In an effort to save a bit of money, my wife and I decided to cancel our cable TV. We did this even though we knew we’d miss out on some of our favorite shows. Namely Middleman and Eureka. Then Greg was kind enough to show me PlayOnPlayOn. I signed up for it yesterday, and plan on giving it a whirl. With as little TV as we actually watch, this could be a nice, cheap solution! I’ll let you know how it works out tomorrow.

Something has struck me here in the midst of E3. Most of the games I’m looking forward to are 3rd party games that will be available on both of the major consoles. I currently have 3 games pre-ordered, SoulCalibur IV, Fallout 3 and Resistance 2. Of those, only Resistance is a PS3 exclusive. Final Fantasy XIII has just been announced to be going multi-platform as well. And the one game so far to really catch my eye at the show that I didn’t know much about before is Mirror’s Edge, an EA game that is releasing this fall for…you guessed it…both the PS3 & 360.
Read the rest of this entry »

During my morning drive into work, I often listen to the Rick & Bubba show. They’re usually kinda funny, and at that time of the morning it really doesn’t take much to amuse me. But this morning, they hit a sore spot.

I’m sure we’re all aware that there’s this little thing called the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday. I think it’s probably equally safe to say most people reading this site don’t care. I know I don’t. This was the topic of discussion today – and I can understand that. No problem. Well, some lady calls in to tell them that all of the men in her family will be playing computer games while the women watch the Super Bowl.

This is where things got ugly.
Read the rest of this entry »

That’s the number that currently causing Trey grief. That’s my new high score in Super Stardust HD, the most addictive downloadable game ever. He was closing in on me, so I’ve been trying to beat my score recently to extend my lead, and I finally managed it this weekend. Of course, I want to crack 100mil, so I’ll have to keep playing a little more. I still need to break in the newly added custom soundtrack option anyway.

So, what else is new? Read the rest of this entry »

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Greg was bored. That’s probably not the way you remember it. Deal.

I had a major game liquidation recently. Just realized I was hanging onto a lot of games for no apparent reason, and the cash would be more useful to me. I don’t miss anything I’ve gotten rid of so far, and I doubt I’m done yet. There are some that definitely won’t be leaving – but did I really need that copy of Unlimited Saga? I’m thinking “no”…..
Read the rest of this entry »

Rock Band is good. By that, I mean Rock Band is very good. I picked mine up last Tuesday night, and Trey was kind enough to come over to help me test it out. After a couple hours of us swapping out between the guitar & drums, he was sold on his own set. He managed to locate one the next morning after several phone calls, so on Saturday we were all set with 2 guitars – everything we needed for a full band.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, 2007 is coming to an end, and it’s time for… dun dun dun…

Trey and Greg’s Game Awards!
Read the rest of this entry »

Picked up Super Mario Galaxy and Assassin’s Creed this week, and thought I’d share some very early impressions. Mario is first up, I picked this up on Tuesday. Excellent deal going on at Toys R’ Us for this one this week – buy the game, get a $25 gift card for free. So I popped it in Tuesday night and played for about an hour and a half. First thoughts, the game is *fun*. The controls are natural and intuitive, the levels are bright and original, and it’s Mario.

You can’t be a Ratchet and Clank fan and not think of some of those games while playing Mario Galaxy – the small “round” planets are very reminiscent of past R&C games. But that’s not an insult – I personally have no problem with developers borrowing what works & putting their own twist on it, and that’s certainly what has happened here. Saying it’s a must-have for Wii owners is kind of a no brainer. It may just be the reason some people needed to invest in the system in the first place.

Assassin’s Creed has stirred up some minor controversy. Most sites are rating it very highly, IGN being the main voice of dissension. I honestly haven’t played enough of this to give a firm opinion, but I can say that I have been very impressed with what I’ve played so far. Again, the controls are easy to pick up and become second nature quickly. The game is gorgeous, and you can tell a lot of polish has been applied to it – from everything to the character animations & cities to the menus and HUD.

The main knock I can say against it so far involves the Limited Edition. I posted last week about my failed attempt at preordering the LE. Turns out, I would have been better off if I had not been able to get it. The LE consists of a tin case (way too big in the case of the 360 version, which I picked up), a Penny Arcade comic printed on small, cheap paper, a tiny figurine of the main character that looks like something you get from those .50 machines at the grocery store, a strategy guide/artbook “preview” (which is so small it’s tucked in the main game case along with the manual) and a bonus DVD. I haven’t watched the DVD yet, but it had better be really good – because this other stuff definitely wasn’t worth the extra $10.

So hopefully I’ll get some playtime with these & be able to give some more detailed impressions next week. This is the month that many gamers wait for all year. We have AAA-titles releasing every week. Today Uncharted slipped out a few days early, next week will be Rock Band and Mass Effect. After that, we’re in for a dry spell. But that’s fine by me, my backlog is massive right now. I could use the break just to catch up!

Gabe (of Penny-Arcade fame) posted a nice piece a couple of days ago about some of the shadier practices of GameStop. I had some recent personal experiences and wanted to expand on that a bit. If you haven’t read it, Gabe discusses how several GS managers have contacted him to let him know that they have a policy not to sell popular games on the day they release unless you have a pre-order. In other words, they’ll have more games than they have pre-orders for sitting in the store – they just won’t sell them to you.

Now I’m sure this isn’t true for every store, but the fact that any of them are doing it is disturbing enough. Just the other day, I stopped by my local GameStop to pre-order Assassin’s Creed: LE for the PS3. After a couple of minutes, the lady working there said that it wasn’t letting her place that pre-order. She suggested that they may have stopped taking them for the LE. The manager took a look, and he confirmed this is what has happened. I believe they were being honest with me, they always have – my issue here is a corporate issue. I thanked them & left. Once I was back at the office, I pulled up Amazon – who is still taking pre-orders for the LE – and placed my order. No hassle.

Read the rest of this entry »

In 1993 Wizards of the Coast shared with the world a little game called Magic: The GatheringMagic: The Gathering reviews, giving geeks around the world yet another hobby to obsess over. Since then everyone seems to have tried their hand at latching onto that popularity, and now we have collectable card games based on anything from Bratz to World of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft reviews and even Penny ArcadePenny Arcade Theme reviews. If you can think of a topic, they’ve probably made a CCG for it.

WotC’s latest development is Eye of Judgment, a CCG that uses Sony’s PlayStation Eye technology to display the monster or spell depicted on the cards as you play them.

Read the rest of this entry »