Insanity!

So the Xbox 360 is finally here. Whoopie. Woohoo. Huzzah. So, are all of those who actually got one happy with your $400+ purchase? If not, you should feel "lucky" that you were actually able to get one. You should also thank the stars that you weren't robbed. Of course, if you're a rich bastard, you don't have to worry about such things and just buy it off eBay.

However, if you were an intelligent person, you'd at least wait until the PlayStation 3 launches and then buy an Xbox 360 at a lower price. I bet you that the games would no longer be $60 by that time too.

On the other hand, the PS3 should be pretty sweet. I mean c'mon, aren't you just dying to play games that you've haven't played since the days of the PS1? This time they're prettier. Oooooohhh.. Pretty bump mapping, sharp textures, the curves of the hundred million polygons... I just can't wait for new gripping styles of gameplay like what MGS4 will offer. Surely it won't be like MGS1, MGS2, or MGS3. Let's hope it plays like MGA!!! That's worth the $450+ price of the console.

Me personally, I'm waiting for Nintendo. Sure, I have absolutely no idea what the console offers. Other than a remote control wand. Sure as hell would make Star Wars or Harry Potter games more fun. Well, okay... just the Star Wars games.

All in all, I'm sure Microsoft is damn happy with their launch. But hey, if you're dying to get your hands on an Xbox 360 this Christmas. Why don't you import one from Japan? They'll have plenty of 360s to sell.

Hmm... let's call this segment: Insanity Part 2.

So I watched the video review for Perfect Dark Zero this morning. And I have to say... the game looks like garbage. Is it just me, or is the bump mapping for the game totally fucked up? I've seen better bump mapping in Halo 2. Freaking Halo 2! What a rush job. It'a also amazing how poorly rendered the hair is in PDZ. Especially when in their most recent games (Conker: Live and Uncut and Star Fox Adventures) hair and fur are rendered insanely. What went wrong? Who knows. All I know is that yet again Perfect Dark is just around to copy a previous FPS (this time it's Halo 2).

Finally, I'd just like to say that, for video reviews, it should be a requirement that the person demonstrating the game during the review should know how to play the game. The idea should be to show the game at its best and that cannot be done by watching a bumbling fool attempt to play the game. Oh, it'd also be nice if what is being talked about by the reviewer is shown on screen by the demonstrator. Just a thought...

Woohoo! My first epic item!

This afternoon, I looted my first epic item in WoW, The Eye of Shadow. Now I only need The Eye of Divinity and the Splinter of Nordrassil so I can form Benediction/Anathema. Needless to say, that staff kicks serious ass. More Molten Core tonight!

Quality - It's in the game

I recently started playing City of Villains. I wanted to try City of Heroes when it first came out, but decided that if I'm going to pay monthly for a game it had better be a Blizzard game. City of Villains, so far, is no World of WarCraft - it's not even close to the quality of WoW.

Blizzard has really spoiled the MMO genre with WoW. There are so many minute details in the game design that you wouldn't notice unless you played one of the competition's games. You know, something like not having to select the server where your character is located everytime you load the game. And on top of that, displaying how many characters you have created for a given server. Simple stuff like that makes WoW so much better than every other MMO.

This takes me back to a previous post on my blog. Blizzard takes their damn sweet time when developing a game. And it shows. Even as you read this, Microsoft is in a rush to get every launch title ready for the Nov. 22 release of the Xbox360. To them, it doesn't matter how good the game is, just get it out there.

Perfect Dark Zero is Microsoft's flagship title. I can tell you right now, it's gonna suck ass. No, I haven't seen it in person or played a demo. I've only seen the screenshots that you have seen. Why do I think it'll suck? One reason. Microsoft has not yet allowed game reviewer sites, like GameSpot or IGN, to even play a pre-final version of the game. If a title skips the reviewers before being released, the publisher is very concerned over the reviews the game will get. Movie companies do this all the time. Microsoft is scared shitless that the game will get bombed by reviewers and thus PDZ would only sell to the really stupid. Microsoft could always use an excuse like "we didn't have enough time to get the game to reviewers before launch because the games couldn't be pressed in time." That, of course, is a lie. Game companies will normally send the reviewers pre-final software (before mass production begins).

Perfect Dark Zero will sell, no doubt. People just have not learned why Nintendo got rid of Rare in the first place. Rare just sucks. Out of all the games they developed, only GoldenEye for the N64 is worth playing. Sure, Conker is a favorite of mine. But by no means is it a good game - it's just entertaining enough to overlook the huge flaws in gameplay design. Granted, I've said this many times before and I know people still don't believe me. Hey, it's your time and money. Waste it if you want. Just remember I told you so.

I've also been playing a lot of Mario Kart DS - offline and online. The mix of race tracks from the previous 4 Mario Kart games is nice, although it does show how crappy Mario Kart: Double Dash is compared to the rest. And while an online Battle mode will surely be missed, racing online is just too damn cool. It just sucks that there's no penalty for disconnecting from a race. It's something that must be fixed in future online games from Nintendo. And yes, Mario Kart DS is the best Mario Kart ever.

Backwards Crapability

Microsoft finally released the list of Xbox games that will initially be playable on the Xbox 360. Thank god that Catwoman is on that list and not crap like Panzer Dragoon Orta or Project Gotham Racing. (end sarcasim)

What the hell is this broken backwards compatibility shit? Either you have backwards compatibility, or you don't. You don't give us this half assed approach.

Trickling the supply of the Xbox 360 to generate demand is a lame approach too.

I'm waiting for Nintendo's Revolution and Sony's PS3. Screw the Xbox 360.

Disappointing news

Couple of disappointing news items today. Mario Kart DS' online mode does not support Battle Mode. That seriously sucks major ass. I was really looking forward to playing that mode online. Mario Kart racing is fun, but was never as much fun as battle mode.

The other news item is that the creator of Katamari Damacy may soon stop making games. Yet again, the bottom line is more important than actually making games that are fun.

As if it weren't cool enough

I just found this video of one guy's method for climbing to the 3rd Colossus' head. Very cool indeed. Now, where are the speed runs?

Thy next foe is...

I've been playing a lot of Shadow of the Colossus lately. We all know that this game kicks serious ass and is definitely the PS2's best game ever. My question is why don't more companies give development teams more time to perfect their games? Sony's had two gems this year, those being God of War and Shadow of the Colossus. Both games had a development time of roughly 4 years. Other companies, such as EA, have much shorter development cycles - roughly 6-9 months from concept to retail. Far too short in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong here... I'm all for making cheap games to sell to idiots. Those morons keep the industry out of the red. I just want more gems in a given year.

Exciting times

I can't wait for November 14th. Mario Kart goes online on that day. I've always enjoyed Mario Kart - not for it's racing but more for it's multiplayer battle mode. I remember that my friends and I would spend an entire day just playing the 4 battle mode stages in Mario Kart 64. Those were the days. Even though Mario Kart: Double Dash really disappointed me, I have high hopes for Mario Kart DS. I just wish that more of my friends owned a NintendoDS so that we could all join in on the fun. Oh well, I suppose that WoW and Civilization IV will have to suffice for now. They'll cave in and buy a NDS soon enough. =)

Come Nov. 14th, I challenge everyone to Mario Kart!!!

Especially you. Yes, you. You know who you are...

Slime Keychains & Civ IV

I recently received some cool promotional items for the upcoming RPG, Dragon Quest VIII. As we all know, the slime creature has been the unofficial mascot for Enix and Dragon Quest for many years. Along with getting the DQVIII demo for free, I got two slime keychains. Pretty cool huh? Funny thing... I've never finished a Dragon Quest game. I still want to get around to playing DQ7 though. All I need is roughly 100 free hours to do so.




I've spent the good part of this week trying to get my hands on the Civilization IV Collector's Edition. You're only supposed to get it by preordering it. After being told by the local EB and GameStop that I should have preordered it, I was hoping that I'd be able to grab one from Fry's. After 4 delayed shipments, Fry's got them in on Friday afternoon (first told me Wed. morning, then Thurs. afternoon, then Fri. morning). So after being informed by a good friend that Fry's actually got their shipment, I went straight to buy it after work. How is the game? So far, I'm enjoying it a lot. More so than Civ 3. I'm not so impressed with how little effort went into customer quality control for the packaging and hardware compatibility. The game's two discs are mislabeled - disc two is labeled as the play disc when it's actually disc one. I've read reports that Civ IV doesn't work on certain ATi video cards. I guess I'm lucky - no problems so far with my Radeon 9700PRO. Let's hope it stays that way.

Level 60!!!

Hooray! My priest just reached level 60!

GameBoy Micro and its Awesome Packaging

I recently bought yet another GameBoy to add to my collection. Yeah, I don't need one but so far I have nearly every GameBoy model designed (I'm only missing the GameBoy Pocket). Was the GBm worth buying? I'd have to say yes. The screen is freaking awesome - it's crisp and bright. None of that motion blurr that occurs on the PSP and to a certain extent on the GBA SP. Sure the screen is small, but text is amazingly easy to read. While I previously used my NintendoDS to play GBA games, I'm going to switch to the GBm purely because of how light the unit is and how nice the screen is.

The GBm also supports faceplate changing. I doubt that I'd be willing to shell out more money to make my unit unique. I'd only be interested in the upcoming Final Fantasy themed faceplates that Square-Enix will be releasing for promotional purposes to coincide with FF4 Advance. Let's hope they release those here in the U.S.

I'd also like to comment on Nintendo's awesome use of packaging (at least for the GBm Famicom edition). The GBm I bought is the version that celebrates Mario's 20th anniversary. As you can see, the entire box is designed around the dungeons of Super Mario Bros. It's very nostalgic and very cool looking, to say the least. I wish companies in America took the time to design stuff like this. Instead, we get some crappy iPod wanna-be box design. =(

I also admire the compact design of the box. Not so wasteful with space.




Below, you can see the face of the unit as well as the back. Note how small the GBm is relative to the GBA cartridges it plays. Freakishly tiny.



While importing the GBm was't cheap, I'm very happy with it. I have a GBm that is unique to most U.S. GBm owners and I get a nice retro feeling GBA unit. Here are some more pictures that illustrate how small the GBm is when compared to other handhelds and everyday items. For a quick example, the GBm unit can fit within the boundaries of the PSP's screen!

If you have any picture requests concerning the GBm's size, feel free to suggest it.

Happy Mario 20th!

NDS E3 2005 demos

Here is something real cool. You can download these NDS demos that were available via WiFi at this year's E3 and send them to your DS at home. I really want to see that Zelda trailer they have up.

Decisions, Decisions....

There's a lot of deciding for me to do. Shall I continue my career at EA? Or should I try for a smaller game company? Perhaps leave the game industry for a while and pursue a career at Google? As of right now, I'm leaning more towards Google. Of course, any permanent job is a good one at this time. Working at EA, I've found that I'm enjoying the games that I buy less - I'm finding that I'm still doing work related stuff at home. That's not fun at all. And while I understood that working in the game industry would cause me to enjoy the games less, I never thought it'd make me this unsatisfied to play. I do still want a career in the game industry. It's just that maybe I need some time away so that I can regenerate my game ideas, designs, as well as my fun factor. Where ever I wind up working, I'm going to make sure I work my hardest. Not to impress others, but to impress myself.

Still worried about the Revolution's controller?

If you're still worried that the controller will alienate Nintendo from the "mainstream" games, Nintendo did announce at the same time that there would be a "conventional controller shell" as demonstrated in the mock-up image that IGN made.
Note that IGN has clearly stated that the image is not the actual Nintendo design, but a mock up of what IGN believes the conventional controller shell could look like.

Hopefully both controller add-ons will be included in the box when you purchase the Revolution. It'd be such a waste.

I also hope that an add-on such as this conventional shell will give no excuse to companies that just like to port their games to everything possible. They can't say that "the controller just won't work gameplay-wise for [name of game]". If they do, they're just lazy bastards.

Now with the controller shown, Nintendo can finally show us some Revolution games! Woot! Here's hoping for Spaceworld.

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On an unrelated note, there's something fishy going on with Blogger. I can't upload images and sometimes they won't load along with the rest of the page. What's up with that?

Controller of the Future

Nintendo has finally talked about the Revolution's controller! Is it everything that everyone hoped? Sure looks like it... and more. (Once you get over the shock of how it looks.)



If you're unsure about how this controller will be used, check out this video posted on IGN. It will show you the vast potential that the controller provides.

Remember: "Never underestimate Nintendo."

Ain't that the cutest...

Here's the cutest thing I've seen this week. Taken from IGN.com. Isn't that a cute kitten? =)

Also, Burnout Revenge has been released. I really enjoyed it - the gameplay is a lot faster than Burnout 3. My personal best was 89% completion in roughly 3.5 work days. Not too shabby, imo.


On Sept. 13th Nintendo's mascot, Mario, celebrated his 20th anniversary. I'd like to wish Mario a happy 20th and give thanks for the countless hours of pure gaming bliss that his games have provided.

Just a Headache

I finally tried out Resident Evil 4 today. Not my kind of game. I still can't stand the way that all RE games are controlled. Why can't it control more like Mario 64 or Devil May Cry? Needless to say, the game gives me a motion sickness like headache. From what I did play, I could tell that it's easily the best of the RE series... it's just my kind of game. And I still wonder why, out of all names possible, did they choose Resident Evil. The series original name, Biohazard, makes perfect sense. I don't see why they couldn't choose a similar name for the NA release. (The title Biohazard, to my knowledge, is apparently copyrighted and cannot be used.)

Too many games

Thanksgiving is coming very soon and with the holiday comes a very important season for the games industry. There a lot of high quality games coming out this holiday. While this holiday would have been perfect with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I'll just have to settle with: Shadow of the Collossus, Burnout Revenge, We Love Katamari, Mario Kart DS, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Lunar: Dragon Song, Civilization IV, and more. Not to mention all the other games I bought and have yet to play.

I'm finally reaching WoW's max level of 60 with my priest. I'm trying to play less WoW and catch up with all the other games I started playing. I just never finished them because of WoW.

BTW, God of War is just too much fun. =)

Fractals and Electric Sheep

A cool looking screen saver has caught my eye. Electric Sheep at its heart is a fractal generator - and the results are just beautiful. Check it out!

Super Mario: Reloaded

I was shown something really cool, something done very well. It's a remake of the best scene from The Matrix: Reloaded - except Mario (Neo) fighting Luigis (Agent Smiths). Very cool to watch, and I highly recommended it. I don't know where it's originally from, but my friend from work has it posted on his website: thetravisty.com.