Upcoming articles

Well, it's been a long few years, but the era of Dubya is over. It almost doesn't seem like it's really over. Like Sean Hannity is going to come running down the street, waving the Patriot Act, screaming "The Patriot Act says black people can't be president." Oh well, it'll sink in soon enough. Anyway, here's the articles i'm working on:

- Another Killzone 2 story; my take on the most anticipated game of all time.

- In deck with Midnight Club: LA, Street Fighter 2 HD remix, Lumines Supernova, Mahjong Tails and Chrono Trigger DS

- New Demo-ilition with Skate 2 and more

- changes and new features on The Driver ID coming....soon?


Enjoy the day. Hopefully, things are going to start looking up.


J.

(soon to be) IN DECK: merry (early) x-mas to me (on tuseday)

i know, i know. i've been a little down on the PS3 as of late. it's mostly the universal hatred of Home by the gaming media and in turn, everyone that hates the PS3. but i still like the black box. and with x-mas coming up, i decided to (finally) buy myself bioshock, a game i ranted and raved about months ago and forgot to get. i really want to play it and now i am.

on top of that, (and Chrono Trigger on DS AND a 320 gig hard drive for my PS3) i also decided to support the PSN by buying some games that i've been wanting to pick up.


Super Street Fighter 2 HD remix

i recently talked to a friend of mine that i grew up with. he lives in India at the moment and has a PS3. we talked about the old days and street fighter 2 came up. we reminisced about playing all night and i mentioned that street fighter HD remix was (at the time) coming out soon. he suggested that we pick up where we left off years ago: him kicking my ass with cheap ass hits with chung li. fuck chung li. it's all about Guile, baby.

Super Street Fighter 2 Hyper Global Meganet HD Remix is out now for $15.

Soldner-X

finally, an old school, side scrolling, hard as fuck shooter. this game looks awesome. i loved life force and i've been waiting for something like this. not alot more i can say about it. seems like more side scrolling shooters would be coming out for the the download services. coupled with online play and it seems like a great fit for the "get in quick/play for 30 minutes" video game market. i saw screens for this game and i knew that it was looking great and that it was going to be a good one to pick up. i'll talk about it more later next week. until then, check out the screen and link.

Soldner-X is out now for $10.


Lumines Supernova

oh yeah! this is it. my favorite PSP game is finally coming to PS3. lumines is my go to game on the PSP. anytime i have some free time, at work or school, pulling off a quick game is always a good idea. so, take all that and put it on the PS3 with new skins and new modes, i'm in. the only downside is that there isn't a online mode. i would have really liked to play people over PSN. but, in this world of DLC, i'm sure we'll see it sooner then later. also, there will be a holiday skin pack for free. that way, it can be x-mas all year long! right...but free stuff is a good way to get people to buy. i'm on it.

Lumines Supernova is out dec 23rd for $15.


Pain: Movie Studios

i really like pain. it's something that i've said before. it's the highest selling PSN game this year. but, some people seem to really not like pain. sure, it's juvenile and obnoxious, but damn if it isn't fun flinging sid, the punk rocker, into the side of a moving car. so after almost a year of no content from idol minds, new levels seem to be flying out of the studio at a crazy pace. this time, it's the movie studio and the addition of the hoff. call me nuts, but throwing david hasselhoff into a some kind of explosive box or barrel sounds like a lot of fun.

Pain: movie studio is out now for $6.

it's been a good year for PS3, even with the numbers coming out at last month. with lumines coming tomorrow, it's enough to get me through the hard times. cheer up, only two months until........



merry x-mas or whatever your deal is.

J.

All Max Wants for Christmas…A Game Wishlist

After tackling my massive Wii Holiday Game Guide, I wanted to take a moment to list off some of the games I’m hoping to get under the tree, even though there are some I have no chance of getting. J did this awhile back, and I thought it’d be cool to do my little list. I’m kinda burnt out on hunting down screenshots after doing the Holiday Guide, so use your imaginations.

Left 4 Dead - Xbox 360

Luckily, my brother game through for me and got me Left 4 Dead as an early Xmas gift about a week ago. Although I haven’t played it every night (as many of my friends are) I’ve still sunk plenty of hours into both the campaign and versus. Now that I’ve played the final version, I gotta say that it is really fun to play as zombies in versus (my favorite is vomiting on opponents as Boomers), and very intense to play as survivors in either mode. This is definitely a must have game for Xbox 360 owners!

Wii Fit - Wii

I was really hoping to score a copy of Wii Fit for Xmas, but the price and its limited availability made that pipe dream go up in smoke. Seriously, people are eBaying copies of the game for boo coups bucks, and online and retail stores are selling out of them as quickly as they get them. The lucky folks are people who are getting Wii Bundles with Wii Fit included—which is about the only way the game is readily available. Ah well, maybe next year…

Chrono Trigger - Nintendo DS

This is the game I absolutely want the most for Christmas, and I’m pretty sure it’s already under the tree. I haven’t played Chrono Trigger in some twelve years, and I cannot wait to play this epic time-traveling RPG again, with bells and whistles added such as animated cut scenes, a new dungeon, a new ending, and last but not least, the portability.

Animal Crossing: City Folk - Wii

Call me crazy, but even after playing the first two Animal Crossing games, I still want more. Especially because both my sisters-in-law have the game, and there’s a good chance Dustin will get it too. Playing online is one of the few things seemingly expanded upon in this version of AC, not to mention the new chat function, provided you have the microphone. I really hope to get AC:CC so I can play with Maureen and she can play with her sisters, and if I’m really lucky (though I’m not counting on it) I may be able to score the Wii Speak Microphone for the game too.

Wii Music - Wii

Like I said in the Wii Holiday guide, despite all the negative press surrounding Wii Music, after seeing videos about the game week after week on the Nintendo Channel, I’m interested. I don’t think there’s any way I can get this for Christmas, but I may end up picking it up in the early days of 2009, or at least give it a rent so I can try it for myself.

Personal Trainer Cooking - Nintendo DS

Yeah, I know this is an unusual request to make of Santa, especially when there are games like Fallout 3 (which I have no time for unfortunately) to be had. Still, Personal Trainer Cooking is an all-in-one game to boost your real life cooking skills, providing step by step recipes, a shopping list you can take to the store and several other neat functions that made me want to get it. Maureen did look for this as a holiday gift for me, but couldn’t find it anywhere. This will be something else I’ll have to get in the New Year.

Omega Five - Xbox 360 XBLA

I don’t know if this counts, but after buying Maureen Banjo Kazooie for XBLA as an early Xmas gift, I bought Natsume’s Omega Five with the remaining Microsoft Points. I did want it for a really long time. It’s a great sidescrolling shooter, where you fly around the screen. The really neat thing is that you shoot by pressing in the direction you want to fire on the second stick—pretty slick! The game is hard, but fortunately by increasing your play time, you work your way up to earn more credits and eventually unlock Free Play. There are also two characters to unlock. A really fun, well designed game; I guess it was a little gift to myself!

So that’s that. Any of these games would be great to get, and since I already have a couple of them, anything else would just be sweet. Here's hoping you get the game(s) you want for a holiday gift!

Max

Some Chrono Trigger Musical Sweetness

OK, I am sure all of you can direct your browsers to YouTube and search for “Chrono Trigger” all by your bad selves, but here I go again not being able to resist posting something. It’s a clip by the famous “PLAY!” concerts that have been around the past few years, which play orchestrated versions of video game music. After posting the last story, I came across this medley of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross music. Now, I’ve only seen Chrono Cross played in passing, but it’s one of Maureen’s favorite RPGs, and we have listened to the soundtrack extensively in the car. This is beautiful music, and hopefully will help add to your Chrono Trigger excitement.

Max

A Chrono Trigger Wedding Proposal

To say I’m excited by the DS release of Chrono Trigger is an understatement. I’m incredibly stoked! I haven’t played the game in some twelve years (despite having J’s copy of Final Fantasy Chronicles the past several months), and last time I did, it blew me away. I’m definitely hoping that my return to the game (which hits this week, but is on the top of my Xmas list) won’t be one of those games where my memories are exaggerated of its greatness.

Anyway, poking around YouTube to stoke my excitement, I found this, an amazing video where a talented young man, posting as TheRealPfhreak, hacked a ROM of Chrono Trigger his girlfriend was playing to implant a wedding proposal. I’ve embedded said video here:

Fortunately for the guy, she said yes. Here’s what he had to say about it on the the video’s page on YouTube:

On October 17th, 2008, I proposed to my (now) Fiancee. Originally I wanted to return to the site of our first date, Mount Baker, near Bellingham Washington. Sadly, there was no discreet way to get her out there. So I turned to the next best thing, digitally recreating the mountain!

But why stop there? I figured I'd try and recreate many of our other favorite memories -- stargazing, dancing, even her favorite song lyrics (from the Princess Bride). I'm a college student who is studying Computer Science, and I wanted to do something unique that used my talents, so I did some research on Rom hacking, as she was playing through Chrono Trigger. (A perennial favorite of mine, I can't wait to buy it for my DS.) I even put in her cat, Cleo!

I had several goals in mind:

First) Keep the area in the context of the original game, the proposal should be a surprise.

Second) Get it done quick! I had the ring, I had the Father's blessing, and you can't sit on either of those for too long. You'll notice some of the NPC collision information is missing (the cat runs through a lot of weird places) and I didn't have time to properly debug every tile.

Third) Place memories that might be poignant enough to remind her of our relationship, while not inadvertently giving away that this was somehow hacked.(See goal #1.)

Overall, it was a resounding success. She had no idea that this wasn't part of the original. She asked, "Hey, are those the Princess Bride lyrics? Do the Japanese really love that movie?" to which I responded, "Yeah! That's probably it! Either that or a bored translator slipping in an easter egg."

When her name appeared on screen (blurred in this video), she glanced over to me (on one knee, with the ring out), wondering, "How did they get my name in this game?" When she saw the ring, she reread the proposal, nodded yes, and said, "You are such a huge nerd! I love this!"

I spent a long time debating whether or not this proposal was awesome or incredibly stupid. Her friends, and my friends helped talk me into it, and it was a huge success!

I built the area by fusing a pre-existing area (Denodoro Mountains) with concepts I had in my mind. Each NPC in the area (save the cat, and the young girl at the beginning) is supposed to be either myself or my fiance.

I’m a sucker for romance, so this seemed like a great story to me. When I told Maureen about it she replied: “It sounds like this guy had way too much time on his hands!” Well probably, but it's a labor of love! Anyway, check out the video and get ready for Chrono Trigger this week!

Max

On Deck: PS3 video version (mostly)

haven't done an On Deck in a while. mostly because everyone knows about the games that are out that i want. because it's the same games that you want, too. well, not all of them. but, with x-mas coming up, here's a video list of games i'd like to play that are coming sooner then you think.


Skate 2



i really liked skate. i decided to check it out after playing the demo and being really disappointed with tony hawk proving ground. it was as close to real skating as you could really get. there isn't much they really had to do to add to it. except handplants and ninjas. and now, they're in game. sweet. look for it jan 6th. wow. i need to save some money.

Uno Rush



this is already out, but with my waffling on joining the rest of the civilized world and buying a 360, getting this is one of the reasons why i keep thinking about acquiring one. the amount of games on XBLA that i'd like to play are alot bigger than the regular, disc based games. believe it or not, i really don't care about playing gears of war or halo ever again. whooping someone's ass in Uno and laying the smacktalk down while you're doing it is awesome. and it's a flashback to my indoor recess games in the 7th grade. this is out now. get it.

Infamous



still not much about this. looks like a win for sony fans. shooting lightning is cool. just not as cool as fire swords and shooting bees. coming "sometime" in 2009.

Chrono Trigger DS



Chrono Trigger was one of the best RPGs ever made. period. if you don't think so, you're wrong. cool. now that we have that out of the way, CT is coming out in a few weeks. i have the PS1 version bundled with final fantasy 4 (my favorite RPG of all time) but i haven't played it in a while. i might be not being able to plop down in front of my 27" and grind like i used to. it also might be that max has had my copy for a while now. either way, this will be a moot point when this comes out on the DS next month. RPGs are a very good fit on the DS. with it's awesome battery life (i've charged mine twice....in a fucking year!) and install base, square should be porting every FF and RPG that they have ever made to the DS. and yes, that means super mario RPG.

Chrono Trigger DS comes out next month.


Killzone 2



sure. we've all heard the jokes. but now that we're seeing more of the FPS that sony has all their money on, people are starting to back off their punchlines. alittle. kind of like what joe lieberman is doing now. it looks insane! hopefully, i can get into the beta soon and tell you more. until then, start eating your crow now. just in case.....

Killzone 2 is out (hopefully) in February.

J.