Meanwhile, worthless content deemed overpriced..

New!..? Gears of War Cog Tag location videos were released today on the XBL Marketplace for the price of 100 points per level. Thx Brady Games.

Ok, so let me get this straight.

We are talking about videos with information that is easily and cheaply(see also: free) available online.

Videos nobody should even have interest in buying?

Other than free, what is the value of worthless?

Another non-issue turned into the "OMG worst thing evr" by the typical angsty gamers that have become common place on the intertubes.

Sadly this time sponsored by Kotaku.

Meanwhile I haven't bought a real stratagy guide in years because of the same reasons. They are overpriced, and worthless.

My DS is happy..

I am working alot of doubles lately, and that means I have these long 1-2+ hours breaks of time where I have nothing to do.

So I picked up Pokemon: Diamond, and Final Fantasy VI yesterday.

FFVI is still the greatest game ever.. nothing to say there.

Meanwhile I haven't played a Pokemon game since shortly after Leaf Green came out. It's funny how people still think the fanbase is all kiddies. The games 1, 2 punch of collecting and building stronger pets has always made it a fantastic game for anybody that can get past the cartoony graphics.

I should still have 2 of my 3 GBA carts somwhere. Fun Times.

This weeks Pinball Action is...

I picked up Pinball FX before the problems with Eets: Chowdown got worked out, so right now I only have Pinball.

Basically it is just Pinball. They seemd to go for a straight uyp Pinball sim, and graphically it looks pretty convincing at times.

The three tables offer just enough fun to make this work the 10 bucks, but the game only manages to be a decent pinball emulation to play on your Xbox 360 for Achievements. Nothing specially really.

The demo for Eets convinced me to buy it, so I will come back with a short review after I play the full version for awhile.

Tetris Evolution?

Tetris Evolution is the worst Tetris I have ever played.

I honestly think this is a far inferior version than Tetris Worlds for Xbox.

There is so many little annoying things wrong with the game, that it is borderline unenjoyable. The first problem is the supposedly "evolved" features, lke having real video in the backgrounds. Sadly the vids are annoying, and repetitive, and not nearly as interesting as the "worlds" that constantly changed (errr evolved?) as you got better in the Xbox classic.

Meanwhile there is this odd problem I have with the harddrop being assigned to the up button. Meaning to soft drop you push down, and to hard drop you press up. I much rather have it attached to a button. Hard Drop on accident is a real annoyance.

Plus Tetris is better played on a D-pad, and the Xbox 360 has probably the worst D-pad ever.
Pretty much a pass. The only reason to buy into this version is for the unfriendly Achievements, or if you are just dying to play more Tetris online. I guess it is better than Bastet

OMG Teh MondayZ!

Monday is just a big ole video gamer news orgy sometimes, and I just wasn't around today to deal with it. I was stuck at work for 12+ hours.

Up first is a repeat of last weeks double header attempt on XBL.
This time with a pair of much more interesting games, “Eets: Chowdown” and “Pinball FX.” Hopefully I will spend some of the points I saved last week. These look like buys, but I only have 1300 points. Source: Gamerscoreblog

I picked up Tetris Evolution today to get my Arcade action for last week.

Also in the news today was a double header of Special Edition announcements.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma is apparently getting the treatment, but there isn't much information on what exactly the "Special" is for colectors. via Kotaku.

and the Bioshock LE looks too badass to pass up. I might just reserve that version tomarrow. Via Kotaku.

Rubber Ducky / VT Shooter Connection

Thats right, Rubber Duckies train your kids to be murderers.

The Smoking Gun is there.

Jacklash ... ..thats funny

So the term has been coined .. The back lash against Jack Thompson this week = Jacklash.

Lots going on. via Joystiq.

Meanwhile here he is. Knowing the facts about the VT shoote, and the lack of a connection to Video Games will make this video even more disturbing.

Undertow.. not the Tool Album

IGN has a "First Look" at an upcoming new XBLA title that looks promising.
An undersea 16 player Geometry Wars style controlled game that uses Battlefield style scoring. (territorial capture for points)

Sounds ambitious, and looks interesting.

Virtual Console Rodeo.

Game|Life - has a round up of every single upcomning Virtual Console game.
Check it out here.

What a nightmare for my wallet.

Actually yes... I do have this Nintendo Wallet.

Late to the Party

I might be a few months late to the party, but i've just started playing MGS: Portable Ops. So far it's your standard MGS.... which of course is excellent. This is going to keep me occupied while i'm waiting for Super Paper Mario.

Like Lunatic stated the arcade was somewhat of a miss this week, even though we got two games. I really like Super 3d Mini Golf, but It's not a priority buy this week.
My DLC this week was the Halo 2 maps. So far I'm fine with the $4.00 purchase, considering I didn't have to go through the irritating Microsoft Point purchasing process. Hang em' High(I mean Tombstone) is a blast online.

No video games found in shooters room

A quick update on the VT politics.

Story over at Joystiq.

I say we blame his lack of Video Games for the shooting.

Hate mail is funny

I will never understand why so many gamers seem so fucking miserable all the time.

I mean why keep being involved in a hobby that makes you so miserable all the time?

That said I often get attacked by these self righteous whiney pathetic bitches for not being a constant ball of hatred at the xbox.com forums.

Like this bitch, who has spent all morning talking about how he is getting rid of his Xbox 360, and followed that up with a bunch of pointless anti-ms rants.

He went so far as to send me personal hate mail filled with vauge baseless attacks.



That wasn't even the first one, here is another.



So I am not allowed to enjoy the product, and then go to the website for the product?
If I didn't like the product I would go buy something else, and go find another place to hang out. Sitting on forums bitching about something you hate all day is for trolls.

Trolling is pathetic.

Meanwhile he is just pissed because I made him look like a complete ass for posting a huge anti-Dead Rising rant and then following up later talking about how it is his favorite 360 game.

Congrats Sloppydrew for being the only one of the countless pathetic trolls to get his own Nb4L post. You little bitch.

VT.. and the politics of entertainment

School shootings are sadly a very political issue for gamers.

Becuase the hobby we enjoy often gets a huge part of the blame, and we often get portrayed as blood thristy freaks being trained to kill.

Jack Thompson gets his attention whore quota filled by exploiting tragedies such as the VT massacre by twisting and even making up "facts" in order to make himself seem like a relevant figure to interview on TV.

Basically here is a list of "headlines" for you.

Dissecting Jack's Lies via Kotaku

Jack Thompson on Hardball w/ Video via Kotaku

Washington Post writer talks about removal of Counter Stike/shooter connection. via Joystiq

Rush Limbaugh Doesn't blame games, or guns.. ? via Joystiq

Dr. Phill blames Games. Via gamepoitics.com

As always you can get a heavy dose of this type of information from Gamepolitics.com

Be informed about your life and hobbies, and inform others.

I Love Punch Out!!!

Apparently now available for the wii. I actually picked up Animal Crossing for the Gamecube based somewhat on the chances of getting to play this classic again. Too bad that never happened. They made it nearly impossible to obtain. I also bought the Snes version at one point, and found out I had a bad battery/cart. It would crash and delete my games often.

Basically this is going to be a day one VC purchase for me when I get my wii. Hopefully really soon. I am dying to play about 3 big games on the wii right now, and a handfull of VC games. IGN has a review of the game.

Oh well... XBLA Double MISS

It was bound to happen eventually.

I have to say Gyruss is pretty much everything that is wrong with the coin-op classic side of the XBLA. The horribly outdated control set up is likely perfectly accurate to thew classic, but sucks all the fun out of the game. Instead of letting you spin around the "tube", you get stopped on the sides and have to reverse your direction to use the top half of the screen. Also the game features the typical screen size issues. Basically this was a no buy instantly.
BTW checkout the artiest of that Gyruss picture here.

Minigolf was close, but I just didn't really get into it, and the problems with this developer were enough to make me save my points.

Meanwhile I spent all morning addicted to Boom Boom Rocket. I cannot believe how much I am playing this game.

Finally.. Old Spice finished Level 3

I actually thought maybe I ran out of time.

I probably would have if they didn't extend the deadline.


I actually earned far more than 1,500 points, but they don't count if I am not online, and I almost never am.

I won Contra (I own it already), and the gamerpic.. neat.

8th week of arcade action in a row

Amazing.

In the last 7 weeks of arcade games, I have bought all of them, and this week we get a double feature.

The Classic "tube" shooter Gyruss for 400 points.
and
And from the makers of Assault Heroes 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures. for 800 points.
I am not quite "sold" on either yet, but I can't imagine I won't buy one or the otehr at least.

The XBLA is very much on track right now.

Advance War Fighter 2

I finally picked up GRAW2.
Only reason I put off buying the game is I won't be able to play it much online, and I always thought of it as mostly an online experince.

So far I am really glad I bought it. Pretty much everything is a notch better than last time, and I really enjoy the new RB camera function, specially when I am looking through my teamates cameras.

Good Times.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Review

Loved it.
I can't imagine fans of the show not loving it.

Pretty much anybody with a semi-demented sense of humor should be blown away by the spectacular opening sequence that will probably be the topic of conversation all day tomorrow at work.

Fully lived up to all my expectations as a fan, but honestly the opening was one step over borderline genius. I hear they give away free coconuts when you cross that border.

I walked out of the theater with a strong strong desire to buy the Soundtrack ASAP.
Oh and I was sober. Despite the ridiculous amount of people pushing the "stoner" cliches in so many of the reviews.

Boom Boom Rocket and Luxor 2

I really don't know what happend. I remember that one day in the past I was really upset with the arcade.. really really pissy about the whole thing, and then non-stop weekly games come out that end up getting purchased no matter how interested I was in them originally.

Hell.. I was pretty outspoken about how much I (usually) hate ryhthm games. I even had to look up the proper spelling for rhythm multiple times.

Somehow BBR sucked me in. Some of it was curiousity for the music, because I actually love Beethoven alot, and didn't have to look up the proper spelling of his name. Some of it was just getting sucked into the flashing graphics, and well.. I liked it. I have to say.. I am glad I got it.

Follow that up with the "just different" enough to be slightly better than Zuma game Luxor 2, and you have a running streak of arcade games going back for well over a month now. 7 weeks actually.

Amazing.

Starving Artist

So the new Downloadable content for Guitar Hero II has caused a massive bitch fest across the intertubes.

Ground Zero for that seems to be Major Nelson's Blog. Currently sitting at 923 comments, it is quickly catching up to the number one post ever on that blog. Although I think number one was likely during Xbox live/forums downtime, meaning people had nowhere else to post.

Joystiq's interview with MN about the content also got quite alot of diggs.

Really I think Penny Arcade kind of summed up the anger best.

The ability to extend Guitar Hero with downloadable songs was main reason I made the investment in the next-gen version. Investment is the right word, too: I choked down that ninety dollars with a lot of twisting and full-body spasms. It was like an anaconda swallowing a sheep. But the idea that I'd be able to snag expansions and classic tracks straight over the wire was some comfort.

See the problem is the Xbox 360 version of this game was bought because people were expecting to really enjoy the DLC content. They waited for the 360 version, and many got a new guitar for the 360 because they wanted to be able to get fresh new tracks along with some classics. So while they "won't" buy the music, the investment in time and money they already spent feels like a burn since this feature of the product is priced so unreasonable high.

So while they might not like it, and won't buy it, they still get screwed.

What is Parepin?

Did you know a new Nine Inch Nails album was coming out shortly? You can hear it here.

Meanwhile, this one comes fully loaded with an odd viral marketing campaign. Us Xbox/Halo fans aren't new to viral marketing at all, although Trent doesn't want you to feel like this is clever marketing. It is part of the experince. The entrie project reminds me of the "Outside" project David Bowie never finished. Meanwhile the entire nine inch nails collection is "enhanced" by little gimmics that kind of add to the fans desire to own it all.

I eat this stuff up. I am just glad to hear Trent is "inspired".

Should I like this more?

Known everwhere else as "S.P.L.", Killzone is a competent Action flick, with a decent story. There is not much to hate here, but I didn't feel like it was the "must see" cult classic hit that it seems to get lots of hype for. Other than the movie being pretty clean cut and filled with icons of the genre, I just can't figure out why this movie is such a big hit. I think in some ways the clean cut, almost hollywood nature of the flick is probably what turned me off. The movie almost seems like it has no soul, no grit under it's teeth. Basically it is too "clean". Like a rock album pro-tooled up to sound perfect, this movie didn't leave any lasting impact on me. The story would have fit well in an episode of the Shield, and the action bits weren't terribly entertaining.

I enjoyed it, but it left zero lasting fondness. I wouldn't show it to friends.

Too much of a good thing?

Grindhouse was fantastic. 3 hours and 12 mins of movie for only $4 can't be beat.

I love both of the directors invovled, and talking with some locals here in OKC I have found alot of people around here don't. More likely than not it seems people either hate QT movies, or love them. RR's movies aren't as clear cut. Alot of people here loved Desperado, and Dusk till Dawk.

Meanwhile I heard the same two reasons for not going to see this movie over and over. The Gun leg creeped alot of people out, and alot of people don't want to be in a theater for 3+ hours.

Oddly enough the gun leg is only a really short part of the movie.
Apparently the movie's Easter weekend opening didn't do very well.

DVD Sales should be good though. Hell if they split the movies up and add footage, I would probably go see Death Proof again.

Armored Core 4 Demo ..

The Good: The Intro movie is FANTASTIC. In fact.. it is a must see for any fellow mech whores out there. Simply awesome.

The Bad: Pretty much everything else is mediocre. I might have even purchased this game if I didn't play the demo.

The Fugly: The levels... are just bad. I can't explain it, but everything seems to look like last gen gemoetry with next gen filters, or something to that effect.

Basically a Must see! intro movie on the demo, a big ole pass on the retail game.
You could just watch it on Youtube here.

The Human Cost.. lmfao

Immigration: The Human Cost

Um.. Sublime

I was bored so I downloaded Sublime from the Xbox 360 video marketplace.
I could pretty much sum this movie review up with "don't bother".

Then again, thats pretty much how all my movie reviews would go. They are either worth your time if your into a certain style of movie... or not.

In this case you should probably just do yourself a favor and go watch Jacob's Ladder or Vanilla Sky (again?).

The movie basically has very little to say of importance, and is one long somewhat unoriginal but seemingly "clever" idea that takes way too long to express. The first 100 mins of the movie is basically a stupid look into a stereotypical white middle aged male's fantasy/nightmare. The ending few mins are a tad more interesting, but the payoff really isn't worth the long wait.

Also, don't let the sexy DVD box art fool you. Just say no.

Try Not to Smile

PG rated 300 trailer.

Funny video if you have seen this trailer 301 times like I have.
BTW, the song is "Just Like You Imagined" by Nine Inch Nails. I am sure somebody didn't know.

This Weeks Egyptian Action is....

This weeks arcade game is Luxor 2 for 800 points.
I don't think I have much interest in yet another likely mediocre puzzle game, specially one very similar to a game I already own, Zuma. I don't like the price much either. Maybe it will suprise me like Jetpac.

The achievements are here, for the impatient whores. (you know who you are)
BTW, the picture is the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas getting tagged by lightning.

April Movie Madness!!

It is seriously nerd heaven this month at the movies.

This weekend is the big Tarantino/Rodriguez exploitation double feature Grindhouse

The following weekend is the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The movie from the terrorist that caused the Boston Light Bright Terror Scare Event!. Never forget 1/31/07!

Then the following weekend "from the makers of Shawn of the Dead" Hot Fuzz The trailer already has me laughing.

One Month Left for Original Diamond Card Owners.

Last month to try to do something with your complete worthless Diamond cards.

Xbox Live Diamond.com

I got mine in the original shipment, complete with "trhu" typo, and my old Schitzocore tag.

Lost Planet ... Finally

I put off buying this game untill now because I was lacking funds. Now I am basically only lacking free time.

So far I am enjoying it, although my wishes for another Gears calibur killer app were a tad off target. There is a tangible level of lacking detail work that leaves parts of the game feeling not as polished as it could be. Including (so far) a really cheesy cliché story and pretty bad dialog.

Graphics are amazing though, and the gameplay keeps me entertained. Plus I am a huge mech whore.