bungie was going to be adding new content to the game I already own but am I really ready for more Halo 3? I’m sure I’ll be picking it up eventually but as of right now I’m not as excited for this title as I was last week.

Only time will tell I suppose.

Let me start this entry off by saying this: I’m an avid Mega Man fan. I’ve played most iterations of the series to completion and there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the mini blue bomber. I still remember the first time my Dad brought Mega Man home for me to play and enjoying every minute of it.  I have very fond memories of Mega Man but also very frustrating ones.

When I was younger, my parents didn’t have all the money in the world and I was lucky to get maybe 2 or 3 games for Christmas. Keep in mind that Christmas only comes once a year and sometimes I didn’t receive a game at all. I appreciated this so much because it made me into the gamer I am today. Only getting a few games a year made me, dare I say, fall in love with games like Mega Man. I still remember the first time I beat the very first Mega Man and how much joy I got out of putting in the time and effort to memorize every level down to perfection. I appreciate the fact that Capcom didn’t attempt to make an easier  Mega Man title and love the thought of younger gamers getting the chance to experience such a game of this nature. They kept the game the way it was suppose to be: nice and challenging.

Fast-forward to 2008 and now I’m in a position financially to buy pretty much any game I desire. No longer do I have to choose one game and stick with it for a year. This brings me to my first point: I don’t want to have to remember a game’s map to get into or through it. Video games become an outlet from the day-to-day drag that is normal life. I work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I use video games as my primary source of entertainment. When I play a video game, I want to be at peace and most importantly enjoy the time I spend with it. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy a challenge, because I have beaten both Ninja Gaiden games multiple times and still enjoy the challenge. Granted Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden are two different genres of games, but they are still challenging nonetheless. All I’m saying is Mega Man offers up a different type of challenge that I no longer enjoy.

I think one major reason I’m really just not that into Mega Man 9 is the simple fact that Capcom chose not to carry any of the game mechanics introduce older titles in the series. Where’s my slide? Where’s my charge shot? One deciding factor for me to continue buying a game in a franchise is because the new title has more innovation on the previous games. Mega Man 9 does not deliver for me in this aspect. I want my games to evolve not backslide. Being that this is pretty much Mega Man 2.5, I know the experience I’m going to get with it and it’s not going to vary much. Nostalgia is a powerful sedative and can give you rose tinted glasses when viewing past experiences with games. I have fond memories of the series and would like to keep it that way.

So that’s pretty much it. I’m sure the game is amazing and don’t think that I’m saying that it’s a bad game; that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I just want to give everyone a perspective of someone who enjoyed his time with Mega Man in the past but wasn’t bitten by the nostalgia bug this time around. If you haven’t played a game like this, I encourage you to do so. I think playing any NES game, especially one as challenge as Mega Man, will give you a new appreciation for the games you play today.

Now, when they release a 2D Metroid, I’ll be all over it.

Yesterday a small section of the internet was set ablaze as Bungie released what can only be called a teaser trailer of something they have been working on for Halo 3. While the exact nature of this project is unknown to the general public, it has been said that the video is teasing an extension for the Halo 3 campaign mode. The guys over at X3F have put together the video above, detailing and speculating on almost every aspect of the video.

In addition to releasing the teaser trailer, Bungie also released a title update for Halo 3, bringing lots of changes to the game including more achievements for you to go after.

Now the question I’ve been asking myself is simply “”why”. Why now? Why show a teaser trailer and create extra content for a game that has been out for a year?

The answer to that question in my mind is quite simple: longevity. In a day and age of trade-ins and used games, video game companies need to prolong the enjoyment factor of the games they make. If it’s by releasing regular DLC for the games or continually updating the multiplayer aspect of their games, companies like Bungie see the power that ongoing support for their titles can wield. Personally I’m excited about the trailer that was released and by all of the support Bungie has put into their game. Immediatly after watching the trailer on Xbox Live, I quickly took my copy of Halo 3 and started to fall in love with it all over again.

Even though the nature of the project is unknown at this point, I’m truly excited and welcome another adventure in the universe of Halo. I also hope that more video game companies learn from this great example and attempt to give their games ongoing support well after their fiscal year.

You absolutely must watch this video! I love it when a marketing team comes together and does something wonderful to promote their new product. I’m a huge fan of great commercials and always keep an eye out for the good ones. This is a new marketing scheme for the upcoming Wii game Wario Land: Shake it! due out later this year.

You’ll notice I didn’t post the video here and that’s for good reason. Just click the link and enjoy. Be sure to tell me what you think of it and be prepared to have your mind blown!

It’s already known that I’m super excited for the new Xbox experience to come out. While I was at PAX this year in Seattle, I got the chance to see Major Nelson demo a beta build of the new Xbox Experience and I must say, that made me more excited than I already was.

While I’m not to enthused about the Avatars, they still add a new level of interaction with my console and I’ll more than likely receive it with open arms. The above video is Major Nelson showing off a few options you have when creating your Avatar for the first time. The video below is me going renegade and filming a part of the demo at PAX. I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!!

The new Xbox experience will be gracing us with its present this Fall 2008.

First and foremost, this game is very addicting. At first I had no intentions on buying Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 but after playing the demo for 5 minutes I was instantly hooked. In the video, I did not speak on the multiplayer aspect of the game because I have yet to play it. There’s a lot of people complaining that there is no online multiplayer but I am quite okay with that decision to leave it out.

The greatest addition to the game overall would have to be the implementation of the leaderboards. Each game type has its own leaderboard which shows the ranking of your friend list. Once you choose the game type you want to play, the person on your list with the next highest score will be displayed in the right hand corner always giving you something to shoot for. This may sound like a small change but if you’re a competitive person like myself, this will keep you playing way beyond the 10 minutes you set aside for the game. So if you haven’t done it already, pick this game up.

Ever since Apple and Sega showed off Super Monkey Ball, game developers have been flocking in packs to the iPhone as a viable device for game development. This strange phenomenon boggles my mind. As a gamer, you’d think I’d be all for companies making games for my beloved iPhone but that couldn’t be more wrong. Now I’m not against all iPhone games, some are actually quite entertaining for those moments in which you have a little time to kill. There is a market for some great casual games to be had here, the type of games that can be played in 5 to 10 minutes chunks. However I am against the people who actually believe that the iPhone will rival systems like the Nintendo DS or Playstation Portable for the mobile gaming market. There’s 3 HUGE reasons that I think this will just not happen and I would like to share my thoughts with you today.

3. Lack of buttons

Yeah I said it, lack of buttons. Now I know what you’re thinking, “it’s just going to challenge developers to think of a unique way to use the touch controls and the accelerometer.” I laugh in your face for thinking such things. You and I both know exactly what’s going to happen: developers are going to get fed up and ask for an add-on controller that you can plug into the phone. You can pretend it’s not going to happen all you want, but it’s coming. There’s only so many “rotate the phone to steer” games one can take.

2. Battery Life

Calling, browsing the internet, fetching your various emails, and listening to music puts a strain on the battery life of the iPhone. Playing games would totally cripple the battery life of the phone. Maybe I’ll just carry a spare battery. Oh wait, YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE BATTERY YOURSELF!!! I don’t want to sacrifice my precious battery life for a few moments of gaming on the go. If I get the itch to play a game on the fly, I’ll just whip out my Gameboy Micro or something.

1. The Nintendo DS

If you want to jump into the mobile gaming scene, you have to talk to the big boys at Nintendo. If you’re one of the 80 billion owners of a DS, chances are you won’t be purchasing any games on your iPhone. The DS is a beast to be reckoned with and I don’t see anyone tapping into this market anytime soon.

I hope a developer proves me wrong and a “must have” game comes out for the iPhone but I don’t see that happening. I’m sure we’ll see some cool innovations of the touch interface in games and a decent implementation of the acceleramotor used for soemthing other than steering, but I just don’t know if it will be great enough to pull people away from the DS.