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	<title>Cory Birdsong</title>
	<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog</link>
	<description>Writer/Editor</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:23:32 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>ODST: The real sequel to Combat Evolved</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There was palpable disappointment following the release of "Halo 2," and not just due to the 'well, I guess we'll stop here' ending. From the first teaser, the tone of the marketing campaign was that you (well, Master Chief) are the only guy who can defend Earth. Combine that with the "I Love Bees" alternate [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2009/09/22/odst-the-real-sequel-to-combat-evolved/</link>
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		<title>Review: The Beatles: Rock Band</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems impossible to write an introduction to this review, especially considering how self-explanatory the title is. Here: "The Beatles: Rock Band" is a "Rock Band" game with the Beatles in it. You have guitar, bass, drums and this time, up to three microphones, and you faux-play music using on-screen guides. It is amazing. If [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2009/09/09/review-the-beatles-rock-band/</link>
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		<title>Review: Ghostbusters: The Video Game</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I have been trying to write this review for quite some time, in one way or another. Part of that was just finding the drive to finish the game, something I have yet to do. I doubt I will. Though there is nothing particularly wrong with it, it's just not a terribly interesting experience. I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2009/07/06/review-ghostbusters-the-video-game/</link>
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		<title>I went to E3!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It was quite an experience! I gave Jeff Green a Nintendorks condom. I also wrote some things.
Wii Sports Resort
Mass Effect 2
Alan Wake
Halo 3: ODST
The Beatles: Rock Band
Tiger Woods Wii, Split Second, Army of Two PSP
Blur, DJ Hero, Span Smasher
Dark Void, Forza 3, Dirt 2, PSP Go
ALSO, here is a video of me playing the Conduit [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2009/06/10/i-went-to-e3/</link>
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		<title>Review: Ninjatown (DS)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tower defense games have an interesting history. After being born in mods for Blizzard’s RTS games, the genre spread to the Flash game circuit, where it was again iterated on incessantly. Between the two, it seems like almost every gameplay permutation possible had already been divised and experimented with. Recently, dedicated commercial tower defense games [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2009/01/14/review-ninjatown-ds/</link>
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		<title>Impressions: Samba de Amigo (Wii)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It fills me with disappointment that I cannot really call this article a review. To review "Samba de Amigo" would require me to have played it extensively, and sadly, "Samba de Amigo" for the Wii is too broken for me to tolerate it for very long at all.
I want to be upfront about the amount [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/10/10/impressions-samba-de-amigo-wii/</link>
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		<title>Does Rock Band need a fail condition?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For myself, and people I usually play Rock Band alongside, score is a secondary concern. In fact, we don't really care at all. We just want to have fun pretending to play music we love with fake instruments. This is also the attitude of anyone playing Rock Band at a party casually. They just want [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/05/28/does-rock-band-need-a-fail-condition/</link>
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		<title>GTA IV impressions after one hour of play</title>
		<description><![CDATA[1) The cars handle really crazily now; I guess they are more realistic? The shitty cars I got to use had a hard time handling at high speeds, and really couldn't drive on grass at all. 
The character seems to have the same sort of rules. You have momentum and can no longer turn on [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/04/28/gta-iv-impressions-after-one-hour-of-play/</link>
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		<title>Returning to PC gaming</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I have actually been playing quite a few Games for Windows® lately, thanks to my purchase of, amusingly, one of these, which has replaced the PC I built after graduating high school and has shat its pants upon encountering 3D games for the past few years. After getting Windows installed and running as optimally as [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/03/19/returning-to-pc-gaming/</link>
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		<title>Thoughts on 2D and 3D game design</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Lately, I've been playing Planescape: Torment on the PC. I really felt like a more slowly paced game after all the fast-paced action games from this fall. I greatly enjoyed Halo 3, Bioshock, and Mass Effect, and the like, but I felt like playing something a little more thoughtful. This 10-year-old RPG is doing the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/03/05/2d-3d/</link>
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		<title>Being a douchebag in Mass Effect</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Mass Effect is a pretty good game, but I think I'm having way more fun playing through again as a douchebag. Your character says hilariously assholish things to everyone, but they don't really react beyond maybe a few words, and then it's back to the normal script!
When you are on the first planet, and the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/02/26/being-a-douchebag-in-mass-effect/</link>
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		<title>Why I hate Call of Duty 4&#8217;s campaign</title>
		<description><![CDATA[There are two very different games in the Call of Duty 4 package: the campaign  and the multiplayer. This is underscored by the structure of the main  menu, which features two totally different sets of choices that you  have to switch between. It seems like two separate games, and it is.
The campaign [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/02/07/why-i-hate-call-of-duty-4s-single-player/</link>
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		<title>Rez HD and more Burnout</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Rez HD is marvelous in every way. It's a port that's gotten better with age. I noticed in my playthrough last night that it draws a line between enemy and background by having the enemies never pulsate to the music. The game world draws a line between what is good (the player and the world) [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/01/31/13008-rez-hd-and-more-burnout/</link>
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		<title>Travis Touchdown and the Fire Hell</title>
		<description><![CDATA[No More Heroes is fucking nuts. Think Metal Gear Solid, but on meth. You're a video game nerd who buys a lightsaber on eBay, and is trying to become the number one assassin in the world. You save the game by taking a dump in your shithole apartment. There is a pixelated tiger in the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/01/29/travis-touchdown-and-the-fire-hell/</link>
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		<title>Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Oh, Axl, you're such a poet.
Burnout Paradise has proven me wrong and is totally fantastic. Almost all the misgivings I had about the demo are still valid, but the core design and philosophy behind the final product is so focused and perfect that they don't matter. You can't pick events from a menu, but that's [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/01/28/what-i-played-this-weekend-jan-25-27/</link>
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		<title>RE4Wii</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I played Resident Evil 4 for 15 minutes. At first I thought it made the game easier, since the Wiimote is so accurate, but then the first chainsaw guy killed me anyway.
That is all.


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		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2008/01/25/what-i-played-1-25-08/</link>
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		<title>Review: Halo 3</title>
		<description><![CDATA[T-shirts, hoodies, patches, buttons, keychains, refrigerator magnets, a special ugly edition Xbox 360 console with a wireless headset to match, incredibly tacky controller designs from Todd McFarlane, tiny replica guns that don't seem to serve any real purpose whatsoever,, and a special edition Mountain Dew flavor. Halo 3 is easily the most hyped game, since, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2007/10/04/review-halo-3/</link>
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		<title>Review: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Thanks to the end of semester rush combined with wanting to go to Festival, I haven't quite gotten through the end of the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. However, I've still played through what I'd estimate is about 80 percent of it, and I can tell you: It's awesome.
First, though, I need to plug what [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2007/05/02/review-the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess/</link>
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		<title>Review: Elite Beat Agents</title>
		<description><![CDATA[One DS game I've been kicking around for a while, in one form or another, is Elite Beat Agents, an Americanized sequel to Japanese developer iNiS's (Guitaroo Man) rhythm game hit, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. I had actually originally played an imported copy of the original game, but I wasn't going to review an obscure Japanese [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2007/04/17/review-elite-beat-agents/</link>
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		<title>Editorial: Authoritarianism in government</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently, in reading a bit about some of the 2008 presidential candidates, I came upon a disturbing couple of quotes. Reports the National Review: "Crane says he was disappointed with Romney's answer to his question the other night. Crane asked if Romney believed the president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://loudnoises.org/blog/2007/04/04/editorial-authoritarianism-in-government/</link>
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