Thursday, PSN's bandwidth is going to take a beating

yeah, seems that bioshock has gone gold for the PS3 version. good for PS3 owners. bad for PS3 owners that have ALOT of games to buy in October. as someone who's laptop can't handle the bioshock demo and doesn't have a 360, (i was thinking of getting a $199 360, but please see max's 360 'death' story) i'll be glad to finally play bioshock. the demo is out Thursday. get ready if your internet isn't as fast as you'd like it to be.

PS: you can throw bees at people. Fucking bees. how the hell could you not like this game?!?!

J.

So I'm the Jerk!

For all my complaining about problems with my Xbox 360 after getting it back from repair, it seems like I’m the moron to blame. Dustin came over last night and brought his set of A/V cables, as he now has HDMI cables for his 360 now and doesn’t need the other ones. We hooked ‘em up to my Xbox, and the same problem occurred, audio, no video.

“Why don’t you check if there’s a switch on the cord?” my brilliant Maureen suggested.

EUREKA! OF COURSE THERE IS!

How could I forget the simple switch on the 360 A/V cable to switch between HDTV and regular TV?!? I don’t have an HDTV, so I flipped the switch and ta da! It worked!

Now I feel like a royal knuckleknob, and I paid for it by shipping out my non-broken cables, but with Dustin loaning me those cables for the foreseeable future at least I can play my 360 again. Still, you’d think that Xbox customer service would ask me about that switch when I described the problem as one of the first things to troubleshoot…

Anyway, we all played a boat load of Soul Calibur IV last night, so I’ll have some kinda impressions or thoughts up in the not too distant future. In short: it rocks.

Don’t forget that Xbox Live is offline today for Microsoft’s preparations for a “brand new Xbox experience!”

Max

DEMO-LITION: Making up for lost time

i've been busy with readjusting to living in the early half of the 21st century, getting back into school and trying to figure out how i'm going to buy all the games i want in the next month, so a few demos have come out since the first Demo-lition. so, here's the demos i've been checking out....


Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3)


being a star wars fan, i've become very skeptical of SW games. sure, there's been some shining stars like the Knights of the Old Republic games and Republic Commando. even Rouge Squadron on N64. but there's been alot of weak games that have come down the pike. so, ever since TFU got announced, it been touted as THE star wars game. so, i had high hopes for the demo to show me that the hype was warranted.

well, i started the game and found right off the bat, you feel like a god. flinging stometroopers around, bending and breaking objects, throwing TIE fighters. holy hell! i dug it. it's just by the end, i was thinking that "this is going to be the whole game,isn't it?" it's fun, sure, but to me, it's turned into devil may cry, where you're competing with yourself to do cool combos that don't have much to do with the game. by the end, i could tell it was going to be a good game, but i wasn't sure if i was going to spend money on it. the targeting is very janky and the combat gets very boring after awhile. granted that it's the demo, but it didn't do much for me. of coarse, the rumor of a republic commando current-gen game coming next year has me waiting.............

Bottom line: i'm not getting it......yet

The Last Guy (PS3)


the PS3 is the leader in weird downloadable games. this is one of the weirdest games i've played on PSN. i really don't get it. it's interesting for sure. to me, i don't get it. and i really had to work at it. i will admit that i'm one of those gamers that really needs to get grabbed into a game to want to keep playing. i applaud Sony for having a really large volume of non-arcade/traditional games, (and there isn't going to be a shortage on those this xmas season) but after playing the demo i remember saying "i could be playing warhawk"

Bottom line: i could have been playing warhawk.

Soul Caliber 4




Darth Vader is in the PS3 version. that's good considering who the 360 crowd got. but that's about it. if you like So Cal before, you'll like So Cal 4. i remembered that i had Tekken 5 online after playing the demo. so i jumped on a played that instead. on a side note, why didn't they have Darth dropping to his knees after losing a battle and screaming the best line in episode 3?


Bottom line: it's cool, but i'm waiting for Tekken 6.


Fracture


this one was interesting to say the least. i didn't know much about it, but i've heard so much about this. so when the demo came out, i figured that i'd check it out. the concept of manipulaing the ground is different. the combat isn't anything to write home about and the story seemed the same as any other space marines shooting shit game, but the move the ground gun is something that's looking in a different direction. and different is something that's doesn't happen very often. that being said, after the fourth time i died after shooting a bad guy with the ground gun rather then an actual gun, i said "i could be playing Call of Duty 4."

Bottom line: it's a cool concept, but i've got too many games to play already to play the game with the ground gun.


hit me up on PSN, (JFX)
J.

More Broken Xboxery

I'm sorry to keep complaining about Xbox 360 breakdown woes, but it just doesn't seem to end. It may not be my Xbox 360 that’s still broken, it may be the cables after all. Before calling the Xbox support line again, I had a friend bring over his console and we tried plugging it up to my cables with similar results: audio, no video. Then we tried hooking both my Xbox, then his, to a different TV with the same cables; same thing. So somehow in the past three days, without being used, my cables broke...I guess.

Calling the support line, it turns out while I’m still under warranty for everything until mid-2009, the warranty extension into 2012 I received for my initial breakdown is only good for the “red rings of death.” Also, since this A/V cord problem isn’t the “red rings of death,” I had to pay to ship the cord out—which I did, at about half the cost of new cables. It will be another twelve business days before I can expect new cords in the mail. I just hope everything will work at that point.

Sigh.

Max

My Xbox 360 Came Home Today… Yay?

So there was no sign of the UPS man yesterday, but today, I set out my wife’s robe by the bed before I went to school and told her if anyone rang the doorbell, she had to go get it. She sleepily agreed (UPS requires you to sign for your returned Xbox 360). When I finally get out of class I call her and we work out a plan for the rest of the afternoon.

“The Xbox came today!” she exclaimed.

I was overjoyed. I finally was going to be able to hook it up to my computer with the help of an Xbox customer service rep, was going to be able to play my games again, I even borrowed Soul Calibur IV from a buddy by getting on my knees and begging him to part with it for a short time. Everything was set.

After running around hanging with my pal and doing errands, I open the box and start hooking up the system.

“We better keep the box honey, for the next time this thing breaks down,” I said, only half joking—knowing red rings of death were more likely than not to return someday.

Once I had it all hooked up, I turned it on and was greeted with the familiar boot up noise… but not the boot up display. In fact, my TV had no video of the 360 at all. Apparently it was working, as I synced up a controller and moved the cursor around audibly, but I couldn’t see anything.

At first I thought it could be my A/V connection, something I’ve had trouble with in the past. To test it, I hooked up my Wii, but there were no problems there, everything showed up fine. Frustrated, I called up the Xbox support line. After going through an annoying voice activated menu, I got to a real person.

I explained the situation.

“Could it be the cables? Can you use another set of cables?”

“I only have one set of cables, man.”

“Could you get a friend to come over and try their cables to make sure it’s not the cables before we set up another repair?”

I thought for a minute. My buddy Aaron brought his 360 over here the other night to use my internet connection (he doesn’t have one right now) and download a bunch of songs for Rock Band 2, as well as collect on the Microsoft points I owed him for getting us Castle Crashers.

“Well, someone brought their Xbox over here the other night and used my cables and it worked fine.”

“OK, let’s set up another repair order.”

ANOTHER REPAIR ORDER?!?

I grudgingly agreed, then was put on hold for a good five minutes or so. Then the guy came back and told me to hold some more. Then he came back again.

“I really must apologize, we’re doing a system upgrade right now and we can’t do any repair orders right now. Could you call us back in two or three hours?”

Absolutely. I plan to be good and intoxicated when I call so I can be as obnoxious as possible. I know it’s not these customer service schmoes’ fault, but I am furious. This is inexcusable. They sent me back my old system with repairs, but apparently didn’t bother to check if it worked before mailing it out. I don’t know what to do other than just continue going through the process, but this is really poor on Microsoft’s part. Not only did they rush the 360 out the door to be first to market, their repair service is apparently made up of monkeys. Good thing they sent me a month free of Xbox LIVE—that should just about cover the entire time I won’t have a system. Fuckers.

“Hey honey,” I cried out after getting off the phone. “Good thing we didn’t throw out that box yet!”

Max

Fallout 3 video walkthrough

more Fallout 3 videos. this game is going to be great.

My Xbox 360 Returnith!

Well, kinda. I got a call from UPS last night saying they were going to be delivering today between 8 AM and 7 PM. Unfortunately, I'm in school 'till 5:50 and usually don't get home until 6:15-6:30. So while I won't probably catch it today, I'll be able to set up a pick up time with UPS and get my 360 back in action soon enough... Until it fires up the red rings of death that is (I have no illusions that they "refurbished" my model; I'm sure it's just a new system that may fail eventually).

Still, very happy to hear it's on its way! Less than two weeks from when I shipped it out. Good deal! My only complaint is that Microsoft doesn't provide people with boxes anymore, you gotta use your own. Lucky I had one lying around!

Max

Fallout 3 videos (because it's awesome!)

i really liked Oblivion. alot. last i played, i racked up about 375 hours playing. so, when Fallout 3 comes out, i'll be wasting alot of 'i should be studying' time playing this. ign.com has been doing Fallout 3 week, so i'm posting some videos from youtube. enjoy some of the weapons. i like the railroad spike gun. also, thank god people are bringing back flamethrowers.

ZP on Bionic Commando:Rearmed and Castle Crashers

wrong on BC:R, i'm afraid. sorry, Yahtzee. wrong on CC too? i don't know. i haven't played it yet. seems that Max and Dustin might have something to say about that.

is it just me, or is ZP off base on alot of games. i guess that's a "comedy reveiw." it's funny, in the same way that penny arcade is funny for two nerds that act like being the biggest nerds on earth is the defining reason that everything else sucks. follow that? whatever. i quit caring in the middle of the sentence.

J.

Reason #3059 why Ice-T rules

again, found first on Kotaku. for a site that banned me for challenging an Associate Editor for all his anti-PS3 tenner, i'm still on that site alot. anyway, here's a video from worldstarhiphop.com. starting at around 2:40, it combines the awesome power of an OG rapper and smack talking gamer. didn't get any conformation on Ice's PSN name, though. his wife is hot as well........

remember, you can't fucks with Lord187s. he's a beast.

J. Fizzle

This weekend i.........by J.Whittaker

- jumped 8 levels in COD4 to level 35 in two days; shot numinous people in the face online.

- posted on facebook about the above; feeling like a huge nerd afterwards.

- played the new Pain levels. still love that game.

- jumped on Home and saw that ALOT more people are on there then the last time i was on.

- started getting money together for video game purchases in October.

- played MGS4 again; added more passwords and proceeded to get shot the fuck up again. after beating the game, i can't get off act 2 on hard. someday....

and found this picture today via Kotaku.....
agree with his politics or not, you have to admit, this guy knows how to party!


J.

In Deck: Coffee Table Edition

Well, while I wasn't without power anywhere near as long as some of the other people around these parts, I spent a majority of it (till just earlier today) without the interwebs. Tragic as that may not seem to some people, it still really sucks when you realize just how much you depend on it in daily life. No news or weather updates, no online gaming, no doing online homework for online classes you have, etc, etc... Well I have it back now and its seems that all is good other than the massive backlog of info & education I have to catch up on.

So all of you gamers out there that suffered from no electricity and lack of the info super highway, what did you do to cope with it all? I'll tell you what we did, we coped with good old fashioned board games. So here's a special candlelight In Deck/ On Table edition.

ON TABLE

Balderdash
For those of you out there that have no clue what this game is, it is the ultimate game of BULLSHIT. A group of players get together and try yo race across a pretty straight forward board and make it to the finish. "Well how do you get from one side to the other?" you may be asking. Each person takes turns being the "dasher" who is the player that reads something from one of the categories (Weird Words, Peculiar People, Incredible Initials, Marvelous Movies, and Laughable Laws) and the other players have to come up with either what the answer is or something clever that other players might guess as the answer. The dasher then collects everyones answers and reads them aloud. Players must then guess which one is the real answer, and believe me, the real answers are usually pretty ridiculous.
In the groups that we played with over the last week, dick and fart jokes were pretty common amongst the answers. This wasn't just because we're some sick minded people, but because the categories were churning out some already ridiculous questions for us all. All in all, its a hilarious game to play with a group of friends when no electronic enjoyment can be had.

Scattergories
This game ends up getting just a ridiculous with its answers as Balderdash can be. It's a pretty simple game that will challenge your wit and writing dexterity at the same time. You basically have a list of clues on a card and a sheet of paper, someone rolls a 20 sided die with letters on it, then everyone races to fill their paper with as many words that start with the afore-rolled die's letter that match the clues on the card as they possibly can. It's pretty amazing to see whats in people's minds when they're under pressure. Dick and fart jokes yet again slipped out as answers for some of the most innocent of clues. Definitely not to be played with your friends that don't have the greatest vocabularies. As a bonus, the game boards that you answer on can be used as a cheat shield when playing Balderdash.

Well, gotta get back to the land of online education now. Just remember, when the power is gone, you can still have fun with friends that are stuck in the same boat.

Doomstein

In Deck – Post 360 Breakdown

After my Xbox 360 got the red rings of death, I’ve had to move on to play other games and systems. Unlike J, I didn’t do much portable gaming during the blackout, as I tried to spend time where electricity was on (school, friends’). Additionally, with school about to launch into its third week for me, I haven’t been playing so much as I’ve had homework and early bedtimes so I can make it to butt-early-in-the-morning classes. Still, I am getting gaming time in, so I figured I’d take a look at what I’ve been playing.

Triggerheart Exelica

As an XBLA title, this shouldn’t count, but it is the last game I was able to play on my 360, late night Saturday/early morning Sunday last week, and I wanted to talk about it. After the content-packed bargains I found in Bionic Commando Rearmed ($10) and Castle Crashers ($15), paying $10 for Triggerheart Exelica when it’s only 5 levels and can be beaten in about 15-20 minutes seemed a bit disappointing. However, I kept playing it over and over, and now I miss it.

It’s a basic shooter, with anime girls in robot suits (more like robot shells & less-than-modest clothing) and a tractor-beam mechanic that allows you to trap enemies and swing them around as a shield. Music is pleasing, levels are fun, though graphics aren’t the greatest. It’s an addictive game, though later levels have so many swarms of bullets coming at you, it’s as impossible as Ikaruga would be without the ability to dodge half of them by changing color (though Ikaruga was pretty hard even with the color changing).

Even with two characters, each with a different shot pattern, it’s really short, but that makes it perfect for a quick bout of gaming. Overall I don’t regret the purchase and I can’t wait to play it again.

Final Fantasy III

I’ve gotten more playtime in FFIII and finally got around to figuring out if I wanted to switch jobs for my characters or keep the old ones (a dilemma from my first on deck). While new jobs were novel, they ended up being very annoying and practically worthless (especially the bard class). I wasn’t used to them, the job levels were rock bottom and I hated the limitations imposed on some classes. So I switched back to the mainstay jobs I’ve held throughout most of the game. I’m sure if I had more patience, it’d be fun to tinker with jobs, but I guess I’m pretty resistant to change. Basically between trying things out and grinding (I love to grind for some reason), I haven’t progressed much further in the game.

Rock Band

How can I play Rock Band without a working 360, or even a copy of the game? Simple: by having friends that have both. I’ve been to my buddy, Aaron’s, for a couple “Rock Band parties," where there’s enough people to play all instruments. I love this game, more than Guitar Hero, and it’s really fun to switch things up. I’m still not great at these “guitar games” so I play on medium. And even though I’ve spent years as a percussionist, the Rock Band drums seem counter intuitive and I can barely hang. That doesn't seem to be a problem for non-real life drummers (or maybe I'm just rusty). Even though I’m not the greatest musician, Rock Band is tons of fun and the ultimate party game.

PaRappa the Rapper

Speaking of music games, I broke out one of the earliest here recently. Step on the gas! Now step on the brake! Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind! And all that… I’ve been wanting to show my beloved Maureen PaRappa for awhile, but never really got motivated to load it up until I saw Mega64’s brilliant re-enactment of the game. After that, I had to play it again. I played with friends, and holy crap, it’s hard! I remember struggling when I first played it, so I’m probably re-learning the mechanics all over again. Still, we made it to the bathroom rap battle (the second to last stage), before giving up. It was good to play it again; for the most part, it holds up even today.

And, much to my delight, I can still make PaRappa say “Crack, crack, crack, into the crack bowl,” on the cake making level.

Katamari Damacy

It makes sense that after the 360 broke down when we tried to play Beautiful Katamari, we’d want to play the original. I’ve played a little and love how pure it is. Maureen’s done most of the playing, though last night we had friends over—one of who had never seen any Katamari game in action. He laughed like crazy at the intro, and became addicted almost instantly. It’s been really awesome revisiting this classic.

No More Heroes

I’m a really easily distracted person, which may explain why I leave games unfinished only to linger in my backlog. I took a step to fix this by revisiting No More Heroes, one of the most unique (and violent) Wii games around. While some reviewers complained that the open city setting was shallow and didn’t hold up to its GTA appearance, I think they missed the point. To me, No More Heroes is a lot like Shadow of the Colossus, where boss battles take the center stage. Of course, there are also minor skirmishes, some NPC characters/shops, and tons of mini-games and missions, but the boss battles are the meat of the game. I played through a couple of them, and ran into some unexpected surprises and weirdness along the way. While it’s not for everybody, this game is one of the most unique experiences to be had.

Okami

Although I didn’t really "get" Okami the first time I saw it on PS2, I really wanted to try the Wii version when it came out. I have just started Okami, basically playing through the tutorial, and I am impressed. It’s so aesthetically pleasing and the storytelling is great. I can really see why many compare Okami to a Zelda game. Using the brush with the Wii remote isn’t as hard as I thought it’d be, though I’ve only learned basic stroke moves so far. It’s also nice to see the wolf actually running like a wolf—unlike Link’s wolf form in Zelda: Twilight Princess, which basically ran the same way as Epona the horse. I’m definitely going to be spending more time with this one.

I’ve been occupied and been having good times, but I still gotta say: come back soon 360!

Max

Word on the Street 9/20

In an effort to keep the Driver ID chugging along, here is a weekend edition of Word On the Street with some recent news.

PS3 Loses Exclusive Game… Or Does it?

Australia’s Team Bondi’s president, Tom Crago has recently spoke about its collaboration with Rockstar, L.A. Noire at GC Asia ’08. Crago said that the game “still has a year or so to go,” and speculated that it "could be the biggest budget video game in development anywhere in the world." The really interesting news is that he said it was in development for both PS3 and Xbox 360.

While some were thinking L.A. Noire to be the exclusive PS3 Rockstar game, EGM’s rumor-monger Quartermann quashes that possibility, stating that “whatever it is…it’s currently being made by Rockstar North, the fine Scotland-based lads behind Grand Theft Auto IV.”

Sounds like Sony may be getting their money’s worth for this exclusive!

Mega Man 9 Finally Gets U.S. Release Date

For those of you chomping on the bit to play Mega Man’s retro-cized DLC adventure, it’s time to get ready! Wii will get the game first on Monday (the 22nd), PSN lands it next, on Thursday (the 25th) while XBLA won’t get it until Oct. 1st. Whenever it hits your system, fans of the Blue Bomber shouldn’t miss it…provided they’re prepared for a challenge.

Bungie Announcement Imminent

There was a rumor floating around during the week that Rare and Bungie would be announcing new games next week at a Microsoft event. The rumor seemed sketchy, though now Bungie’s website seems to be teasing an announcement, bringing back the mysterious Superintendent—last seen just before E3—with the message “KEEP IT CLEAN.” As everyone probably painfully remembers, Bungie was set to announce its next project at E3, only to have it yanked from Microsoft’s Press Conference to talk about “more important” things. Like Mii rip offs I guess? Or maybe real important stuff like FFXIII coming to 360…? Whatever it was, it finally seems we’ll soon be learning what Bungie’s up to. Anything Halo related seems a little doubtful to me, as they broke from MS to get away from the franchise. You never know though…

As for Rare, there’s not been any similar indication if they’ll be announcing stuff too. But if they do, it’s very unlikely it will be another classic franchise. Direct from Senior animator, Elissa Miller’s mouth comes word that there are no plans to revisit old material: ”We’ve always got to have a reason to revive a franchise, we don’t just do games for the sake of them,”

So there go the on-again, off-again rumors of a new Killer Instinct, and hopes for a new Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Sabre Wulf, or any other Rare property you were hoping to see revisited in the near future.

Geoff Johns Going Digital

In a bit of new that excited me, it was revealed earlier this week that comics scribe extraordinaire, Geoff Johns, will be providing the story to DC Universe Online. Johns, who has written JSA, Flash, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, Booster Gold, Action Comics and Infinite Crisis for DC Comics had this to say:

"Taking comic books into the online space presents an exciting and unique opportunity for me as a writer." He added, "I'm looking forward to creating a thrilling story that explains why the DC Universe has suddenly been populated with millions of new heroes and villains in a way that will engage players."

Jim Lee is handling the game’s character designs, and Lee is very excited to work with Johns, as the two have only brainstormed before and never actually collaborated. DC Universe is due on PC and PS3 sometime in 2009 (and is probably going to be the reason I purchase a PS3. I’m a hardcore comic geek!)

A Little Big Planet of PAIN!

I had to post this next bit for J. It looks like Little Big Planet’s mascot, Sackboy, will be ready to be jettisoned, battered and bruised as a new additional character in the simple-but-awesome PAIN. Good news indeed, but there’s no word of when this will happen.

That’s all I have for now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post about some other stuff this weekend, like what I’ve been playing since my 360 went kaput and games I’d like to see remade.

’Till then,

Max

Gaming Update (Double XP Call of Duty 4 PS3 version)

i jumped on COD4 late. really late. like i got it 2 months ago late. yeah, i know. but i'm happy to report that the game defiantly deserves all the accolades it's gotten. so, after getting my ass handed to me for the first few matches, (read: 30-40) i feel that i've got a pretty good handle on the online portion. i've played all of one hour of the campaign. sue me.

so, i was hyped to hear about the double xp weekend. who's going to be upset about getting something of free? xp, even for people that are good at COD4, is going to get alot of people online and shooting each other in the face. so, here's what i've been up to playing COD4:


- i started out at level 25. not bad. i've since ramped up to 32 in half a day. not bad. i've noticed that i've better then i thought i was. in domination, i've been working more tactical. not running and backing up other players and getting fucking shot up vs. trying to hold down the flags seems to work better. why go looking for trouble when bad guys are going to come to the flag, and to you. it's been working for me.

- been playing the chinatown level alot. i don't know if that a new playlist error, but i've been playing it. alot. somebody fix that. please.

- since unlocking the ak-74u, i've been rocking it pretty hard. previously, i'd been going back and forth between M16A4, The RPD and the Scorpion getting the challenges for those guns. i never felt comfortable with any of them in the game with any of them. the RPD was the best with the scope. it gave me a long game and stopping power in the close game. but the ak-74u is a very nice fit. i sacrifice the long game for the quick reload and quick unloading of the clip. add that with the double tap perk and i've been racking up big points. i got 1500 xp in one headquarters match.

- i suck at using shotguns and sniper rifles. i can't get my head around it. i'll have to try at some point, but it's really hard for me. maybe i'll try more tonight since i have school in the morning.

- headshots are all luck.


J.

The Driver I.D. on facebook

despite being a social shut-in, i've joined the evil that is facebook. so, i've started the the Driver I.D. group on FB. if you have an account, you should join.

so, it's not cool to be on myspace anymore? cool.....

J.

Word on the Street 9/18

time for word on the street. i got some new stuff from around the internets.


Keep waiting for the 360's GTA4 DLC

sounds like 360 owners might have gotten a boner for the console war killer exclusive GTA4 DLC too early. despite Microsoft assuring gamers that you made the right choice buying the 360 version of GTA4, seems that MS maybe was hoping out loud about the mystery DLC. we'll see, sooner or later.

Rockstar is being very quiet about it, but Rockstar is always quiet about their plans. they might be even more quiet on this because of what happen with GTA4 missing it's release date in the first place.

(via gamepro.com)


Fracture demo out today on XBL/PSN

i've heard about this game, but i couldn't tell you anything about it. but, the demo is out today on PSN and is out now on XBL. we'll rock a DEMO-lition about the demos soon. until then, here's a gameplay video via youtube.




Life with Playstation out today

announced at E3, Life with Playstation was an extension of the folding @ home program. adding news and weather to the number of things your PS3 can do. it's ok. i watch the news almost 8-10 hours out of the day, but it's something that is interesting and outside the scope of what game consoles can do. check out the details here.

Burnout Paradise "bike pack" is out, more crashing eminent

having played the the new bike content this morning, i'll say that Criterion should be your new heroes in game development. they have adding more content for Burnout Paradise FOR FREE then most developers have for ridiculous prices. (halo 3 maps, house armor) the bike challenges are cool and long. i did a burning route that the target time was 8:14! i beat it, but not by much. the whole thing is amazing to me and would hope more people would follow their lead. if you don't have Burnout, A) why not it only $30 bucks and B) who doesn't like free shit?

to end this, here's some footage of Fallout 3. what reason do you need to see more of this one?



for more, go to Bethesda's youtube channel.


J.

Soulja Boy "reviews" Braid

Max hipped me to this. i've got no words.








sucks to be Braid fans, i guess.....


J.

Day of Crisis in my Hometown!

(Originally written Sept. 14th)

It’s been a windy all day here in Yellow Springs, the town that J & I live in. I’m sure it’s bad in all the surrounding areas too. The wind has blown so fiercely that tree branches (and even whole trees!) are coming down, littering streets, blocking roads and crashing into houses. The power has been going out all over town & our electricity just went out about fifteen minutes ago (I’m writing this in a notebook now since I can’t post or use my computer). The wind is so bad it even ripped the metal roof off of a beloved family restaurant nearby.

Awhile ago, the wife & I were able to go into town, survey the damage and get some food. Almost everything in town is closed, save for Subway and the pizza joint that J works at and, at least at Subway, the line was out the door. I wonder if lots of people are ordering pizzas too (if so, sorry about your luck, J).

Anyway, while gathering nourishment in town, I started to think about Disaster: Day of Crisis, a Wii game by Monolith Soft (of Xenogears and Baten Kaitos fame) which was announced when the Wii was shown in action for the first time back at E3 2006. Since then, nothing has been heard about the game and many believed it to be canceled…until just recently that is. A European release date was recently announced (Oct. 24th) confirming the game was alive and well. It’s also coming out in Japan but there’s no North American release date—yet. That’s a shame because the game looks quite interesting and insane.

Disaster has the main character, Raymond Bryce, fighting his way through a day of crisis indeed. Some of the things Raymond must deal with include: dealing with armed enemies, defusing a bomb, jumping out of a plane, avoiding falling into lava, outrunning a tidal wave, driving through what looks to be a meteor shower, rescuing people and last, but not least, encountering a very angry bear. What the hell is happening to cause all this craziness?

While “survival/disaster” games of the past I’ve played are dull, playing like Resident Evil sans the action, Disaster: Day of Crisis apparently plays a couple different ways. First, as expected with a Wii game, there’s motion controls (good ol’ waggling) used in dangerous situations. Whether motions will be specific to each scenario is unclear. Then there’s Time Crisis-like gameplay where you must shoot, then take cover. Hearing that raised my interest quite a bit.

Again, unfortunately, there’s no word on a North American release, while it hits other territories next month. With Nintendo having a weak E3 showing (at least for hardcore gamers, which is Nintendo’s core audience no matter how many grandmas are playing Wii Sports…) and later saying they don’t have any other games to announce for 2008, there’s once again a huge gap in Wii game releases that Nintendo is publishing releases. What’s the deal? Does this “Day of Crisis” involve things like terrorists or Armageddon? (Certainly touchy subjects but by no means too taboo for video games; they’re actually somewhat common themes in many games released stateside—just not Nintendo really). Or is this a similar situation to Endless Ocean, the scuba diving sim, which released in late summer 2007 in Japan but didn’t make its way over here until the tail end of January 2008. Nintendo of America not acknowledging Captain Rainbow is one thing, even understandable, but Disaster doesn’t look too ridiculous (even though a million bad things are happening on the same day to one guy) or terrible not to be given a chance in North America. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, check out the compilation of Japanese commercials to get an idea of what it looks like, and just how jam-packed full of DISASTER it is.

My mom just called me to tell me the local police are issuing a request to preserve water because the water plant has no electricity. Power lines are down all over town, the weather’s supposed to get worse as the night goes on and a family friend informed my folks that Cincinnati (about an hour from here) is also blacked out and that the electricity could be out for days. Looks like it might be awhile before this gets posted…

Max

IN DECK/ON DECK 9/17 (offline to online)

sorry about not posting lately. Hurricane Ike whopped my town's ass. i went to school on sunday and some of the windows blew off the building, so we got the fuck out of there. i came home and didn't have power. and didn't until yesterday. luckily, nothing got damaged other then shit we didn't like about the front of the house anyway, so that's always cool. most people in town got it pretty bad, so whatever you do when stuff like this happens, (pray or whatnot) do it.


i did get to play some games while the lights where off. not much else to do.

Super Mario Bros. 3/Nintendo DS


yeah, old school. dusted off my DS, that i haven't played in months and got into some SMB3 action. stopped in 4.7. the everything's big level is awesome and i really love playing it. playing this made me want to get super mario world for GBA on the cheap. lord knows i'd like to do something with my DS until i get my copy of the best DS program ever.

Silent Hill Origins/PSP


i've been sleeping on this since i got it. played some of it in the dark, like you should all survival horror games. scary stuff. i like the Silent Hill games. not being able to blow away everyone ala Resisdent Evil is a different way to do these kinds of games. it's kind of "play in spurts" type game for me. it's hard to keep up with for a long period of time. after playing SL:O, i might get Homecoming. i've got alot of games to play this fall, so we'll see.

Burnout Dominator/PSP


with the next free Paradise update coming tomorrow, i broke out some Dominator. it basically Revenge without the car checking. runs really well on PSP. and fast, which is my problem playing Burnout in the past. getting lost in the motion blur and then, you're dead on a blind drift. crash mode would be cool, as it would in Paradise. but i'm fairly sure we'll see crash mode return as DLC. i'd buy that for a dollar.....


the moral of the story is that anything named Ike will kick your ass......


J.

I Finally Had a Breakdown...

Or should I say, I finally had my Xbox 360 breakdown. It started this morning with my wife, Maureen trying to play levels of Beautiful Katamari we had just downloaded last night. Well, the console froze. Then we restarted it, and it froze almost instantly. Restart, and it froze on the loadup of the Xbox logo right after you turn it on. It happened a few more times: restart, freeze, restart freeze. You get the picture.

I bought the 360 from Dustin around this time last year. He was selling it because he wanted to buy the Halo edition Xbox 360, Halo freak that he is (you should see his pad, half of it is a shrine to Master Chief, the other half a shrine to Trasformers. Not to say that I don’t have nerdly obsessions adorning my place either, but I digress…). Dustin gave me a good price and a great deal, as not only did he throw an extra controller and some headsets in, he also had received an extension of his warranty to three years due to the fact he had just gotten it back from Microsoft. It was sent off to them because of the legendary “red rings of death.” So I dig out the warranty, and it’s still good and it looks like it still might cover any potential repair I might have needed for the lockup issue, even though the warranty was registered to Dustin and he sold the console to me.

Then I called Microsoft about the lockups. First off, they transferred the console registration to my name, and then did a troubleshooting technique with some button presses to combat the lockups. After that, I kept the customer service representative on the line to help me connect my XBox to my PC, something I've wanted to do since I've had it and have been unable to (and have had two different tech-geek friends, one of them Dustin, come over and try and both failed).

OK, get this... I go back to my living room from my office to start setting up the network connection on the console side of things. And then I see it... What I have dreaded and feared ever since I brought a 360 into my home. Not only has it locked up again on the XBox Dashboard, there are the dreaded "Red Rings of Death," which, if you’ve been living under a rock, basically means your 360 is fucked. My heart sunk. Fortunately, since I was still on the phone with the customer service rep, she started to fill out a repair order.

Well, the repair is covered under warranty. I'm going to get a UPS shipping label from Microsoft for free, I just need to provide a box to ship it in, and the console will return to me 2-3 weeks after I send it. On top of that, I get a free month of Xbox Live and they're extending the warranty again, this time to halfway through 2012. Not a bad way to make up for the problem. So I'm bummed about it breaking, but thank god it did under warranty!

I also have to mention that the customer service representative was very nice and helpful. Clearly these people are used to dealing with this problem, and they handle it, and every issue I brought up during the call, kindly and professionally. My only complaint is that I found out the lockups were a pre-symptom to the red rings of death after the red rings showed up. If I hadn’t had been on the phone troubleshooting the network issue, I would have had to call them again and wait on hold again, something I wouldn’t have appreciated on a day I have oodles of homework to work on.

Naturally, I’m sure many of you have had a similar situation. It’s the nature of the beast, really. J has told me before that everyone he knew that had a 360 has had it happen to them. That’s somewhat true for me too, with (until now) the exception of me. But now it’s my turn to experience the red lights and, to those of you have experienced this problem, I feel your pain. All of this reminds me of the early PS2 days, when everyone I knew with one had their system crap out on them. That’s the #1 reason I never bought one of my own. This 360 red ring problem seems way worse than that, and I knew that going in, but just figured that it was a console that had already been repaired, so there should be no problems, right? Wrong.

But what can you do? I’m going to the UPS Store sometime tomorrow and hey, our Wii’s been pretty neglected lately, and I just got Okami for it. So at least I won’t be game starved. And there is that homework... Still, all of this pretty much sucks.

Max

GameStop Exposed!

I said in my initial post that I have stopped buying games from GameStop and buy them from my local comics shop because I was sick of all their hard sell tactics and it’s just better to support local business than some mega corporation you don’t really like. Well, it turns out there’s someone who hates GameStop worse than many of us gamers probably do. His “name” is “Whistle Blower Zero” and he has created a nine part series (running about 90 minutes or so total) detailing the shady practices of the giant game seller, and a look at what it’s like to be an employee there. It’s all done in the same style as Yahtzee’s Zero Punctuation reviews, but what it lacks in originality it more than makes up for in information.

Whistle Blower Zero posted the series in its entirety on YouTube, but the first installment was yanked for reasons unknown. Therefore, it can be found on Mega Upload right here while the other eight parts are on YouTube here.

Check it out and tell your friends about it. Every game consumer should see this.

Max

New segment: DEMO-LITION

Demos are very important. It’s a slice of a product that you, as someone with $60, could possibly buy. Demos have to do a lot to wow you into buying the full game. So, with that, I start another new feature: Demo-iltion!


Lego Indiana Jones (PS3)


I’ve liked the Lego games so far. The Lego Star Wars games are sitting in a box with the rest of my PS2 games and they have been a good time. The kid liked them and I dug the in-jokes and gameplay that, while really simple, was still very engaging. But, Lego Indy……I don’t know. Something about the game doesn’t click with me. It’s not really THAT different from the other games, but it’s different. The demo leads you around the opening of the first Indy movie, which is fairly accurate to the movie. Running away from the big bolder is the main thrust of the demo for me. It was cool to run through that in a very Crash Bandicoot style segment. But overall, it’s the same game. Save for some Star Wars in jokes. I think that the Lego games could play itself out with this and Lego Batman coming soon. And what about Lego Harry Potter? Nobody start with Lego Halo


Verdict: I’d get it used. Unless they do make Lego Halo, then all bets are off.

Pure (PS3)


For whatever reason, I suck at off-road racers. I’m just bad at them. I don’t know why. I like racing games. I like off-road games. I’m just not good at them. The ATV vs. MX games completely flattened me out every time I tried to play them. So, I downloaded it just to see how bad I suck at the 4 wheel.

Turns out that while I’m still not very good at doing tricks, I’ve gotten better at these games. This game was made by Disney’s Black Rock Studios. The same people that made Grid, a game that I also sucked at, but was a very good game. The tutorial level is well done. It’s not hard to finish and get through. I finished it in about 10 min. Then, I was off to the races. Playing against 15 other drivers is a nice touch. Having multiple routes on the tracks is also a good thing. It looks really good as well. Nothing mind blowing, but still a very easy to get around menu system. Overall, the demo is very good and well put together. It works as something that you could play over a few times.


Verdict: I’m still not getting it because I suck at it. But it seems on track to make Motorstorm really have to step it up on the Playstation side.


J.

New PS3 Bioshock trailer

as someone that REALLY wanted to play this game when it came out and didn't have a 360 and didn't have a Crysis-style PC to run it either, consider me hyped to finally play this one. looks pretty, don't it?


J.

UPDATE: the OG youtube video got canned for whatever reason. new link now up.

In Deck - DoomStein

Castle Crashers
Holy crap! What a fun and addictive game this is! I can't stop playing it. I've already wizzed through it twice, i'm up to level 46, and I just started playing it again on insane mode. This is definitely a game for the old school side scolling beat'em up fans out there. It's also one of the most humorous games i've played lately as well. The little details you see in the backgrounds of levels crack me up! There's also poop humor abound as well, which is right up my alley. The forest level is one of my favorites so far with small and large furry woodland creatures alike crapping themselves at the sounds of the ominous end level boss's thunderous footsteps throughout the level! I'm sorry if you don't find it hillarious, but then again that's why I'm me and you aren't, and i'm fine with that!
The best part about this game obviously though is the fact that you don't have to tread the hysterical, lava monster, alien and baddie infested landscapes by yourself. Of course you could, but then you would miss some of the best multiplayer hack and slash goodness of recent times and you wouldn't want to do that, would you? Busting through hordes of evil minions is just that much better with another person is oh so satisfying as you volley those arrow chucking thieves back and forth between you which you could do for hours straight with the same guy none the less (which there should be some sort of ranking or achievement for). The best part of it comes when you rescue a princess from one of the bosses. When there is 2-4 knights (or other unlockable characters which there is a ton of) and only 1 princess, it gets all Thunderdome in the room. No D.V.D.A. here (this is a T rated game after all). 4 men enter... Only 1 gets the girl.
Theres tons of other stuff to go on about like the colectable animals and weaponry (the pork chop being my favorite) but Max has already pointed a lot of that out in his post. This isn't the Castle Crasher ID so i'll give the awesomeness of this game a rest for now, but if you own a 36o (and you aren't a complete lamer) I suggest that you at least give it a try. You might just realize what "FUN" is.

Bionic Comando Rearmed
Way to go Capcom! You have successfully reinvented a classic game and not put the words "Mega Man" or "Resident Evil" in the title and not put a number on the end of it. Theres lots of great humor in the dialog, great controls and nice use of exploding heads. It definitely brings back the memories of classic gaming. The only thing this remake is missing is the use knights with elemental magic and dragons with sock puppets.

Rock Band
With a generous donation of Microsoft Points from the "Summer of Arcade" sweepstakes and PAX track pack I was able to download some songs that don't suck nor had Lars Ulric sitting over the Harmonix people saying that there just weren't enough buttons to press in this particular song. I had been sick of hearing the same old songs so being able to play some System of a Down, Devil Driver, Machine Head and MC Frontalot made me pick the game back up for a while.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time (snes)
I just popped this into the old Snes last night to play through with some people that came over last night and nostalgia took over. Ahhhh, how I have missed the company of Rapheal, Master Splinter and Krang. The controls are just as good as I remember them and throwing Foot soldiers at the screen was still a great time. What was up with abreviating all the bosses names when their health bar came up though? Did they just forget how to spell Shedd.... Um, what were the last couple of letters again?

Doom (32X)
WTF!!!! How the hell did I ever play a FPS without 2 joysticks? Time to grab a more recent update of this classic for a much newwer FPS capable system.

Animal Crossing DS
Well, my woman playing this game again lately made me throw it in again. Then I took it right back out after I found that my entire town was pretty much one big weed, my house was infested with roaches like I lived on the west side, and I realized that my favorite neighbor (Agent S) moved away and that was why I quit playing in the first place. Cuz everyone else in my town was a giant douschebag that collects pink furniture and has 'roid rage from lifting too many weights! And don't even get me started on ol' Tom Crook...

The House of the Dead 2&3 Return
"what happened to the world?" "The 1998 Curien Mansion case happened, I suppose." When isn't it a good time to shoot the undead, especially after seeing the new retro B horror movie trailer for the latest installment HOTD:Overkill. I've been blasting hordes of zombie's heads off lately in anticipation! "Suffer like G did?"

Doomstein

Achievables

Achievements... I love'em and I hate'em. For the most part they are as useless as your appendix... until it explodes and tries to kill you that is!
Anybody but me remember the good old days of the local arcade? I do and I had the high scores on T.M.N.T. the Arcade Game, Contra, Mortal Kombat NBA Jam and Road Blasters (until they closed the arcade for good one day that is). How does that relate to achievements you may ask? Well remember how you would enter your initials when you got one of he top 10 high scores? My initials (which I always entered as FUQ) were at the top and people that frequented that arcade knew it was me. Still wondering the correlation between the two? Well it was a reminder to people of what and who they had to beat to gain notoriety in the arcade scene. This is basically what the number under your Gamertag reflects these days. Pretty much just bragging rights.
No matter how much I try to ignore'em tho, I just can't resist peeping them out the first time I boot up a new game. Curiosity I suppose. Achievements run the gamut of difficulties from being either way too easy (that even your dog can do it) to so freakin' frustrating and impossible that they're way out of the average gamers league (you want me to kill how many people online in Gears of War, Cliffy B?). Not that every single one should be able to be obtained without some work I guess, but that shows people how hardcore you are about this stuff. There should be a standard about some of them though. You should get some points for each difficulty you beat a game on (seriously BC Rearmed, only Superhard nets you a couple points?) and they should unlock all the difficulties below it as well (who wants to beat a game on megawussy after they just whupped its ass on überhardcore mode?). I'd like to see some more of the creative ones as well (HalfLife 2's "Two Points" for making a basket with the gravity gun) cuz it rewards you for just screwing around in a game which adds a little spice to the mix. But that one also brings up a little sumthin that irks my anal retentiveness. I hate it when my gamerscore doesn't end in multiples of 5. It eats away at my brain and will continue to do so till I net another 3 to 7 points, so stop messing with my head already! Some of them should just die of gonorrhea and rot in hell! I'm talking to YOU COD4 Mile High Club achievement! 980 points on that game and they couldn't just make the last 20 a little bit easier. Just give me 2 more seconds, damn you Infinity Ward!
I think that these achievements really tell a lot about a person as a gamer. They show off the brutal things you have accomplished like finally whuppin Halo 3 on Legendary (and now people don't just have to take your word for it) and the crazy time consuming things you have done like ridding Liberty City of its "flying rat" problem (and thats a pretty tuff job, even with a map of the birds). Of course some people's gamerscores get a little bloated when they start achievement whoring and they want to play stuff like Barbie Horse adventure just to add another grand under their name (at least stick to the less incriminating games like Madden '06 if you wanna make yourself look credible buddy). Its all good to want a high score, but you got to draw a line somewhere people! At least wait till you have kids so you have someone to shift the shame to. Stick to something the guys around the water cooler aren't going to ridicule you the rest of your life for. So go ahead and pick up that copy of Deadliest Catch and set sail on that quest for crabs and achievements (no sense in your mom being the only one to achieve that one), but be warned! You'll never be able to wash the stink of that game off of your online persona for all of eternity and everyone will know what a loser you are for whoring yourself out to it! I'm just going to stick to the games I want to play (and won't be embarrassed about) and keep my achievements coming the honest gamer way since I know deep in the recesses of my brain that that number doesn't mean that much in the real world. Its really just showing what i've achieved.


Doomstein

Word on the Street......new segment

Lumines Supernova coming to PSN

that's the word going the internets today. no word on when it's coming out here, but the word is that it's coming to Japan's PSN as soon as next week! if we here in the lower 48 get this and get online play, all i'll say is about fucking time! (props to IGN for the image)

TF2 PS3 Version Might Be Developed By Valve

The Orange Box on PS3 was good. really good. it just wasn't great. the online worked, just not as well as on other systems. Team Fortress 2 was one of these situations. it "worked" in the way that your lazy coworkers work: very inefficiently. it was fun, but the waiting to connect to a game got very boring. After Valve's boss saying that the PS3 was a difficult piece of machinery, and the growing view of EA fucking the game up seems to be leading Valve to maybe....i don't know.....make their own games for the PS3 rather than dump it on the company that just now got Madden right. Left 4 Dead on PS3? maybe. well...maybe not.


thoughts?
J.Whittaker

Castle Crashing it up!

Last week at the urgings of a buddy, I downloaded the Castle Crashers demo. Dustin had told me about the game but I wasn’t sold until I tried the demo. Even then, I was a little skeptical at paying $15 for a game after spending a measly $10 on the beyond excellent BC Rearmed. However, soon, my wife, Maureen got involved in playing the demo with me, and it wasn’t long before she said “We should really get this when we get a chance.” A few days later, we played it with our friend Aaron, who was nice enough to spot us the cash for a download of the full game and we’ve all been playing it a lot since.

We don’t have a review format here at Driver ID and I don’t know if we ever will, but I can’t help talking about the game a bit. I initially planned to do these as initial impressions, but the game is so addictive that we’ve played through levels several times, played through many of the modes and actually finished the game too. It’s great.

J, Dustin and I are currently thinking about games we’d like to see remade to post about; I was talking about playing Capcom Classics Collection in one of my first posts and Magic Sword is a game I’ve dreamed of seeing a remake for. More on that later, but Castle Crashers is just about the next best thing. It really takes the formula of a lot of the old beat ‘em ups similar to Magic Sword, similar games on that Capcom compilation and other arcade gems, notably games the TMNT or Simpsons arcade games—but has a lot more going for it. CC takes it up a notch by adding RPG elements through customizable stats, pets that accompany you and assist in different ways, occasional creatures you can ride and also some neat surprises that I won’t spoil here. There are numerous weapons to collect, from a wide array of swords, axes and maces as well as offbeat bludgeoning devices such as lobsters, umbrellas and sausages.

There are four main characters, each with their own magic: red (electricity), blue (ice), yellow (fire) and green (poison). Beating the game with each character unlocks a new character, and characters that have already been built up can replay the game for even more grinding and weapon & pet discovering. I’ve only played the demo alone as this is really a game that demands multiplayer. If you don’t have friends who come over, you can always play on Live. On top of the main game, there are several arena modes where you fight each other (or can fight foes in single player) in different ways: treasure hunting, archery fights or matches as beefed up muscleheads. There’s also a bonus eating game which is done through rapid alternating button pressing. All this adds up to loads of replay.

The game oozes style. I have yet to play Alien Hominid, though I’ve heard the acclaim for it and if it’s anything like Castle Crashers, it’s deserved. Castle Crashers is wacky, colorful, humorous, clever and wildly creative. The music ranges from epic to downright silly but it’s all appropriate and well composed. The character design is fantastic and definitely creates the hope that CC won’t be the last game we see these angry little knights in.

There are glitches though and I have yet to play it on Live, which I also hear has its share of problems. I’m sure patches are being worked on now though, so these problems shouldn’t be a big deal in the long run. I’ll say again, I was a little skeptical of this game at first but it comes through in a big way and is easily worth its asking price. Games like this and Bionic Commando Rearmed are really upping the ante of what gamers should expect from downloadable games on their respective consoles.

Max

Games that need to be remade Vol.1

This is the first in hopefully a series. The other guys might pop up with some thoughts as well. hope people dig it.


In the wake of Bionic Commando: rearmed selling round about 130,000.……downloads in a week, it clear that the remake trend isn’t going to go anywhere soon. For better or worse. After playing BC:R, I started thinking about how wrong this could go. Image HD versions of shitty Sega Master System games flooding your respective system’s online store. Who needs an HD remake of Bubble Bobble? But, then on the flip side, I started thinking about how, if done with the same attention to detail and care in the production and thinking about the fans of the original, what games would be well served to get the “remix” treatment:



(Note that for the sake of this article, these selections would be meant to be downloadable games, not full $60 retail games.)


Blaster Master



Blaster Master was one of those games that that upset me as a kid. It was confusing. You seemed to die very quickly. There were a lot of different gaming elements in the game like platforming, shooting, item collection. Sure, it wasn’t the best looking game, but it was a really tough game. So, for the few that beat the game, (I was not one of them. Although years later, I found out that I was very close to the end when I quit playing) it was a fist-pumping celebration to finish the game.


Remaking BM would destroy you new school gamers. And i think that's why i want to see it come back. you know the type; gamer x plays COD4 and halo 3 and possibly gears of war and he 's the authority on games. he slams gamer fuel and calls you a faggot on XBL. he's hardcore. he thinks Braid and Pixel Junk Eden are gay. he's hardcore.

Blaster Master is the benchmark, tough guy.

I'd be willing to bet that should BM get re-released, it would send Mr. Hardcore beating his head against the wall and controllers flying across the room. Three lives, no continues? Right. Many would view BM like some old remake and pass on it. BM is one of the hardest games ever made. Hands down. Anyone that disagrees never played it.

With updated visuals, extra items and a remixed soundtrack, (I really dug the in game music) Blaster Master could appeal to the old school, hardcore gamers that seem to be getting growingly ignored in the face of development teams these days. Contrary to what people seem to think, most people into games actually like games that are hard. And BM is as hard as they come.

'til later, keep playing games.
J.Whittaker

Attack of the Stein

Alrighty then. My name is Dustin Wood (people call me Stein, long story) and i'm about to take a stab at this whole gaming blog thing. Now, just to let everyone know foremost, grammar, spelling, punctuation and all that writing structure stuff aren't really my forte. I really like to overuse (parenthesis) in my sentences too. So if anyone has anything to say about that i'll just tell ya the same thing I tell my cat Cortana, "Go f**k a pig, fatty!" It's all about the games here, English be damned!

Well, now that that's outta the way, time for my gaming resume. Basically, I've owned just about everything but the Playstation 3 (PS2s kept crapping out on me and I dropped Sony like your mom drops her panties), PSP, and anything before the Intellevision I, II and III. Yes, I have owned just about everything inbetween the Intellevision series and what we have today (even the 3DO with the wonderful Penn and Teller Bus Trip game) so I'll try and pull some oldies out of the ol' gaming bin and write some retro stuff from time to time.

I must say that out of the current line-up of consoles the 360 is my current favorite (despite my one red ring of death experience, but its like a passing rite these days. You gotta have at leadt one). Things like Xbox Live (suck it up and pony up the clams people, it costs less than a game for a years subscription, and you can get a free month to test drive it if you're scared of shelling out the cash), Halo and Achievement Points make the system a winner in my book. The Wii is my second place system. Lots of quality stuff there and the lightgun genre will keep it up there as long as they keep churning them out (except for you Wild West Guns). I have yet to really get an extended hands on take of the PS3, just what I have played at J's place. I have no beef with it and will not bash it like a hooker in GTA. I wouldn't mind owning one, but the cash is not in my cards right now unless I could find a way to buy it with my Fable Pub Games money (in which case I still couldn't afford it with my gambling debts).

So J and Max are two very good friends of mine that stretch all the way back to the days where Perfect Dark and House of the Dead were staples amongst the crowds. Both have fought off legions of the undead with me, chucked turtle shells at my face and spent countless hours running around in circles shooting at one another. It's just something we do with our Brothers In Arms. Many, many good times we've had in front of the cathode ray including some that will never be forgotten, as hard as we try to (I'll third place your face!). Hopefully we can all make this e-world a better place now by spreading our loudmouthed takes on what the gaming world has to throw our way.

So that seems to be it for my first run of blogg-a-reaha. Tune into my next post for my take on the wild world of achievements...