Bing Bang Buy

Although I only have one product for sale, my Cafepress shop is finally up and running! Check it out, and buy a bumper sticker while you're at it. You'll be glad you did!

VF5 on X360

Sony takes a bit of a hit with this announcement today:

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (December 21, 2006) – SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced that the highly anticipated arcade fighting game, Virtua Fighter™ 5, will make its way onto the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system.

People were wondering if VF5 would be a Sony exclusive. Now we know. Will this help move more Xboxes in Japan?

Rogue Galaxy

Man, I thought this game was coming out sooner. Rogue Galaxy is a little over a month away, and IGN has posted a 15-minute game intro movie (in three parts) that showcases the game's cool setting and high production value. Not to mention some delicious combat.


The same company behind Dragon Quest VIII, Level 5, is responsible for Rogue Galaxy. The character designs and voice acting seem to be on par with that awesome game, so I'm hoping for something similar here. Why buy a PS3 when your PS2 is still so viable? And we're not just talking new games; used PS2 games are now going for super cheap to make way for the current gen crop. And God of War II isn't even out yet! This PS2 baby still has some serious life in her.

Tii-Shirt

Put your Mii on a Tii, thanks to Mr. Cloud. That is seriously nitt.

Blue Dragon

Joystiq reports that Microsoft's Blue Dragon title debuted at #4 on the Japanese software sales charts. This is a nice little win for Microsoft, especially considering the apathy I witnessed in Tokyo regarding the game. But over the last few weeks, we've been seing the interest in Blue Dragon growing as Japanese launch drew closer. Now it's obvious that there's some significant desire for the game. Questions: a) is the game any good? and b) will it sell X360s? I guess we will see. But look for Dragon Quest IX (the other series with Akira Toriyama character designs that has "dragon" in the title but isn't "Dragon Ball" or "Dragon Ball Z") to kill the hell out of everything in Tokyo when it comes out for the DS. I want it!

Bigger Sausage

From my inbox this morning:

Yo dude

You Love Big tits? But Girls love big ramrod!

If you don't have one - GET ONE!

Not only a larger sausage will make you feel better, it will make you look better!

Get a months supply and see the difference!

No Pumps! No Surgery! No Exercises!

100% Guaranteed Safe Results Or Your Money Back!

Sigh.

New Mass Effect Video

BioWare has posted a new video that reveals some cool details about the upcoming Mass Effect. For instance, the combat system looks pretty robust and action-packed. And, boy, are those eyeballs reflective! Yes, this is the game that will sell me on the X360.

Mission in Snowdriftland

Nintendo is on a roll...with a snowball. Check out Mission in Snowdriftland, a winter-themed web game that seems to come out of nowhere. I love the purple protoplasm dude with glasses!

Hilariious

An entire site devoted to things broken by flying Wii remotes! TV's, windows, glasses...you name it. Fantastic.

Thanks to Gary for link!

Wii Play

And you thought Wii tennis was fun?

This is from Wii Play, a game already out in Japan. (According to IGN, it shipped with an extra remote, for multiplayer.) Ping pong, billiards, air hockey, tanks, a whole bunch of stuff. When can Wii get our hands on this, Nintendo?!?

Wee Wii Reviews

The Wii continues to bring the good grin fun times. Not only am I trading Miis with my friend Mark, but I'm enjoying the hell out of some Zelda. Here are remarks on some of the other launch titles that I've played/got my hands on:

Rayman Raving Rabbids: Believe the reviews. This is NOT a Rayman game. It is a collection of mini-games -- which range from so-so to fun -- starring bizarre rabbit creatures. The rabbits themselves are hilarious: half-homicidal/half-retarded fuzzballs with great animations and SFX. Haven't played much of the game, but it's frustrating that you must unlock the mini-games in single-player before you can play them in multi-player. (Not good for parties!) The mini-games themselves use the Wii controls to varying degrees of success. Coolest by far are the on-rails "plunger shooting" levels, which combine the best aspects of the game (funny characters with pick-up-and-play game design) for smiles galore. Raving Rabbids is fast food, albeit high quality fast food. Nice to look at, fun to play, a good showcase for the Wii...ultimately forgettable.

Excite Truck: TOTALLY fun. The driving is a cartoony, physics-bending experience, which makes the decision to depict the trucks realistically all the more bizarre. But whatever. Go wild with insane jumps, tricks and turns. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but work great. Be warned: this game is HARD. Like, even the early levels are tough. Much better in multiplayer, where the odds are smoothed out. Here is an awesome design decision: the truck that comes in first doesn't always win the race. Players collect stars as they go through the track, by performing tricks, good jumps, etc. Granted, you get a lot of stars for coming in first, but if you can accumulate more by racing well, you can still win. Makes for a real challenge that balances skill with speed.

Trauma Center Second Opinion: I did not play this game on the DS, but I can see how it would work perfectly with that platform. It also works great on the Wii. This is a hospital/surgery sim with a soap opera storyline. The oh-so Japanese narrative hysterics are bad to the point of entertaining. As for gameplay, you will be surprised how quickly you can get into it. The game is really just an exercise in muscle memory and sequence memorization; the surgery theme is only a motif. (The gameplay mechanic could easily work with cooking, or construction, or manufacturing radioactive isotopes, whatever.) The fun comes in when you have to remember complicated sequences while working against the clock (stressful!), all while using the Wii remote to slice, move, suture, etc. Our group was entertained for hours. But I wouldn't buy this game. Note: the graphics are poor.

DBZ Tenkaichi 2: Wow. This game is good. It feels like you are playing a DBZ episode. The graphics are solid and the character selection (over 100 characters) is insane. If you're a DBZ fan, you will LOVE this. The Wii controls are a bit wonky, and I assume this is a result of multi-platform development. (You can also play the game with the retro controller.) I've played previous DBZ fighting games, most of which were mediocre to decent, but this one really captures the kinetic vibe of the show. I may just pick this one up.

Well, back to Zelda. And Red Steel. (I still stand by my assertion that this game is not as bad as everyone claims it is. Grab a bargain copy when you can. I hear a sequel is on the way.) Oh, and let's not forget Wii Sports -- make sure you try the training mode in bowling! You can try to knock down 100 pins at once!

PS3 vs. Wii

Last week, the Wall Street Journal weighed in on the Sony vs. Nintendo debate, and came up with a shocking realization: "For mainstream users, who lack the skill or patience or interest for complex videogames, the Wii is the way to go. For hard-core gamers, the PS3 will be the one you want, but only if you are willing to part with a lot of money."

Donk!

There's a beer I tried over Thanksgiving from Belgium called Corsendonk. It was delicious! Beer Advocate gives it a good score. Silly name, though!

When Game Ads Go Bad

This hilarious series of bad game ads is brought to you by writer Scott Sharkey and the folks at 1up. My favorite is the tagline for Crossfire on the Genesis: "Crash Them To Pieces!"

Wii Are Online (Sort Of)

On Sunday night, I tried to get my Wii online. It easily found my router (Linksys), but could not connect to the Internet. I followed Nintendo's support suggestion, and upgraded the router's firmware last night. (Like I know what the fuck that means.) Eureka! It worked. The Wii found that pesky Internet and started downloading system updates. Gee, that download was slow...oops, Wii have lost the connection. Try again later, please!

Apparently, Nintendo's servers are getting crushed by traffic. Couldn't they have seen this coming?

Wii Deliver(s)!

The Nintendo hype machine promised to deliver an awesome gaming experience for everyone, and from what I can tell, they are positioned to do just that.

I got my hands on a delicious new Wii (thanks, Danny!) over the holiday wii-kend, and in one word: AWESOME. Even though I have been to multiple gaming conventions over the past year, I never actually got to play the Wii until Thanksgiving Day. Needless to say, it is everything that you have already read in countless blogs and magazines: intuitive, fun, revolutionary, simple, amazing. And don't just take my word for it; my in-laws had a blast playing Wii Tennis and Wii Bowling, and they wouldn't know the difference between an Octorok and a Goomba! Even my mom bowled a strike in Wii Bowling on her first try.

This goes a long way towards proving that an unthreatening interface, combined with elegant desgin, can bring new people into the gaming fold. Isn't this precisely what Nintendo has been talking about? I was skeptical at first, but now that I've played it, I'm a beliiver.

Here are some thoughts about the games I've tried:

Zelda: You just can't improve on the perfect formula, and this is both a good and bad thing. Twilight Princess does justice to its esteemed pedigree, making it a must-buy. If I were to quibble with anything here, it's that the game doesn't really take much advantage of the new controller. This is probably explained by the fact that the title was originally developed for the Gamecube, and is in fact coming out for that platform early next year. So I can't imagine the headaches if Nintendo really went full tilt with the Wiimote interface. But that aside, this game is just superb. Perfect controls (the aiming works great), awesome story (despite the familiar light/dark world hokum), lush graphics (enough bloom lighting already!) and that quintessential Nintendo magic -- Zelda has it all and then some.

Wii Sports: The best launch title ever? Not only is this game a great showcase for the Wii controller, but it does an amazing job of bringing new gamers to the proverbial table. Sure, baseball is way too simple, but does my mother-in-law want to worry about complicated fielding maneuvers? (The game performs these automatically.) Even boxing, which has been getting some lukewarm response, is really fun despite the unreliable controls. The true standouts are bowling and tennis, the latter of which is so much fun, you could probably play it for hours with your friends. I can't even imagine simultaneous four-player matches! You could OD on the Wii madness.

Red Steel: I've only played a little bit of Red Steel, but I enjoyed it. Yes, the controls are a bit goofy. But I look at it as a good start. Frankly, FPS games have become so cookie-cutter that I'm just pleased to try something different. The real challenge is preventing arm fatigue, something I've also heard about in response to Call of Duty. Even though your character in Red Steel probably looks like a total nutjob as he flails his gun hand around all over the damn place, the game is still a good time experience. Ubisoft, as usual, delivers top-notch production value and some really great (if only half-realized) ideas. I look forward to seeing this genre evolve on the Wii in the next six months or so.

That's it for now!

Sony: Uh-Oh

Well, the New York Times is decidedly underwowed by the PS3.

Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world’s most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world’s most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other.

You have to take complaints about the online service -- which has just launched and is free -- with a grain of salt. But the games are another matter. On the tube, G4's X-Play program gives the PS3 launch titles lukewarm to subpar reviews, while the Wii launch titles recieve nearly universal praise.

Sure, I'm a Nintendo loyalist, but I think Nintendo is offering a very different product than either Sony or Microsoft. That said, it seems like the PS3 will have an uphill battle through 2007 if it hopes to beat out the 360 in North America.

Pii.U.

Well, no Wii for this guy.

I'm disappointed, but I can't say that I'm too upset. I know I'll be able to get one eventually. If nothing else, I'm pissed at Sony, Nintendo and the retailers for calling this thing a "launch". If I can't have a reasonable expectation of getting your product without having to get up at 4 am or placing myself in a situation that might get me shot, your product really isn't available, now, is it?

(Go into Target and check out the lovely Wii display, which reminds consumers how Nintendo's new console is THE hot item for Christmas! Then look at the empty display case -- tumbleweed -- and wonder what the fuck they are smoking.)

Footnote: what a stupid, greedy, consumerist bunch Wii are. Even more depressing that I'm a part of it. Can I have my console, now?

The Great Beyond

I had the pleasure of seeing Kid Beyond open up for Imogen Heap last night at the Tabernacle (thanks, Benjy!). You ought to check this guy out. He builds songs, via a sampler, in realtime on stage -- using only his voice. And the guy is like the best beatboxer I have ever seen. Check him out on YouTube, sideways!


As for a gamer connection, Kid Beyond actually performed some of the vocals on Guitar Hero II.

Cartoon Network Korea

Cartoon Network is live in Korea!


From the release:

Launched on November 11, 2006, Cartoon Network is a 24-hour kids' multi-genre entertainment network in Korea which brings together a unique mix of new and recognized programming to Korean kids and their families. Languaged in Korean, the Network provides a diverse mix of quality content drawn from acclaimed production companies from around the world including Japan, Korea and Cartoon Network's own library -- the world's largest cartoon library consisting of more than 14,000 Warner Bros., MGM, Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Originals series and shorts. Cartoon Network is a joint venture between Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and JoongAng Ilbo (JAI).

Good thing the Koreans like them some MMOs!