new psp and my thoughts on gaming now.

Been fooling around with my new PSP lite. Im pretty pleased so far. Haven't had the chance to use the TV out yet since Im going to get those cables on Tuesday but everything is pretty shiny. The PSP like the DS just seems more fluid for me than the home consoles. I guess it's a lot about the time you have to spend gaming. Just this morning I put in Darkstalkers and blew through the arcade mode in twenty minutes. It was fun, short and I won't mind doing it again. Better than fifty odd hours blasting repetivite gangsters on a home console for sure. It seems most of my enjoyment is nostalgia driven as my list for psp games are basically all collections of eighties games and loco roco. And Im not even participating in the thriving homebrew scene for the PSP. And then on Xbox I basically just play the arcade games from my youth. Like Worms which was fine when it was on a 100 SNES and has no reason to need the power of the 400 360 Im playing it on now minus being online. Should Game companies be worried that more and more 'casual' games take up our time? You could go Nintendo's route and go mini game crazy but that might be taking it to far. I havent hit the power button on my Wii since March when I finished Super Paper Mario. That probably makes all of you scrounging to get one pretty mad. I love the Wii but refuse to play what's being released for it at the moment. With success hopefully there will still be some hardcore games coming our way. They don't have to be epic, just not made for four year olds. Don't get me wrong. There's still great original games coming out. Bioshock just last week blew me away and Im gearing up for Eternal Sonata. We just need a little more freshness. And a little less rehash. O.k. Done ranting. Anyone want to play Worms?

reasons ill be broke this year.

unnanounced lucky creature projects.
new psp that i must own.
then i must buy capcom collections, and loco roco,
ncaa 08 on tuesday!,
eternal sonata,
bsg season 3
bsg rzr,
serenity collectors edition,
league of extraordinary gentleman black dossier,
The orc king by r.a. salvatore,
super mario galaxy,
college freaking football,
movies,
ds9 figures,
oh man, ive got to drop a geekdom. or two.

I want Eternal Sonata

How could I not? Cel Shaded Graphics. Japanese Stylings, Chopin, It's not a shooter, It's beautiful. with this and Blue Dragon coming out the 360 may finally get some rpg love.

Heading out in a few...

We're heading out to Chicago in just a few hours so Im going to get some sleep. Hopefully the weather holds and we will have nice driving conditions all weekend. If your in Milwaukee for the MGC, I'll be the one wearing the Mega Man shirt and probably either playing pinball or scouring old Genesis carts. See you Monday.

Are you kidding me?

This is a screenshot of Dowdy Ficklen Stadium from the game NCAA 08. Wow. do you know how many saturdays I sat there? This is the stadium to a 100 percentile. you can even see the middle school behind the scoreboard. I can't wait to see what else the've included. Hopefully the canon goes off after we score. This get's me so pumped.

Is the Wii to become the home for light gun games?

Sega announced today that they are bringing their arcade light gun Ghost Squad game to the Wii. Makes sense. With the Wii controller all you have to do is point and shoot, much like those old arcade games. Anyone want to wager we will see a nintendo zapper before too long? I mean Duck Hunt is still one of the most requested virtual console games. House of the Dead would play better on the wii than any of it's previous home conversions. I could pony up money for some Zombie killing fun. Bring on Time Crisis, Operation Wolf and err Hogan's Alley. I'm sold.

Cross BronX, Gears of War

No new comics today. I did pick up the Cross Bronx Limited series by Michael Avon Oeming and Ivan Brandon and just got through the first issue. It's pretty good crime story so far and I love the art.
Gears of War is as good as everyone says it is. It's pretty addictive in its nature as well. I played my first online match today but I'm not really good enough to be playing agaisnt anyone else right now. I got killed pretty quickly. I really am enjoying the single player and am probably about a 1/3rd of the way through it. It's not often that anything lives up to hype, but so far I've got to say Gears does indeed.

Strange..

so a whole weekend of March Madness has gone by and ive watched almost no basketball. that's just weird. I've been distracted I guess.
It's funny I got the 360 in order to play all those fancy looking hd games and what am i playing? Texas Hold Em poker over live. That's pretty ridiculous. The cool thing is they released the old arcade Turtles game and I'm going to dowload that tommorow. Oh how I miss these huge machines. There was one for The simpsons, X-men and this one. Some of the best quarter wasters ever.

got a 360

so i bit the bullet got a 360. will get online with it tommorow. my gamertag is of course luckycreature. so if you know me add me as a friend please. Cant believe i gave microsoft the money. oh well all im doing right now and probably for a while is playing demos. anyone reccomend any good ones?

ughh, time to bash sony, again

Look. I wish things were different. I really really do. I have nothing against the Playstation 3. In fact i think it makes pretty pictures, the thing is just too damn expensive and there's really not that much to play on it. What I'm hating is Sony itself. The european market is now getting a butchered PS3 that has no backwards compatibitly. If i was in europe id import an american one today. Heck there's ten sitting at my Target. Send me a 1,000 dollars and ill air ship it to you tommorow. How do you promise something and then rip it out because your not selling so many of your units you thought you would? And if you do take out features, then don't you have a responsibilty to your consumer and lower the price?
And don't even get me started on the psp. I kinda want one if for nothing else all the retro compilations on it, but when they hell are you going to drop your price? The DS is killing the psp worldwide and what's sony doing about it? Hiring advertisers to play on game message boards acting like fans of the system and making really bad rap videos about how cool it is too own.
Sony, if you dont want to end up like Sega, SNK, Panasonic, 3DO, and Atari then fire some people and get it together. Of course with all the money your movie studios rake in for you it will probably be years before you have to file the Japanese Version of chapter 11. But keep acting like king of the hill and certainly you'll fall off your perch.

first snow ruminations

we got our first real storm here over the night. I really hate driving in this stuff. I'm just not able to not squeeze the steering wheel so tight that my hand starts to hurt. I saw 7 PS3's in Target today. that's funny. Ended up getting a Insignia 27" lcd. its very pretty and bright. Ice hockey is blinding on it. Been watching some recently on dvd movies. Praire Home Companion and Mirror Mask. The former is o.k. but not great, the latter is a visual treat, but has that very Gaiamesque quality that you either like or hate. Got Miami Vice to watch in the snowstorm. I've been listening to Sleater Kinney lately. Where have all the good female fronted bands gone? In a moment i will be bundling up and going out for a snow lunch. maybe chinese?

Microsoft to buy capcom? woah nelly

O.k. so when Microsoft bought Rare from Nintendo we knew they were serious about gaming but now there's this nasty rumour their buying Capcom????? It makes sense from Microsofts point of view as they have been tryng to sell there name in Japan for the past ten years, but one has to wonder how many billions they will have to shell out for the house that made, mega man, street fighter, viewtiful joe, resident evil, ghost n goblins, okami, darkstalkers( this list goes on forever.) My only thought is why would Capcom agree to a foreign buyer? True most of the original talent has left the company but there is a huge resource of people there that can carry them for a long time to come. If this is true which I'm sure Bill Gates checkbook will try to make it sure, I will have no choice (hell im already saving for it) but to make my house a two console place and buy a 360. I mean if street fighter 4 or viewtiful joe 3 ever are announced, what is a fanboy to do.
current arms race.
Xbox 360 many checks for agressiveness, marketing.
Nintendo wii, pure joy.
Sony PS3. Why the hell would i buy that thing for? Another edition of madden? oh yeah im supposed to want a blue ray player. please but no thank you.

Children of Men, Alfonso Curaon's latest is tight.

Just got back from seeing Children of Men a dark and not distant at all future, where people stopped having babies. The Human race went infertile. Meanwhile the world continued to go to hell as we are currently and countries like Great Britain shut their borders and started hunting down illegal aliens and detaining them in refugee camps. This isn't so far off that it's science fiction and it makes a nice backdrop for this piece which is really a well done action movie about a quest to save the worlds first baby in 20 some years. A nice thrill ride and a film that stands on it's own in style.
I give the movie an A and it should do well in the normally bleak January.

On another note I get the feeling the director has played Gears of War. Unfortanetly i couldn't find a shot of the refugee camp online and the battle scenes that take place there but compare the color scheme and explosions of the two shots below. When the bullets start flying at the end of the movie and Clive Owen is ducking for cover anywhere he can, I just kept seeing Gears of War, and I haven't even played the thing yet. We are almost to the point where film is borrowing more from games then games from film. still about ten years off but were almost there. And then the question will be who raises the bar first. Cinema or the Games industry?

the end of the year.

top 5 movies.
the departed.
the fountain.
science of sleep.
the prestige.
the proposition.

worst movie
the illusionist.

good new albums.
owen, tilly and the wall, mark schwaber.

good comics
civil war, moon knight, fell, loveless.

neato game things.
nintendo wii.
legend of zelda twilight princess.
sneak king.

heres to a great geek year.

lucky creature is ready to roll in 2007.

inital holiday game impressions

we had our christmas today and i racked up on the wii games.
initial quick impressions

marvel ultimate alliance. a comic geeks dream. my team right now. capt america, moon knight, spiderman, and maybe iron man.

tony hawk downhill jam. feels rushed, tracks are pretty quick and then your done. no sense of urgency. will probably beat pretty quickly.

rayman raving rabbids. the best game for me and jess to play together. its got alot of charm, and will probably keep us sharing the controller more than anything else.

also got jess trauma center for the wii and elite beat agents for the ds.
trauma center oozes style, looks pretty good and elite beat agents looks like its going be jess's favorite in a while.

Pretty great wii-load and then theres all the other stuff we gave each other. so much fun. how will i get anything done?

first ps3 hands on Motorstorm.

First I need to preface this by saying that I've been a firm believer in Nintendo's gameplay over graphics camp all year long. Second I do think 600 is too much when I want a games console, not the supercomputer and blue ray player that Sony is offering.
So today on my break at work I wandered over to Target hoping to get my hands on the wii, and there sat the PS3.
Motorstorm was the only thing I had time to try and just let's get this out of the way. Dirt racing has never looked so frakking good. It really has a great sense of speed and the cars handle very well. There were a few times I flew off the cliff, but never in a cheap way. Each time I kinda knew what I had done wrong driving and so I got better the longer I played. The laps, are just wow. One lap was like 3 minutes real time. That's 3 minutes of new terrain with no slowdown or framrate loading problems. Very impressive. The Bikes handle a lot differently than the cars which they should and offer a better sense of speed. Gamers were upset that Sony got rid of the rumble and I was surprised to notice how I didn't miss it at all during this game. In fact because my hands were not shaking all my exterior input was coming from the screen, and it actually felt more immersive this way. It may prove that the rumble was actually taking away from our game experiences but we will see how that holds up in First Person shooters which really rely on the technology. From my first impressions of about twenty minutes of gameplay, I've got to say I'm impressed with the PS3 and Motorstorm in particular. I can't imagine what games on the PS3 will look like once developers figure out how to code for it. As much as Sony has tried to botch this thing, they may still have one awesome gaming system on their hands.
Now if only if the average consumer could afford it.

lists.

wii in 13 days.
now playing, stta on the ds, alladin on the genesis
now reading. road of the patriarch, by r.a. salvatore, goldfish by brian michael bendis.
just watched derailed, B plus.
heroes, lost, battlestar galactica., jericho, boston legal, the five shows i'm watching on a regular basis.
music. what are listening to? i need something new, unheard of.

Star Trek Tatical Assault early impressions.

Just got home, played the first stage of Star Trek: Tatical Assault and got to say so far im pretty pleased. the graphics are o.k. for the DS which really doesnt do 3-d that well. and the music and space strategy is very Star Trek Even has Shatner doing voice work. Can't wait to get further into it and unlock the klignon missions. Kaplah!

burger king enters the gaming business?

1st off let me admit, I love the burger king mascot. He's so creepy and just the right amount of odd that he does what every good mascot should do. Make you uneasy.
I havent set foot inside a Burger king in years. but that will change come Nov 19th as they are releasing three Xbox 360 games for just $ 4 each. I don't have a 360 yet but come on three games starring the King for $4 each. sign me up.
The games are Pocket Bike Racer a take on Mario Kart, starring the king, and some meat and fries. On Bikes!
There's also Big Bumpin, which is a bumper car game! A BUMPER CAR GAME?
And then what's got to be the best one,
Sneak King

Yeah. you've seen the commercials where the King stalks people. Now you can play it. WOW.
I'm sure these games will be horrid, but come on people. Sneak KING. Your Mission to deliver Burger king food to hungry people. by sneaking up on them. Awesome.

witness gaming history

tommorow morning in nyc nintendo holds a press conference. it's really unique that gamers are so ready for this, and the unsuspecting mass public is kind of clueless right now. come this christmas it seems they won't be able to ignore it. It so reminds me of the 8-bit days, when there was this newness to video games. and there was this upbeat attitude about the whole experience.

It's so funny as well that thousands( maybe millions by some reports) of fanboys(myself included) just spent the past hour or so hitting refresh on our computers reading a supposed live blog from the Japanese press event. The event actually starts in a few hours. Amazing in this technological day and age, we can't figure out the difference in time zone. we all got pawned, and yeah i hate that word, but we did. see you tommorow or maybe tonight if we now have our timeline straight.