GameCube and the Reggie-lution
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GameCube: The Nintendo Minute: Vol. 6: Quotes like this give us Nintendophiles such hope:
And finally, in speaking directly on what Sony and Microsoft did well — Sony launched aggressively with a strong third-party line-up, and Microsoft nurtured community with its Xbox Live service.
That is from The Leader of The Reggie-lution, Fils-Aime, a Nintendo VP (and VIP). We get these glimpses, and we hope.
Oh, how we hope.
Some thoughts
After spending most of the week playing with WordPress, I’m finally able to do some real blogging.
I’ve been playing two games this week - Halo 2 and Animal Crossing. Guess which one I’m playing with my two-year-old? She loves when I catch fish and always cracks up when I get an old shoe or a tin can. “You have to go to the dump, daddy!” She didn’t particularly like me getting stung by the bees I rudely awoke by shaking their tree. “What’s wrong with his eye?” There has been some recent mentions of Animal Crossing lately: there’s the kid that proposed to his girlfriend via Animal Crossing’s in-game mail service. How cute. Jane at Game Girl Advance mentions playing AC with the animals asking her about how her ex-boyfriend was doing. Freaky.
It is weird how our Animal Crossing town, “pooptown” (I know, how original), continued down its virtual path even though my wife and I hadn’t played for over seven months. There were a couple pooptowners who hadn’t talked to my wife’s character for almost two years. But they happily lived their lives, oblivous to our abscence. Didn’t anyone send out a search party? Wasn’t anyone worried that tony and bella hadn’t been heard of in months? And the police officers? Don’t go there. Those lazy bums didn’t seem to notice were gone. But that creepy fat guy in the station still follows us around like a hawk.
Though the weapons are supposed to be more balanced than in the first, they invariably end up feeling rather impotent and bland, and the weapons that most teams scramble over each other to get at are the sword and the rocket launcher, leaving those unequipped or unwilling to use them with no truly effective countermeasure (ie. a powerful, universally distributed mid-range rifle, etc.).
This is so true. I played on Live last night with some friends and it continually dawned on me that I was always looking for the rocket launcher/energy sword/shot gun. As soon as I spawned I knew exactly where I could go to upgrade my SMG. 7hr33 refers to the “the chaotic hail of bullets” (or bullet spam, if you will). So true. A fire-fight usually becomes a “I hope I pulled the triggers first”. Nothing is more frustrating that getting your bullet spam on with someone and a third party enters the fray and picks up the scraps. That’s not skill, that’s luck. One thing Halo taught me was patience. Take your time, pick your shots, go for the head, ease on back if you’re losing the upper-hand. One thing Halo 2 is teaching me is to run and find other people fighting with each other so I can have some easy pickings. Strategy and skill has been dumbed down in Halo 2, which is unfortunate, because it was done so well in Halo.
And I am really becoming disenchanted with Halo 2 on Live. It’s the same frigging three games, over and over. Assualt on Burial Mounds, Team Slayer on Coagulation, one flag CTF on Zanzibar. It’s becoming less and less fun. It’s still good for an occasional Rumble Pit, but unless I’m playing with friends, I doubt I’ll be playing on Live as much as I used to.
Playing the single player missions are still enjoyable, I’m having fun. I still think Halo 2 is a great game, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not a great game.
Wow.
Amazing. I am so thoroughly impressed with WordPress right now, I’m at a loss for words to adequately praise it. I just imported nine months of Blogger posts without a hitch. Setting up WordPress has been simple thus far. Now that I’ve got my posts imported, I’m gonna make sure everything looks okay before I move on. We’ll move on from there.
Update 1: Man, it just keeps getting better. Using Bloglines export feature (export to OPML file) I have now imported all my links from Bloglines. I still need to organize them and there doesn’t seem to be an immediately easy way to use Bloglines to update my links, but I’m sure someone out there has solved that problem, too. This is good stuff!
Update 2: Well, the links are organized. Next it categorizing all my old posts. I may put that off until later. Perhaps I’ll try a plug-in or two.
Update 3 (2/24): The process of converting my old Blogger posts continues tonight, I will make sure all of them are all categorized and edited for grammatical errors. Then it’s on to themes and plugins!
Update 3 (2/26): Posts have all be categorized and I’ve been looking at various plugins and themes. This is seriously great stuff, I can’t believe how seamless and easy it’s all been. Kudos to the guys and WordPress.
New and improved!
After fighting with mySQL for the first time (surprisingly painless after I realized what I was doing) we have a new version of buttonmashing. It’s late, so I’ll be going to bed now, but I’ll be trying all the cool WordPress widgets later, starting with the import of my Blogger posts. We’ll see how that goes.
I’m sleepy.
New blogging software?
I’ve been thinking about the managment side of my blog recently. I have been mostly happy with Blogger.com. I’ve been a member for a long time, and I really haven’t had a problem with it, but I think I’m ready to move on to new blogging software. Something with a little more flexibility and new challenges. I’ve been looking at WordPress, Moveable Type, and others. Right now I’m leaning toward WordPress. Most of the bloggers I read use it, it’s FREE (definitely the biggest bonus), and it seems well supported.
What advice to you, my fellow bloggers, recommend? Are you satisfied with your current software? Am I biting off more than I can chew? I am technically competent but I’ve never dealt with anything on the web-server side of things, outside of ftp’ing images and other files. I have programming skills, but I don’t have skillz.
Anyway, look for some possible changes in the next couple of days here. If nothing else, I’m gonna mash some buttons and we’ll see what we end up with. Thanks for any help/advice you can offer.
New Kids on my Block, Part #3 (BlogExplosion-style)
When I first started buttonmashing.com (I still can’t decide if I should capitalize the “B” and “M” in the name) I was looking for ways to attract visitors, so I signed up for an account on BlogExplosion (< -- my referral link, if you're interested in joining). Basically, BlogExplosion is a click exchange - you read my page and I'll read yours (for 30 seconds). I still use it occasionally, but they have a good directory of blogs, broken down by categories. I spent some time going through the list of gaming blogs and came across a few that I was unaware of and I thought I might as well share the game blogging goodness. 
SpaceWorld looks like a blog I can relate to — he seems to love Nintendo, is a Conservative, and loves video games. That’s the trifecta for me!
I’ve been meaning to use my Bloglines to do a better job of organizing the blogs I read and one of the categories I want to add is one of “industry people”. I just found one of the first one’s I add: 3rd World Game Designer. Besides my fascination with all things Asian, this blog is a great read. Definitely one I look forward to having on the list!
Another Nintendo-phile, 4 Color Rebellion is heavy on the Nintendo side of gaming but has a great looking site, replete with reviews and great commentary.
I love watching the MMOG community through the eyes of the players. AFK Gamer is definitely my favorite, but Cabbage looks like he also will keep me updated on goings-on in other MMOGs. Great.
(On a side note, I noticed I was recently linked to by roXatopia as a “MMOG” gamer. Since I have played my share of MMOGs, I guess I qualify for that title but I haven’t played one regularly since I quit Neocron. Nevertheless, I appreciate the linkage, and I have been eyeing Guild Wars for a long time, so I may once again join the ranks of the MMOGs.)
We here here at buttonmashing.com are without borders, and yet we don’t have a ton of international flavor here. So with that in mind, we will be reading Geemusentaa for a Aussie point of view. And don’t ask, what the name means, just read the blog.
That raps up another edition of the New Kids. I hope you enjoy!
GameCube: RE4 the Best Seller in January
“Capcom’s M-rated scare-fest debuted in Japan a couple of weeks ago and has sold an additional 180,000 in the region since, according to overseas data. Combined with US numbers, the game is already set to topple the 500,000 mark on a global level.”
This is great news. Rewarding a fantastic game with good sales its the best way to ensure top-notch talent is rewarded for their top-notch work. I am hoping this means more of Leon S. Kennedy. While those numbers aren’t in the GTA/Halo 2-osphere, they are pretty dang respectable.
Midway Arcade Treasures 3 - Screen shots on WORTHPLAYING
My top 3 arcade games of all time are Smash TV, Super Off Road, and Galaga. It is blasphemy to think a console could ever recreate the thrill of playing Galaga, so I avoid all “remakes” of that game. But both Smash TV and Super Off Road are easily translated to the TV screen, so when I heard Midway Arcade Treasures would have SmashTV as one of its games, I was immediately sold. I owned it the day it came out and me and my brother-in-law played the heck out of SmashTV. I wasn’t too keen on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (although I may pick up a used copy) but when Arcade Treasures 3 was announced, I noticed Super Off Road on the list. Once again, I am sold. I must play Super Off Road. It’s like my destiny and stuff.
For your viewing pleasure, here are a few screen shots of Arcade Treasures 3, along with a nice little trailer. After watching the trailer, I’m pretty pumped to get some Super Off Road action in. None of that 3D off-road rubbish.
Tales of a Scorched Earth: World of Warcraft big in Europe
I still have an internal struggle about joining in on the fun of WoW. But for right now, I think I agree with gatmog, at Tales of a Scorched Earth. He says:
“Due to its level of accessibility and favourable conditions for short game sessions, I plan on getting into World of Warcraft eventually. However at this time I’m finding it more beneficial to observe this growing community from the outside.”
Same here.
Some more light reading.
Today we are going to look at couple articles with differing points of view on the direction Nintendo is heading. The first comes from the venerable hardware site, Tom’s Hardware. (NB: I love Tom’s Hardware, a great place for hardware reviews. I haven’t read much in their video game section, but I’ll be keeping my eye on it now.)
Titled “Why is Nintendo Ignoring American Men?”, Christiaan Allebest (Tom Hardware’s video game editor) talks specifically of the future of the DS but talks about Nintendo in general. He, like many others, feel like Nintendo is ignoring the “mature” audience of us American men, video gamers who were brought up on Nintendo. After complaining about the lack of DS games that would appeal to the male gamer, Christiaan closes with
Nintendo needs to reach out to older American gamers, not with the gloved, 3-fingered hand of Mario and his balloon animal friends, but with titles that deal specifically with what fascinates American males most: shooting things, blowing $%#@& up, and scantily-clad ladies.
I like blowing stuff up, just like the rest of us males, but I just can’t agree with this completely. There’s more to gaming that shooting and destruction. For me, I’ve got to think about who’s sitting next to me when I play. I have to be selective of what’s on the screen. The next article explains why.
From PC Magazine (WHAT!? PC Magazine? Bear with me, it’s worth it) we get this article by Jim Louderback, titled “For Families, Nintendo Slams Xbox”. He’s talking about his gaming experience with his son. From the article
Very few Xbox games so far have managed to hold our attention, though. The only one of note: Shrek 2 from THQ.
Shrek 2? That can’t be good. He continues
I’m using my Xbox less and less these days, and playing the GameCube more and more. I love console gaming, and I’m really glad my son does too. Someday we’ll be playing Madden NFL, Halo, and the rest. But not today.Microsoft would love for the Xbox to become the center of home entertainment. But if the company can’t get its family-games situation together, that won’t happen. And based on what I’ve been playing, they have a long way to go. Without a family-game strategy, the Xbox will remain the province of older boys and men. My solution: Buy Nintendo.
There’s the key, at least in my case. Nintendo has always been my system of choice, and it grew up with me, for a while. People are always saying that Nintendo didn’t grow up enough and embrace us older gamers. But here’s the hitch - gamers like us have grown up. And now, some of us are getting married and having kids. I want some fun, gory games like the rest of us. Resident Evil owned me for weeks. But that’s not the kind of game I would sit down and play with my kids until they are much older.
“Mature” games are an important part of the spectrum of gaming. But Nintendo’s kid/family-oriented games are, too. Games like Paper Mario and Animal Crossing are currently influencing gamers that are as old as we were when we played Super Mario Brothers for the first time. I know after a kid turns 13 it’s all about playing Halo 2, but up to that point they should be playing games that are less serious and more about fun. Like it or not, Nintendo has the section of the market cornered. In the process, Nintendo is building another generation of gamers who know Mario and Luigi and don’t really care about Leon and Master Chief.
EverQuest II - /pizza
EverQuest II - /pizza - At first I thought Jason at loonyblog was kidding. Then I actually followed the link.
Ever get those nasty hunger pains playing EverQuest II?
You’re in luck - pizza is just a few key strokes away! While playing EverQuest II just type /pizza and a web browser will launch the online ordering section of pizzahut.com. Fill in your info and just kick back until fresh pizza is delivered straight to your door.
Now I will admit I’ve used pizzahut.com to order pizza before, but this is just crazy-talk. Do I ever get those nasty hunger pains? Heck yes, I do. But I think I’ll just satisfy them the old fashion way - by leaving my computer and making myself a dang quesadilla.
(BTW, shouldn’t that be “hunger pangs”? Or are they assuming you’ve been playing EQII so much that you’ve ignored the initial hunger pangs and now the sides of your stomach are scraping together, causing actual, physical pain? Something to think about)
Poor Best Buy Plebes
A few years ago, on my first blog (currently our family blog/baby picture site), I railed against the salespeople at Best Buy. I know they serve a special purpose in the eco-system that is a retail store, but why is it that the one time I go to the store with a specific purpose, there isn’t a salesperson in sight to help me out? I was just there the day before and I was bombarded by kids asking if they could help me. Now, in my time of need, there’s none around. Sad.
Anyway, my purpose in going was to purchase a new monitor. There’s nothing wrong with my old monitor, it’s a nice ViewSonic 19″ CRT, but it was taking up a lot of desk space. So with birthday money in hand, I went to upgrade to an LCD flat panel. I studied the review sites, read user reviews and scoured every bit of info I could find. I wanted something under 350$ and I wanted a DVI connection. I was this ” ” close to buying a Samsung 17″ 712N. The reviews were positive and the price was fantastic but it didn’t have a DVI connector, which caused me to hesistate. Then I saw the LG Flatron 17″ L1720P, also at a sweet price. I’ve only recently heard of LG, but I’ve heard really good things about them. Choices, choices.
By looking at the two monitors in the store, you couldn’t really tell the difference. Why is that? Because those renobs at Best Buy aren’t running the LCDs at their native resolution. Almost all the 17 and 19 inch LCDs run at 1280×1024. Their little demo/screen saver is running at 1024×768. (It doesn’t help that they split one signal for like thirty monitors) It looks like crap! I didn’t let that deter me, though. After deliberating (and waiting for someone, anyone!) I decided I go with the LG. Of course my Best Buy was out of stock, so I had to go this afternoon to pick one up at another store.
My first impressions? WOW. Simply WOW. It’s only been running for about 2 hours, but I am stunned at how nice it is. A pure work of art. I was worried that 1280×1024 wouldn’t be enough resolution, but it is perfect. It’s just wonderful. My arm hurts I’ve been patting myself on the back so much. After I give it a more thorough test I’ll post some more observations.
I wanna see Mario, daddy!
Ever since I rented Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, my two-year old daughter loves to watch me play Mario games. The title is the first thing she says to me when I walk through the door. She’s been watching me play video games since I could prop her up on a pillow (she watched me play Wind Waker all the way through) but until recently, they were just pretty colors on the screen with funny sounds.
Now that she’s realizing what is going on, now that she internalizes what she sees, it’s been a lot of fun to play games with her. I enjoyed the week of Paper Mario together, it was a fun game. (I didn’t get very far before I had to return it, unfortunately). I’ve gone back to Super Mario Sunshine and she loves that and I finally got around to opening one of my Christmas 2004 presents, Mario Power Tennis.
Super Mario Sunshine has been a mixed bag. It is still a really fun game with moments of insane difficulty and frustration thrown in. I still feel nostalgic when I hear the old-school Mario songs. I think Mario Sunshine is underappreciated.
Mario Power Tennis, on the otherhand, is pretty fantastic. The tennis is fun, the mini-games are a blast and while I haven’t tried the multiplayer yet, I’ve heard it rocks. I haven’t played a tennis video game in ages but Mario Power Tennis has filled the void, in the same way I hope the new Baseball, Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball game can fill another void. Oh, that Pennant Chase is like SNK’s Baseball Stars. (But what about Mario Baseball? I’m so confused!)
The best part of all this is my daughter is getting a history lesson in Mario-lore. She already can tell the difference between Princess Peach and Daisy and she knows Mario is in the red and Luigi is in the green. I couldn’t be a prouder dad right now!
Gamecube and online gaming?
Google does lots of things very well. Translating Japanese web pages is not one of them (YET!). But I do appreciate their translation tools. If nothing else, you at least get the gist of what the content you can’t decipher means. That’s the case with a link I found on del.icio.us. The Gamecube game referenced here is called “Homeland” and it seems to be a RPG that also uses the Broadband adapter. Follow the other links on the first page and Google will handle all the translations. Expect funny stuff like this.
While there’s no mention of a US release, stuff like this always gets me excited. Here’s to hoping!
Law & Order takes on Video Games
I’m a fan of the Law & Order franchise and I catch most of the Special Victims Unit (SVU) episodes. One thing that makes the series compelling is that the cases they deal with don’t always end up tied up with a happy little bow where the bad guy is caught and the victim can pick up and move on with their lives. Sometimes, the bad guy (or girl) gets away with murder. It something that bugs the heck out of my wife (she needs everything packaged perfectly) but I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy the fact that bad people do bad things and get away with it, I like the fact that life isn’t fair and sometimes really crappy stuff happens. So it was this reason that caused a little trepidation when I heard that tonight’s episode was about some kids doing a crime they have done over and over in a video game. I thought for sure they were going to hammer away the “violent video games make violent kids”. At first it seemed like that was the path they were going to take. It wasn’t looking good.
The officers come across a body of a hooker who’s been hit by a car, beaten and robbed. Det. Stabler’s son recognizes the M.O. as the object of a video game called “Intensity” (*cough* I mean Grand Theft Auto *cough*) where the object is to run people over and beat them up to take their money. Again, I don’t like where this is going.
Long story short, they catch the teenagers who did the crime, and their high-profile, ignorant-as-nails lawyer cooks up a plea of not guilty because they were addicted to video games and couldn’t distinguish right from wrong. My favorite character of the series, Dr. Wong lays the psychiatric smack-down on the lawyer and basically says the narcissistic adrenaline junkies knew exactly what they were doing. When the lawyer asks him if he thinks video games make the kids that play them violent, he basically says “No”. What’s this? They are actually saying the violent video game “Intensity” didn’t drive these kids to do a heinous crime? That they, of their own conscience, ran a girl over because they were sickos, not whacked-out video game players? Astonishing! I can’t believe it, but the “Main Stream Media” (the evil one?) is actually saying violent video games don’t make kids do violent things? I thought this was a no-no! Someone is gonna get it over at NBC! Didn’t they get the memo? But sure enough, there it was, laid bare for all to see. Complete with the guilty verdicts for the two teenagers on the count of 2nd degree murder. Amazing.
Overall, they did a pretty good job of portraying video games in the episode. The don’t just show them off as mindless entertainment and they definitely don’t make it seem like they’re a breeding ground for an army of killers. The company that made the game Intensity also made children’s games. The gamers weren’t nerdy looking teens, although of the game programmers did. I’d have to ding the kids who played the perps. They weren’t convincing gamers. The boy in particular seemed more like a frat gamer than a “real gamner”. But I give them credit, they did a lot of things right. The even had Stabler’s son playing a Tapwave Zodiac at the end of the episode (shameless product placement? Probably. My guess is the kid owns a GBA in real life). I thought the episode was well done, and I applaud the writers from avoiding the knee-jerk reaction of blaming the video game and getting to the root cause — these kids were just plain bad seeds.
Update (2/9/05) - It appears I wasn’t the only one who caught this episode. Andrew at Tales of a Scorched Earth posted his comments here.
Update (2/15/05) - Here are some more comments, by new-to-me Clubberjack. He also made some pretty good points.
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